Field Level Media
Jun 22, 2018
Six Tampa Bay pitchers combined on a five-hitter as the Rays recorded a 2-1 victory over the New York Yankees on Friday night in St. Petersburg, Fla.
Tampa Bay employed its unorthodox pitching strategy, using an "opener" for the 13th time since May 19. The Rays improved to 5-8 in those games while beating the Yankees for the second time in seven meetings this season.
Ryne Stanek began the game and allowed a leadoff single to Brett Gardner in a scoreless first. He threw 25 pitches in his lone inning, four more than in his "start" last Saturday in New York.
Ryan Yarbrough (6-3) worked around three walks and allowed a hit in 3 1/3 scoreless innings. Diego Castillo pitched the next 1 2/3 innings and retired Giancarlo Stanton and Didi Gregorius to end the fifth after walking Aaron Judge.
Chaz Roe followed and allowed an RBI single to Judge while getting two outs in the seventh. Left-hander Jose Alvarado ended the inning by getting Gregorius on a groundout to second before tossing a perfect eighth.
Sergio Romo worked a scoreless ninth and recorded his fifth save in nine chances. He opened the inning by allowing a base hit to rookie Miguel Andujar but ended it getting Gardner on a double play and keeping Judge in the on-deck circle.
Shortstop Willy Adames had two of Tampa Bay's 10 hits and made a leaping catch on Gregorius in the fifth. He drove in the first run with a single to right field in the fourth inning.
C.J. Cron drove in the other run with a fifth-inning sacrifice fly on which Stanton made a leaping catch on in front of the right field fence.
Wilson Ramos contributed three hits as the Rays won despite scoring four runs or fewer for the 10th consecutive game.
The Yankees, who went 1-for-9 with runners in scoring position, lost for the fifth time in 22 games.
New York left-hander CC Sabathia (4-3) allowed two runs (one earned) on nine hits in 5 1/3 innings. He fanned four and walked one while taking his second straight loss.
--Field Level Media