Yankees 6, Rays 4, and for about six innings this looked like it was going to be an ugly way for the New York Yankees to close out the series. Tampa Bay built a 4-0 lead against Cam Schlittler and the bullpen, and then the Yankees spent the final three innings clawing it all back, George Lombard Jr. doing more of that clawing than anybody else on the field.
The rookie's two-run homer in the bottom of the eighth off Steven Matz was the blow that actually won it, a 2-2 sinker he lifted into the second deck in left. But the real story is everything that came before it -- a three-run seventh that tied the game after New York looked dead in the water, and a kid who's been in the big leagues for less than two months delivering the biggest swing of the night for the second time in a week.
The Inning That Flipped It
The Rays did what they'd done to the Yankees for most of this series: they hit early and let a couple of miscues do the rest. Yandy Diaz scored in the third on a Junior Caminero single after a Heliot Ramos throwing error let him take second, then Caminero drove in another run two innings later. By the top of the sixth it was 4-0, with the Yankees' own defense contributing to the damage -- Luis Gil's missed-catch error let a force-out run score even though he didn't allow a hit in his two innings.
Down four, the Yankees needed the bottom of the seventh to matter, and it did. Lombard doubled in Ben Rice to make it 4-2, then came around to score himself on an Anthony Volpe walk and a wild pitch from Brody Hopkins -- the kind of ugly, scrambling run that doesn't show up in a highlight package but absolutely shows up in a win column. Paul Goldschmidt followed with a single that scored Austin Wells and tied the game at 4-4. Three runs, one inning, nobody hit the ball especially hard. That's baseball in September.
Star of the Game: George Lombard Jr.
Two months ago most Yankees fans couldn't have told you who George Lombard Jr. was. Now he's doing this.
Two hits, two runs, three RBI, and the homer that actually decided the game -- a two-run shot with two outs in the eighth that turned a tie into a lead the Yankees wouldn't give back. It was his seventh homer since debuting on August 4th and his fourth in his last seven games, which is not a rookie stretch, that's just a good hitter's stretch.
The double in the seventh set up his own run. The homer in the eighth was the kind of swing that makes a manager stop worrying about lineup construction for a night. Lombard's been the best player on the field in this series more than once, and Thursday he did it in the biggest spot.
Wells Got It Started, the Pen Got It Home
Before any of the comeback stuff, it was Austin Wells who put the Yankees on the board at all, a solo shot off Jake Woodford in the sixth that broke up what had been a clean shutout to that point (his 14th of the season, for what it's worth -- Wells has quietly had a real year).
Schlittler wasn't sharp in his three innings, and manager Aaron Boone went to the bullpen early and often after that -- Fulmer, Hill, and Gil combined for four innings of relief before Bradley Hanner came in for the seventh and eighth and picked up his first career win. Two innings, two hits, zero runs, and he was the guy standing on the mound when Lombard's ball landed in the second deck. Matz took the loss, his sixth of the year, and it's the kind of outing a soft-tossing lefty in a contending bullpen really can't afford in the final week of September.
The Yankees are 92-67 now, sitting comfortably in the wild card picture even with Tampa Bay still four games up in the division. This series ends 3-1 in New York's favor, which says more about who they are right now than any one comeback does.
Orioles come to the Bronx for a doubleheader Friday. Might want to get some sleep first.
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.
