With Tampa Bay coming in to town tomorrow to begin a three-game set, we thought we’d throw it back to the last time the Rays were in the Bronx.
It was the beginning of July Fourth weekend, and the Yankees had just come off a road trip in which they went 3-4. At 43-37, the Yanks held a slim lead in the division, with just two games separating the top four teams. New York needed to put up W’s against their division rival, but it didn’t look good early on that Friday night.
Masahiro Tanaka started for the Yanks against notorious Yankee-killer Chris Archer. Tanaka lasted six innings and gave up three runs, while Archer went 6.2 innings and allowed no runs on three hits while striking out eight. The offense looked dead until Mark Teixeira smacked a game-tying three-run homer off Kevin Jepsen in the eighth inning.
The Rays took a 5-3 lead in the top of the 12th when Chasen Shreve gave up back-to-back singles with men on base. It looked as if the Yankees were going to lose a heartbreaker.
With fireworks going off outside Yankee Stadium just beyond right field, the Yankees began to rally. Mark Teixeira singled home Brett Gardner to cut the Rays’ lead to 5-4. With runners on first and second, Brian McCann stepped to the plate.
This was the Yankees’ first walk-off win of 2015, and was easily the team’s best win of the season up until that point. It was McCann’s seventh career walk-off, and his second as a Yankee. The Yankees began their Fourth of July celebration early, and went on to take two out of three from the Rays.
