Tampa Bay Rays 5 — New York Yankees 8
The Yankees overcome an early mess to win.
Chris Capuano got the start for the Yankees today and he could not get it going. Capuano would surrender a single before getting the first out on a strikeout. A pair of walks and three hits would follow as the soft-pitching of the Yankees lefty was not deceiving any of the Rays. After 36 pitches and the bases loaded, Chris Capuano would exit.
In 1/3 of an inning, Chris Capuano allowed four runs on four hits while walking two and striking out one.
Chase Whitley followed and allowed one run to score on a sacrifice fly but he kept the Rays from busting the game open before the Yankees even got to bat.
With an uphill battle to climb, Brian McCann would get it started with two outs against Jake Odorizzi. His 18th home run of the season would go deep down the right field line. Chase Whitley would give the Yankees another two scoreless innings to get them to the third inning with the Yankees trailing by just three.
In the third inning, Chris Young would hit a single to right center field. With one out, Jacoby Ellsbury would walk on a full count. On ball four, Young ran on the play. With ball four, catcher Ryan Hanigan did not have to throw the ball to second as Chris Young earned second base. The throw by Hanigan would be costly as it would go into center field and Young took third on the throwing error. Jacoby Ellsbury would steal second on the next at-bat and later, with two outs, Brian McCann would hit a two-run single to center field. A pair of walks to Mark Teixeira and Chase Headley would load the bases but Ichiro Suzuki could not tie or give the Yankees the lead. But the Yankees trailed by just one after three innings.
The next man out of the bullpen, Preston Claiborne, would give the Yankees two scoreless innings and he would be on the eventual winning end of tonight’s comeback.
In the fourth inning, Chris Young would hit a one-out solo home run to left field. His first home run as a Yankee tied the game. In the fifth inning, Brian McCann would reach base for the third time of the night, this one being hit by a pitch. Mark Teixeira would hit a line drive down the right field line and it would hit the wall and Wil Myers would have a difficult time fielding the ball. Two of the slower Yankees would hustle their way around the bases and after the dirt has settled, Brian McCann scored from first base and Mark Teixeira was credited with his first triple of the season. That was the official scoring.
Chase Headley would add an insurance run to increase the Yankees lead to two. Adam Warren would pitch a scoreless sixth and combined with Dellin Betances for a scoreless seventh inning. Betances would pitch another scoreless eighth inning and the Yankees would tack on some more runs.
With Joel Peralta on the mound, Chase Headley would hit a single. Ichiro Suzuki would hit a double to shallow center field where Brandon Guyer and Wil Myers defended. The ball would get by the two outfielders and Headley would go around to score from first on a shallow fly ball. Chris Young would hit a line drive to left field for his third hit, a run-scoring double that made it an 8-4 game.
With a four-run lead, Esmil Rogers would come on for the last three outs. He would give up a home run to Evan Longoria but got the outs he needed to finish off an impressive game for the bullpen and the offense.
The normally absent offense would score in five different innings including three innings with more than one run score.d The bullpen had a tough task ahead of them but they pitched 8.2 innings of one-run baseball and the one run came in the ninth inning with a four-run lead.
The last time a Yankee starter went 1/3 of an inning giving up three or more runs and the team still won was May 6, 1943. The starter was Tommy Byrne.
Win – Preston Claiborne (3-0)
Loss – Jake Odorizzi (10-12)
Notables
Rays
*Wil Myers – 2 for 5, R, 2B, RBI (30)
*Yunel Escobar – 2 for 4, 2B, RBI ()33)
Yankees
*Chris Young – 3 for 4, 2 R, 2B, Solo Home Run (9) in the 4th, 2 RBI (32)
*Brian McCann – 2 for 3, 2 R, Solo Home Run (18) in the 1st, 3 RBI (64)
Current Yankees Record: 74-69
