Yankees 5, Rays 1, in a series opener at Tropicana Field that had two guys fighting for the marquee: Cam Schlittler, who carved through Tampa Bay for eight innings, and Jose Caballero, who decided one home run wasn't enough for the night.
Schlittler went 8.0 innings, allowed just one run on four hits, struck out eight and didn't walk a single batter -- on only 101 pitches. Caballero went 2-for-3 with two home runs and four RBI, including the three-run shot that broke a scoreless tie open in the fifth. Ben Rice tacked on a solo blast in the ninth for good measure. The New York Yankees needed all of it against a Rays team that came in leading the AL East.
The Three-Run Blast That Broke It Open
Both starters were locked in through four. Griffin Jax was striking out everybody he could find -- he'd finish with 10 in five innings -- and Schlittler matched him zero for zero.
Then came the top of the fifth. Jasson Dominguez walked and Jazz Chisholm Jr. walked right behind him, and up came Caballero on a 2-2 count. He turned on a Jax fastball and sent it 395 feet to left-center, a three-run shot that scored Dominguez and Chisholm ahead of him and put the Yankees up 3-0. It was, by a wide margin, the biggest swing of the game (nothing else came within 10 points of it in win probability).
Jax got out of the inning without further damage, but that swing decided the game right there. He'd walk off with the loss (4-6 now) despite the strikeout numbers.
Schlittler's Best Start of the Summer
Give Tampa Bay credit for scratching across a run in the bottom of the fifth -- Richie Palacios lined a single to left that brought Chandler Simpson home and made it 3-1 -- but that was the only blemish on Schlittler's night.
Eight innings, one run, eight strikeouts, zero walks. He needed only 101 pitches to do it, 72 of them for strikes, which is the kind of efficiency that lets a start go the distance instead of ending after six with a tired bullpen watching from the rail.
That's now a 9-5 record on the year for Schlittler, and it's hard to argue with a start like that (four hits allowed over eight full innings against a first-place lineup is not nothing).
Caballero Wasn't Done
Up 3-1 in the eighth, Caballero came up again against reliever Chris Roycroft and did the same thing he'd done in the fifth, minus the runners on base. Solo shot, 398 feet, left-center again. His 10th homer of the season, and a 2-3 night with four RBI and two runs scored.
Two home runs in a game isn't something Caballero does often. He did it Monday night in Tampa, and the Yankees will happily take it against a division leader.
Rice Tacks One On
Roycroft stuck around for the ninth and left one over the plate for Ben Rice, who put it 400 feet to right-center for his 25th homer of the year. Insurance the Yankees didn't strictly need with Schlittler's line already in the books, but nobody's complaining about a 5-1 final instead of a 4-1 one.
David Bednar closed it out with a perfect ninth -- three up, three down, a strikeout mixed in -- and that was that.
The Yankees snap a two-game skid from the Twins series and sit at 50-40, still three back of the Rays in the East, but a 5-1 win at Tropicana Field to open a four-game set is exactly the kind of night you want before three more against the team ahead of you. Game two Tuesday.
Jimmy writes the Bronx Pinstripes game recap after every Yankees game. Beat-reporter pacing, fan's heartbeat. He calls opposing players by last name and has no patience for dead-air innings.
