The day after Aaron Boone’s severe discussion with the Yankees, they came naked again.
The Yankees cleared their defensive act and even showed an offensive late life, but the end result was the same: they lost a fourth game in a row, falling 6-3 to the Rays on Saturday afternoon at Yankee Stadium.
The game hardly eased the frustrations on Friday night, when the Yankees made three mistakes and had another quiet offensive game in an 8-2 loss. Boone addressed his team after that game and while his players said he got his message across, he did not lead to immediate dividends on Saturday as the Yankees fell to 5-9 this season and have the worst record in the league. American.
Tyler Glasnow’s rays didn’t get the command early, but the Yankees couldn’t take advantage, only managing one run before settling into a groove. The Yankees tried to get back in the seventh inning, behind Rougned Odor’s solo run and Aaron Judge’s double RBI, which made it 5-3, but Aaron Hicks and Giancarlo Stanton hit to put an end threat.
Jordan Montgomery gave the Yankees a solid start, giving up four runs in six innings, while delivering much-needed rest to a bullpen that was recently charged. He only allowed two shots, but both were at home. He was charged for the fourth round in the seventh half, when Manuel Margot came to score in place of Joey Wendle, who shot Jonathan Loaisiga.
The Yankees had a chance to shoot immediately against Glasnow, who was everywhere with his early pitches but couldn’t take advantage. They loaded the bases with two exits in the first half, but Brett Gardner came out on the ground to put an end to the threat.
Glasnow went two more beats to lead in the second half, leading to DJ LeMahieu’s RBI single, which tied the game at one. The judge broke out, and Hicks lined up for two runners.
Francisco Mejia gave the Rays an advantage at the top of the second half, with a solo home run on the short veranda in the right field. After the Yankees equalized, the Rays headed back to the long ball to take another lead in the fourth half, this time a two-round shot from Margot to make it 3-1.
Glasnow finally settled down, retreating eight in a row before LeMahieu went on to lead the fifth. The Rays ended his day strong, however, with shots from the judge and Stanton that helped him pass the half with the advantage of two stages intact.
The Yankees lost Gary Sanchez in the fifth inning, after the catcher took a wrong tip off his right hand exposed at the top of the fourth inning. The X-rays were negative, however, and the Yankees called Sanchez a day-to-day, with a contusion to his right index finger and middle fingers.
The Rays added confidence in the ninth inning, when Mejia lifted an RBI double on Justin Wilson.