The Yankees are Swept by the Rays at Home

FINAL: Rays 10 Yankees 5

WP: Castillo (2-0) LP: Ottavino (2-2)

The Rays swept the Yankees at home today as they defeated the Yankees 10-5. Castillo (2-0) took the win for the Rays, while Adam Ottavino (2-2) took the loss for the Yankees. With today’s win, the Rays also take the season-series win over the Yankees as the two teams will only face off one more time this season (August 31 – September 2 at Yankee Stadium).

GAME RECAP:

The Yankees struck first in this one off of the bat of Luke Voit who hit a solo home run to deep center field and into monument park in the bottom of the first to give the Yankees a 1-0 lead over the Rays.

Then in the third inning, Gleyber Torres grounded out to short, scoring Mike Tauchman to extend the Yankees lead to 2-0 over the Rays.

In the fifth inning, however, the Rays struck back on a Joey Wendle double that scored Adames and Margot to tie the game. Then Mike Brosseau came up behind Wendle to hit a sacrifice fly that scored Wendle to give the Yankees a 3-2 lead over the Yankees.

In the bottom of the fifth, Gio Urshela struck back for the Yankees with a two-run home run that scored Luke Voit to give the Yankees a 4-3 lead over the Rays.

In the top of the sixth, Margot singled for the Rays to score Diaz and moved Lowe to third to once again tie the game in the sixth. Joey Wendle that singled and scored Lowe to give the Rays a 5-4 lead over the Yankees. That was followed by a three-run home run by Mike Zunino to give the Rays an 8-4 lead over the Yankees.

In the bottom of the sixth, the Yankees appeared to still have life as Luke Voit singled on a fly ball to right field that scored Wade. It would be 8-5 Rays.

Then in the top of the 9^th, it was Yandy Diaz’s 2-run home run that sealed the deal for the Rays to give them a 10-5 lead that they would hold on to as they went on to defeat the Yankees 10-5, sweeping them at home.

PITCHING LINES:

PAXTON: 5.0 IP 1 H 3 R 3 ER 4 BB 8 SO 0 HR

OTTAVINO: 0.2 IP 2 H 3 R 3 ER 1 BB 1 SO 0 HR

AVILAN: 0.1 IP 3 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 0 BB, 0 SO, 1 HR

HOLDER: 2.0 IP 1 H 0 R 0 ER 0 BB 1 SO 0 HR

CESSA: 1.0 IP 1 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 1 BB 1 SO 1 HR

POST-GAME MANAGERS CONFERENCE:

Aaron Boone met with the media following today’s game. He spoke on Gleyber Torres exiting today’s game early, stating that his status is unknown and that he was getting it iced and will probably get it imaged.

Boone also spoke on Paxton’s outing, stating that he was filling up the strike zone early, but his mix of pitches was really strong. He had a couple of walks that came back to bite him in the fifth inning, but it was apparent after the fifth inning that his elbow tightened upon him. He is currently getting his forearm/elbow MRI’d.

Speaking on the Yankees’ offensive struggles, Boone stated those are always the storyline and that obviously it’s an area where the Yankees expect to be strong.

LOOKING AHEAD:

The Yankees were originally scheduled to head to Citi Field to open a 3-game subway series against their subway-series rival, New York Mets. However, tonight’s Mets’ game against the Marlins has been postponed due to one Mets player and one staff member testing positive for COVID-19. Along with the Mets/Marlins postponement, the Yankees and Mets series opener, Friday night has also been postponed.