Rank Dink Their Way Past Yankees, And They'll Take it With 3-1 Win on Saturday
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — Sometimes it doesn't take a bunch of blasts to get out of a hitting slump. A bunch of dinks and bloops also do the trick on occasion, too.
It worked for the Tampa Bay Rays on Saturday, as they scratched out a hard-earned 3-1 victory over the New York Yankees at sold-out Tropicana Field.
Dinking and dunking.
They did it with solo runs in the sixth, seven and eighth innings, snapping a brutal stretch where they had scored a run in only one of the past 30 innings and had lost the first two game in this important — at least for late May — series with their American League East rivals.
"It was a good win, man. Any time you're going up against the Yankees and Gerrit Cole is on the mound and you find a way to win a game, we're happy,'' Tampa Bay manager Kevin Cash said. "There weren't a ton of hard-hit balls, but given the stretch we've been on, we'll take it.''
It was another classic pitcher's duel between Corey Kluber and Gerrit Cole in front of a sell-out crowd of 25,025 at the Trop. Kluber was good, and he needed to be, because Cole was even better through most of the game.
The Yankees were all over Kluber right out of the gate, getting two hits in the first six pitches. DJ LeMahieu doubled high off the right-field wall on the third pitch of the game and Aaron Judge singled three pitches later, advancing LeMahieu to third. Anthony Rizzo drove him in with a sacrifice fly — but then Kluber faced the minimum from there through six innings.
When he walked off the mound in the sixth, he was still trailing 1-0. Cole had been dominant, still twirling a no-hitter through two outs in the fifth before Rays catcher Francisco Mejia singled to right-center.
Cole got two outs in the sixth, but then Rays first baseman Ji-Man Choi battled him from an 0-2 count to get a walk. Then he walked Wander Franco on four pitches. Randy Arozarena came up and blooped a ball to short left field that fell in front of Miguel Andujar. Choi, running on contact, scored the tying run.
"They're a good team and Cole was pitching well, I was hoping to hit it hard, but I was able to connect. As long as it lands where there's nobody, I'm happy,'' Arozarena said. "The important thing is how to win, no matter how it happens.''
Cole left after six innings and 105 pitches, and the Rays took advantage of his absence. In the seventh inning, Kevin Kiermaier led off with a single, and then Mejia hit a little bloop down the right field line that three Yankees chased after but no one could get to. It fell for a double, and Kiermaier wound up at third.
Harold Ramirez pinch-hit for Brett Phillips and grounded out against a drawn-in infield, with Kiermaier getting thrown out at home. Taylor Walls followed and hit another ground ball that looked like a double play, but he hustled down the line and beat the throw by half a step to keep the inning alive.
Rays third baseman Yandy Diaz then hit a high-hopper down the third base line that he thought was going to go foul. LeMahieu charged it, but couldn't make a throw on a ball that probably didn't travel 60 feet. Mejia scored to take a 2-1 lead.
Manuel Margot added an insurance run in the eighth with a single to right that drove in Franco, who had tripled to lead off the inning. The hit was his first of the game, and kept his hitting streak alive. It's now up to 15 games.
Already ahead, but we'll Margot-ahead and add another pic.twitter.com/lWARKkfg7k
— Tampa Bay Rays (@RaysBaseball) May 28, 2022
He's getting close to the Rays' team record. Former Rays shortstop Jason Bartlett hit safely in 19 straight games in 2009. The Rays are the only team in baseball history to never have a hitting streak of 20 games or more.
Kluber, the 36-year-old veteran, was great after those two early hiccups. He kept the Rays in the game and gave them a chance to win.
"He had to be good because of the guy we were facing. He was outstanding,'' Rays manager Kevin Cash said of Kluber. "He navigated his way through the first inning and after that, he kicked it in gear really good. The stuff looked really good. A strong performance for Corey.''
Kluber lasted six innings, allowing just three hits on 80 pitches. And then the Rays' bullpen took it from there. J.P. Feyereisen pitched a perfect seventh inning — he has now gone 22 innings this season without allowing an earned run — and Jason Adam pitched a scoreless eighth, allowing just a two-out single.
Colin Poche, who got his first save of the season on Wednesday night, came in to pitch the ninth and got a pop-up from Joey Gallo, and ground balls from LeMahieu and Aaron Judge to end the game.
"Jason Adam was really good, Poche was awesome and Feyereisen has been on a tremendous run,'' Cash said. "He came right through getting 2-3-4 and got big outs. I've liked (Poche) all season long. The fastball is really coming out well, and gets on hitters. You can tell by the swings guys are taking off of him and the location of his pitches, that fastball really gets on hitters.''
The Rays (27-19) got their first win of the season against the AL East leaders, and are now 5.5 games out of the lead. They turn to ace Shane McClanahan on Sunday in the series finale to try to even things up.
"We've got a chance to finish a winning homestand and salvage the series with New York,'' Cash said.
Sunday's game, according to Rays' officials, is also close to being sold out.
Related stories on Rays baseball
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Watch Kevin Cash's postgame press conference
Tom Brew is the publisher of Inside The Rays, and has been with the Sports Illustrated/FanNation network for three years. He is an award-winning writer and editor who has spent most of his four-decade career at the Tampa Bay Times, Indianapolis Star and South Florida Sun-Sentinel. He has written four books.