Thursday’s 10-5 come-from-behind win over the Yankees in New York to wrap up a seasonlong 10-game trip produced a list of notable accomplishments for the Rays.
• They completed their third-ever sweep of a series of three or more games at Yankee Stadium in 23 seasons, previously in July 2014 and September 2013.
• They posted the first sweep of a multigame series in the Bronx since the Indians did it in August 2017.
• They beat the Yankees for the sixth time in seven games, ensuring their first season-series win since 2014.
• They became the fifth team in major-league history to sweep a three (or more)-game series at Boston’s Fenway Park and at Yankee Stadium on the same road trip, per Stats LLC, and the first since the 1990 A’s.
• They finished the trip 9-1, matching their franchise best for a three-city jaunt.
But most relevant of all, they moved past the Yankees and into first place in the American League East, using a 13-3 run to improve their record to 17-9, one-half game ahead of the 16-9 Yankees, with 34 to play in the pandemic-abbreviated season.
“The guys have worked hard to get here and get to that spot,’' manager Kevin Cash said. “We’ve got plenty of challenges ahead of us, but we’ve got to enjoy this. You don’t have many road trips like we just had.’'
The usual postwin celebration, at least from what the players said, was a little more boisterous in the Yankee Stadium visitors clubhouse.
“We were excited,’' said infielder Joey Wendle. “We just won nine out of 10 on the road, just swept the Yankees in New York, that’s fun stuff. Everybody is happy, everybody is in a pretty good mood right now.
“We’re 25-26 games deep into the season, we know we have 35 or however many are left, and we’re focused on that. But it’s also encouraging to come out of there with three wins.’'
Thursday’s was an odd one.
While the Yankees took an early lead with runs off opener John Curtiss and bulk-innings reliever Trevor Richards, the Rays had nothing. Four times up against Yankees starter James Paxton, they had a Willy Adames walk and 12 outs.
“The frustration mounts inning to inning as you’re not getting hits, as you’re not hitting balls hard,’' Cash said.
The Rays came alive in the fifth, scoring three runs, albeit on a rally that consisted of three one-out walks, a two-run double by Joey Wendle (their first hit, then a heads-up move taking third on the throw home) and a sacrifice fly.
But the 3-2 lead didn’t last long, With one on and one out, Cash lifted Richards, who had thrown 76 pitches to get nine outs, for Diego Castillo. He threw one, that Gio Urshela drove over the leftfield fence, and the Yankees were back up, 4-3.
The Rays rallied harder this time, getting nine to the plate in scoring five, all after two were out.
Yandy Diaz had the first hit, going the other way yet again with a double down the rightfield line. Manuel Margot had the timeliest, a two-out single to get the tying run home. Wendle had the best/worst-placed hit, a liner to right that just missed being a homer but was hit so hard that the carom off the wall limited him to a single. And Mike Zunino had the biggest, a three-run homer that extended the margin to 8-4.
By the end of the afternoon, after Diaz added his first homer of the year, and the unlikely trio of Jalen Beeks, Aaron Slegers and Aaron Loup got the final 10 outs, the Rays had their ninth come-from-behind win of the season.
“It’s encouraging that we’ve seen we have the ability to do that in the course of the short season so far,’' Wendle said. “And that’s always in the back of everybody’s mind. We know that we’re a resilient team. We know we’re going to grind out at-bats. We know we’re going to compete all the way through nine innings.’'
The Rays made sure not to make too much of the sweep, or their sudden dominance over their division rival, whom they face again in 10 days, and maybe in October. Zunino claimed that moving by New York into first place was “news to me.’'
Cash said he didn’t have a really good explanation for their success.
“It’s two really good clubs playing,’' he said. “We did a good job of limiting the big inning from them. Our pitchers were just tremendous throughout the series. When you can pitch, you can always give yourself a chance. I think that’s what we did, we pitched well and came up with some timely hits.’'
To be fair (and to reduce the number of tweets and emails from their grumbling fans), the Yankees were not at full strength.
Three top hitters — Aaron Judge, DJ LeMahieu and Giancarlo Stanton –— were already on the injured list, and shortstop Gleyber Torres, reliever Zach Britton and Paxton were hurt during the series.
But neither were the Rays, who did so well (holding the Yankees to 1-for-21 with runners in scoring position) with seven somewhat key pitchers on the injured list. Of the seven who worked Thursday, throwing 172 pitches, only one, Castillo, was a sure thing to make the opening-day roster. Four started Spring 2.0 on minor-league contracts, three assigned to the Port Charlotte camp.
In this odd season, teams have to adjust, adapt and make do with those they have available. To this point, that has been enough to get the Rays into first place. Now they have to find a way to stay there.
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August 21, 2020 at 07:00AM
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Rays beat Yankees 10-5 to complete sweep, take over first place - Tampa Bay Times
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