Series Recap: Yankees and Rays Split Four At The Stadium
Photo Via: Elsa — Getty Images — TSNRight before the Red Sox come to town for the first series of the season with the Yankees, the Rays came to the Bronx for their fourth. The Rays arrived as the hottest team in baseball, winning 16 of 17. The Yankees entered on the heels of a sweep by the lowly Detroit Tigers. Somehow, someway, despite some awful baserunning and situational hitting approaches, the Yankees managed to split the four game series and slow down the rolling Rays.
Game 1 (Rays 3, Yankees 1)
On Memorial Day afternoon, Jameson Taillon took the mound against Rich Hill. The Yankees immediately picked right up where they left off in Detroit, falling behind 1-0 on a double by Manuel Margot. Later on, Austin Meadows (our Slugger to Watch from the series preview) took advantage of the short porch in right field to make the score 2-0 Rays.
The Rays added another run in the 5th inning, by way of a Randy Arozarena RBI single. An inning later, Gleyber Torres made a throwing error that left us scratching our heads. After a month of great shortstop play, Torres has had a week of terrible defense.
The Yankees avoided the shutout and made the game slightly interesting when Miguel Andújar homered to make the score 3-1, but it unfortunately stayed that way. It was the 4th loss in a row for the Yanks, and with the tall task of facing Tyler Glasnow approaching, hope was lost.
Yankee of the Day: Miguel Andújar (1): 2 for 4, HR, R, RBI.
Game 2 (Rays 3, Yankees 5) (11 Innings)
If you watch highlights from Game 2 of the series, you will see a lot of red hair. Clint Frazier had his best game of the season, and boy was it needed. Domingo Germán took the ball for the Yankees and did not get off to a hot start. Luckily for us, Gio Urshela (shortstop) made a spectacular play in the first inning, which ultimately saved a run when he went into the hole and threw out Randy Arozarena.
Two batters later, Austin Meadows (slugger to watch) took an inside pitch and hooked it to the fair side of the right field foul pole for a 2-run blast.
Tyler Glasnow had a 2-run lead before even picking up the baseball. He cruised through the first 2 innings and got 2 outs in the 3rd before he ran into some trouble. Aaron Judge stepped up to the plate with the bases loaded and drove a run in by not swinging the bat. Glasnow could not find the strike zone, so Judge walked.
With Gio Urshela up, Glasnow’s control issues lingered, and he issued a wild pitch. D.J. LeMahieu made a heads-up play to score on a wild pitch that just got away from Mike Zunino. The Yankees tied the game 2-2, but there was still work to be done.
In the 4th inning, Miguel Andújar left the building. The Yankees miraculously jumped out to a 3-2 lead against Glasnow.
The euphoria did not last long. Kevin Kiermaier hit his first homer of the season, spoiling Domingo Germán’s outing and tying the game again.
This is not a replay. In the 6th inning, Gio Urshela made nearly the same exact play AGAIN on a Randy Arozarena ground ball! Urshela may be better at shortstop than anticipated.
Gary Sánchez repeated a play he has made a few times already this season. On a pitch that bounced in front of him, Gary picked the ball up and fired to first base to get Meadows out.
In the 8th inning, the Rays had runners on first and third base with two outs. Chad Green induced a pop fly from Joey Wendle which looked like a can of corn off the bat. But then the camera panned to the outfield where Clint Frazier and Rougned Odor were in an all-out sprint to no-man’s land. Then, this happened…
The Yanks put two runners on base in their half of the 8th, but did not score. So, Aroldis Chapman came in to keep the game tied and did his job.
The score stayed tied, thanks to fantastic efforts by Lucas Luetge and Luis Cessa. That is… until the bottom of the 11th inning when a hero stepped up for the Bombers!
A walk-off TANK for Clint Frazier! Let’s gooooo!
Yankee of the Day: Clint Frazier (3): 1 for 3, HR, 2 BB, 2 R, 2 RBI. Second career walk-off home run. Diving catch in right field.
Game 3 (Rays 3, Yankees 4)
The teams regrouped and settled in for a Wednesday night showdown. A pair of lefties, Jordan Montgomery and Shane McClanahan, took the mound in the Bronx. It was a special night, as MLB introduced its first inaugural Lou Gehrig Day. The Yankee Stadium faithful did a great job honoring The Iron Horse in the first inning role call.
Monty typically does not pick runners off, but he showed a nice move in the first inning to get Arozarena, who constantly goes on first movement from first base.
In the bottom half of the inning, Gio Urshela went the opposite way for a 2-run homer. The Yankees grabbed an atypical 2-0 first inning lead.
Montgomery cruised until the 4th inning. The Rays put runners on second and third with nobody out, but a costly baserunning blunder by Mike Brosseau assisted the Yankees in minimizing the damage. 2-1 Yanks after three and a half innings of play.
