Tuesday, 4 a.m.
Want to talk history? Want to talk payrolls? Want to talk legends?
Or, perhaps, you would prefer to talk about now.
And the Tampa Bay Rays.
The Rays jumped to a huge two-game lead in their American League playoff series against the Yankees. The Rays won for the 100th time this season (98 in the regular season) with a 5-2 victory at Tropicana Field.
"It's pretty significant," Cash said of the series lead. "We're getting ready to go to a place that obviously they play well there. They have a tremendous fan base that really supports them. It's going to be challenging, but, I mean, we've set ourselves up in a good way by getting on a plane here up 2-0."
Once again, the Rays played to a crowd of more than 40,000. Once again, they had dominating pitching. Once again, they had key hits against a quality opposing pitcher.
The Yankees struggled to play defense, committing four errors (it was five before a scoring change). New York has only five hits in their two losses.
The Yankees finally scored on Monday night, but it was because of Ben Rice's two solo homers.
The Rays weren't perfect. They were one-for-13 with runners in scoring position.
But Tampa Bay came through in a four-run fifth inning. Richie Palacios had the big hit, a two-out, two-strike single that drove in two runs.
"That at-bat and the hit was probably the biggest hit in the game for us, the two-run single with two outs," Cash said. "And he's from New York. Very close to Yankee Stadium, I believe.
"So, look, we're seeing a healthy player. We've seen Richie in the past when before his knee in. He seems as much as anybody in our lineup to really rise to the occasion when we need him to come through. He's come through so many times for us."
The Yankees' shoddy defense aided in the Rays' other runs. In the first, Yandy Diaz came in on Jazz Chisholm Jr.'s wild throw to first.
In the fifth, Jonathan Aranda scored on a ground out by Aranda. Caminero scored on a fielder's choice when George Lombard Jr.'s fielder's choice, leading to Palacios' two-run single.
Freddy Peralta started for the Rays. He allowed one run and three hits in 4 2/3 innings. But for the Rays, the key was the bullpen. Cam Booser worked his way out of trouble in the fifth when he induced a 400-foot fly from Cody Bellinger.
Then Ian Seymour, a starter in the regular season, came in and pitched three shutout innings, giving up just one hit. Bryan Baker retired the Yankees in order in the ninth inning for his second save of the post-season.
The Rays worked pitcher Cam Schlitter hard, getting six hits off of him in 4 1/3 innings.
Jonathan Aranda and Junior Caminero each had two hits for the Rays.
For the Rays to lose the series, they would have to fall to the Yankees in three straight games.
The series moves to Yankee Stadium on Wednesday night at 8 p.m. Nick Martinez will start for the Rays against Max Fried.
