For much of the afternoon, it looked as if the 19,748 at Tropicana Field would witness the first flawless game in team history. Eovaldi held the Rays to one run on six hits in his six innings for the win. Tampa Bay sends Jake Odorizzi to the hill to face the visiting Yankees Sunday. After a ground out and a wild pitch, Guyer moved to third base, and Evan Longoria singled him in to take the lead.
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It was a remarkably rapid reversal of fortune – the Yankees went from being eight outs away from being no-hit to nine outs away from an nearly guaranteed victory – and a bitter pill for Odorizzi, who retired the first 16 batters he faced and took a no-hitter into the seventh, and the Rays, who blew the series as well as a chance to swap places with the Yankees at the bottom of the American League East.
“My control was more reliable and I had better movement today”, Tanaka said.
Nathan Eovaldi turned in another strong performance as he scattered 6 hits in six innings pitched and kept the Yankees in the ballgame as he got out of a few jam’s in the 5th and 6th innings. But it was Odorizzi who flirted with immortality, losing the ideal game with one out in the sixth on a Dustin Ackley grounder to deep short that Brad Miller double-clutched. It was ruled an error because of a minor bobble.
“I had all the confidence in the world with our guys”, Eovaldi said. “But if we’re up a run, with the (late-inning relievers) we’ve got down there, there’s a good chance I’m putting Hicks in there” as a defensive replacement.
Betances struck out two of three in the seventh, Miller struck out all three in the eighth and Chapman K’d two of three in the ninth for his seventh save in seven tries. Miller was particularly impressive, striking out the side in the eighth.
A’s starter Rich Hill (8-3), who left the game with an apparent left shoulder injury, went 61/3 innings to win his fifth straight start.
That kind of pitching can overcome a lot of things, but not an offense that couldn’t manage anything resembling a solid hit for 6 1/3 innings.
With the return of Alex Rodriguez from the DL, the Yankees have a major problem – an age problem.
When does a bad start become a bad season? He has started all but one of the Yankees’ 49 games and has batted in six different spots in the lineup.
When asked about the play where Tanaka sprinted toward the runner to make the unassisted putout, manager Joe Girardi joked, “He was quicker than I thought, maybe I have to think about (him as) a National League ballpark pinch runner”. “If you’re not getting production from the middle of the order you’re probably going to have a hard time”. “I think it’s a great accomplishment but right now we’re trying to win ballgames”.
“This team was built, when we started the year, for Alex to DH and Carlos to play right field”, Girardi said.
“[It’s] a little sore, but I’m good”, said Beltran, who anticipates starting tonight. “It’s in there. We just have to get it out”.
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It was ideal game over, but flawless game won. Brett Gardner became the first Yankee to earn his way on base with a one-out walk in the seventh immediately before Castro’s game victor.