In the bottom of the 4th, who else but CLINT! A 2-run single for last night’s hero.
In the top of the 5th, a rough error by Rougned Odor helped get a run across for Tampa Bay, so the Yanks lead shrunk to 4-2.
Jonathan Loáisiga helped keep the lead, although one run scored (Wendle had reached on an error charged to Montgomery). This strikeout of Arozarena was filthy.
Aroldis Chapman entered and made everybody nervous right away. He walked the 8th and 9th hitters on Tampa to flip the lineup over. After a mound visit by pitching coach Matt Blake, the closer settled down and did what he does best.
Chapman is both a flamethrower and a freak athlete. The win was humungous for the Yankees. At worst, a series split was on the horizon.
Yankee of the Day: Gio Urshela (4): 2 for 4, HR, 2B, R, 2 RBI.
Game 4 (Rays 9, Yankees 2)
The story of this one was poor play and poor umpiring. The Yankees had their ace on the hill, but it turned ugly in Yankee Stadium. Brett Gardner got the Bombers out to a 1-0 lead when he homered off Ryan Yarbrough, but that was just about the only bright spot.
Of course, it was Austin Meadows who got the first runs across for the Rays. He just demolishes the ball, not just at Yankee Stadium, but against the Yankees in general. The slugger to watch hit his third home run of the series.
Gerrit Cole’s struggles were exacerbated by the umpires. A strike-three call to Zunino was missed, and then Kevin Kiermaier reached first base by running out of the baseline to avoid LeMahieu’s tag. Three singles later and the Rays were winning 5-1. Yikes.
When Aaron Boone went to the mound to make a pitching change, he let the umpires hear it and was tossed from the game. Clint Frazier had stuck out in a key situation earlier in the game, when 5 pitches were thrown (and taken) out of the zone in the at bat — brutal.
Ryan Yarbrough ended up throwing a complete game for the Rays. The only other play worth mentioning is Miguel Andújar smashed another home run, tying Meadows with 3 in the series.
Yankee of the Day: Brett Gardner (1): 2 for 3, HR, 2B, R, RBI.
Series Talking Points
Clint Frazier… Hero: Clint Frazier’s home run on Tuesday night was enormous. Expectations for the Yankees are high every season and this team was dangerously close to dropping 5 straight contests. The offense still has not had a hot stretch this season, but a clutch home run helps the Yankees buy one more day of winning despite it. It would sure be nice if the home run sparked a solid stretch of play from Clint for the remainder of the season, but there is no way of predicting that right now. All I know is between that home run and his diving catch (yes it was a 95% catch probability), Clint Frazier was Tuesday night’s hero.
Lineup Cards: The Yankees benched Gleyber Torres and Giancarlo Stanton on Tuesday night. Maybe Gleyber was benched because of his throwing error on Monday and the Yankees just might be sending a message to the young shortstop. Maybe he really needed a day. But from here, it is not a good look to be resting your best players in very important games. Giancarlo Stanton came off the injured list and played 2 of 3 in Detroit, both as DH. I cannot imagine resting Stanton prevents any sort of future injuries. Eventually, players need to play in order to be valuable. The Yankees have been tip-toeing around rest days for a lot of their regulars for years now, and it is infuriating. It led to Judge playing a game in centerfield (for the first time since 2018) so that Stanton could DH. I am not opposed to seeing more of Judge in center, as long as it means the best players will take the field every night. Enough of the rest days. We need wins.
Cole’s Sticky Outing: Gerrit Cole gave up 5 runs in 5 innings, but the bigger story was not the score of the game. Much of the concern was focused on Cole’s spin rate.
Major League Baseball is apparently cracking down on the “sticky stuff” used by pitchers across the league in order to limit the dead offense that has been on display in 2021. Of course, the first thought is that Gerrit Cole might not be Gerrit Cole without his sticky substance. However, one sample outing in the rain on an afternoon might not be the end-all, be-all of what makes Gerrit Cole the pitcher he is today. Plus, if every pitcher is truly using a mixture of substances like everybody seems to think, Cole will not be the only person affected by rule enforcement.
Side note — Cole should just continue using what he was using anyways. Then if he is caught, he can tell Commissioner Manfred that he will tell him what the mixture is in exchange for immunity. That seems to work just fine in this league. Additionally, MLB should just allow pitchers to use certain substances anyways. If almost every pitcher (if not all) is using something, then why would we want every pitcher to have to change? Also, do we really want a situation where Game 7 of a World Series (or some other important game) is pitched by a guy using a sticky substance who wins the game but is not caught until afterwards? If the most common substances are outlawed, it will create a perfect opportunity for a pitcher to gain a competitive advantage if indeed they do go against the rules and use the substance. Of course, you would hope that no pitcher would break the rules, but the history of baseball tells us that will happen regardless.
