Yankees 9, Rays 2, and this one was over by the fourth inning.
Ben Rice hit two home runs, Ryan McMahon hit a grand slam, and Gerrit Cole struck out eight over 5.2 innings. The Rays came into the Bronx having already clinched the AL East the night before. The Yankees spent Wednesday reminding them who still had something to play for.
The Third Inning Did It
The Yankees led 3-0 and were already comfortable when George Lombard Jr. led off the third with a solo shot to right-center off Mason Englert, his sixth of the year. Two batters later, with the bases loaded, Ryan McMahon turned on a full-count pitch and drove it out to right field for a grand slam.
Just like that, 3-0 became 7-0. Englert never got out of the fourth.
That McMahon swing was the single biggest moment of the night by win probability, and it's not particularly close (nothing else in the game moved the needle as much). Everything after it was mop-up work with better box scores.
Star of the Game: Ryan McMahon
McMahon finished 2-for-4 with the slam, an earlier RBI single in the second, and five RBI total. That's a season-high RBI night for him, and he did it against a Rays team that had every reason to be looking ahead to October.
He's not going to out-homer Rice this season (nobody is), but on a night with two other multi-homer storylines competing for attention, McMahon's slam was the biggest single swing on either side of the ball.
Rice Gets to 40 (Then 41)
Ben Rice led off the game with a home run on Englert's first pitch. That's 40 for the season -- and yes, somebody's going to point out that only one other Yankees draftee has ever hit 40 homers in a year. (You know who.)
Rice wasn't done. He added a second solo shot in the fourth, his 41st, going 3-for-4 with a walk and 9 total bases on the night. He hit two homers and still felt like the undercard behind a grand slam. That's the kind of year he's having.
Cole Battles, Gets the Win
Gerrit Cole wasn't tidy, but he was effective. He walked three, allowed a Cedric Mullins solo homer in the fifth (his only real mistake), and still struck out eight over 5.2 innings for his tenth win of the year.
Mason Englert took the loss for Tampa Bay, and it wasn't close: 3.2 innings, nine hits, eight earned runs, four homers allowed. Rough way to spend a Wednesday against a lineup that had already decided it was going to hit everything up in the zone.
The Bullpen Got a Workout (In a Good Way)
With the game well in hand by the fifth, Aaron Boone ran four different relievers through the final three-plus innings -- Brent Headrick, John Schreiber, Tim Hill, and Paul Blackburn, with David Bednar closing it out in the ninth. None of them allowed an earned run. When you're locked into a Wild Card spot with a handful of games left, that's exactly the kind of night you want: length everywhere else, zero stress on the arms that matter most in October.
Heliot Ramos added a sacrifice fly in the eighth to make it 9-2, which is as much detail as that particular at-bat deserves.
The Yankees have already clinched their playoff spot and sit 5.0 games back of Tampa Bay in the division, for whatever that's worth with the calendar the way it is. This series is now 2-1 Yankees with one game left. Take care of business Thursday and roll into the finish line with some momentum.
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.
