Sunday, 4 a.m.
They are still dangerous. They are still intimidating. Even at a time when they are in mid-swoon, they are still the Yankees.
The Tampa Bay Rays got a taste of what kind of team they are chasing Saturday afternoon. The Yankees started their day with seven consecutive hits and six runs to lead to a 10-3 blowout of the Rays, a team that had snuck back to within 3 1/2 games in the AL East standings.
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One week after Corey Kluber had tamed the Yankees with seven innings of shutout, two-hit baseball, the Yankees chased him from the yard after he recorded just two outs. It was the kind of loss that hasn't happened for the Rays in recent days -- the Rays had a 1.65 ERA in their previous nine games.
This time, however, the Yankees were a force again. For the day, they had 15 hits off of Tampa Bay pitchers.
"Some pitches caught the middle, where he’s been so sharp, so good at executing pitches with two strike counts," Rays' manager Kevin Cash said. "Today maybe that wasn’t the case."
The Rays were down 7-0 before Wander Franco singled home Jose Siri. In the eighth inning, Harold Ramirez singled in two runs.
The Yankees and Rays play again at Yankee Stadium today at 1:40 p.m. Neither team has announced its starting pitcher.