Boone Ejection: Aaron Boone got tossed in the final game of the series. This ejection made me think about the Yankees’ approach at the plate. The Yanks take a ton of pitches and are bound to have these low-and-away balls called strikes go against them. At times, especially with runners on base, some aggression at the plate would be nice to see and might limit the costly calls by the umpires. However, the double play concerns might play a role in some hitters’ hesitation in swinging at low pitches.
Series Totals
Hitting
D.J. LeMahieu: 2 for 17 (.118 AVG), 1 BB (.167 OBP), 1 R, 0 HR, 0 RBI, 3 K (.284 OPS), 0 SB
Giancarlo Stanton: 1 for 8 (.125 AVG), 1 BB (.222 OBP), 0 R, 0 HR, 0 RBI, 3 K (.347 OPS), 0 SB
Aaron Judge: 2 for 14 (.143 AVG), 3 BB (.294 OBP), 1 R, 0 HR, 1 RBI, 2 K (.437 OPS), 0 SB
Gio Urshela: 4 for 17 (.235 AVG), 0 BB (.235 OBP), 1 R, 1 HR, 2 RBI, 5 K (.765 OPS), 0 SB
Gleyber Torres: 2 for 10 (.200 AVG), 2 BB (.333 OBP), 1 R, 0 HR, 0 RBI, 1 K (.633 OPS), 0 SB
Gary Sánchez: 2 for 8 (.250 AVG), 2 BB (.400 OBP), 1 R, 0 HR, 0 RBI, 5 K (.900 OPS), 0 SB
Clint Frazier: 2 for 9 (.222 AVG), 4 BB (.462 OBP), 2 R, 1 HR, 4 RBI, 4 K (1.017 OPS), 0 SB
Brett Gardner: 2 for 10 (.200 AVG), 2 BB (.333 OBP), 1 R, 1 HR, 1 RBI, 2 K (.933 OPS), 1 SB
Kyle Higashioka: 1 for 5 (.200 AVG), 0 BB (.200 OBP), 0 R, 0 HR, 0 RBI, 1 K (.400 OPS), 0 SB
Mike Ford: 0 for 3 (.000 AVG), 0 BB (.000 OBP), 0 R, 0 HR, 0 RBI, 3 K (.000 OPS), 0 SB
Miguel Andújar: 5 for 15 (.333 AVG), 0 BB (.333 OBP), 3 R, 3 HR, 3 RBI, 5 K (1.267 OPS), 0 SB
Rougned Odor: 3 for 16 (.188 AVG), 1 BB (.235 OBP), 1 R, 0 HR, 0 RBI, 3 K (.485 OPS), 0 SB
Tyler Wade: 0 for 0 (.000 AVG), 0 BB (.000 OBP), 0 R, 0 HR, 0 RBI, 0 K (.000 OPS), 0 SB
Pitching
Jameson Taillon: 5 IP, 3 R, 3 ER, 5 H, 3 BB, 1 HR, 5 Ks, 5.40 ERA
Domingo Germán: 5 IP, 3 R, 3 ER, 3 H, 0 BB, 2 HR, 5 Ks, 5.40 ERA
Jordan Montgomery: 6.1 IP, 3 R, 1 ER, 5 H, 2 BB, 0 HR, 6 Ks, W, 1.42 ERA
Gerrit Cole: 5 IP, 5 R, 5 ER, 5 H, 2 BB, 1 HR, 7 Ks, 9.00 ERA
Brooks Kriske: 1 IP, 0 R, 0 ER, 1 H, 0 BB, 0 HR, 0 Ks, 0.00 ERA
Nick Nelson: 1.2 IP, 4 R, 4 ER, 3 H, 2 BB, 0 HR, 3 Ks, 21.60 ERA
Wandy Peralta: 1.1 IP, 0 R, 0 ER, 1 H, 2 BB, 0 HR, 1 Ks, 0.00 ERA
Luis Cessa: 3.1 IP, 0 R, 0 ER, 1 H, 0 BB, 0 HR, 2 Ks, W, 0.00 ERA
Lucas Luetge: 3 IP, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 H, 0 BB, 0 HR, 3 Ks, 0.00 ERA
Jonathan Loáisiga: 2.1 IP, 0 R, 0 ER, 1 H, 2 BB, 0 HR, 2 Ks, 0.00 ERA
Chad Green: 2 IP, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 H, 3 BB, 0 HR, 3 Ks, 0.00 ERA
Aroldis Chapman: 2 IP, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 H, 2 BB, 0 HR, 4 Ks, 1 SV, 0.00 ERA
Albert Abreu: No appearances.
Deivi Garcia: No appearances.
Michael King: No appearances.