The day after Aaron Boone’s stern conversation with the Yankees, they emerged empty again.
The Yankees cleared their act defensively and even showed a late life offensively, but the end result was still the same: they lost a fourth game in a row and fell 6-3 against the Rays on Saturday afternoon at Yankee Stadium.
The game could hardly calm the frustrations that had arisen on Friday-evening, when the Yankees committed three errors and played quietly again in an 8-2 loss. Boone addressed his team after that game, and while his players said he got his message, it didn’t lead to immediate dividends on Saturday as the Yankees fell to 5-9 in the season and have the worst record in the American League.
Rays ace Tyler Glasnow was out of command early on, but the Yankees couldn’t take advantage of it and only succeeded once before getting into a groove. The Yankees tried to make a comeback in the seventh inning, behind the solo homerun by Rougned Odor and Aaron Judge’s RBI-double that made it 5-3, but Aaron Hicks and Giancarlo Stanton batted out to end to the threat.
Jordan Montgomery got the Yankees off to a solid start, giving up four runs in more than six innings when he gave much-needed rest to a bullpen that was recently charged. He gave up only two basehits, but both were homeruns. He was charged for the fourth run in the seventh inning when Manuel Margot came along to score on Joey Wendle’s two-run shot off reliever Jonathan Loaisiga.
The Yankees had their chances to take on Glasnow immediately, who was over the place early on with his pitches, but failed to take advantage. They loaded the bases with two outs in the first inning, but Brett Gardner grounded out to end the threat.
Glasnow walked two more batters and led off the second inning, resulting in DJ LeMahieu’s RBI-single that tied the game to one. But Judge struckout and Hicks lined to leave two more runners behind.
Francisco Mejia had given the Rays a lead in the top of the second inning with a solo-homerun to the short veranda in the right field. After the Yankees were right, the Rays turned to the long ball again to take another lead in the fourth inning, this time a two-run shot by Margot to make it 3-1.
Glasnow eventually came to rest and retired eight times in a row before LeMahieu walked and started the fifth. However, the Rays’ right-hand man ended his day strongly with strikeouts by Judge and Stanton to help him get through the inning with the two-run lead intact.
The Yankees lost to Gary Sanchez in the fifth inning after the catcher took a foul tip from his exposed right hand in the top of the fourth inning. X-rays, however, were negative, and the Yankees named Sanchez from day to day with a bruise on his right index and middle fingers.
The Rays added an insurance run in the ninth inning when Mejia hit an RBI-double off Justin Wilson.