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Saturday, 4 a.m.
Might the Tampa Bay Rays run away with the high-priced American League East?
And if not, who is going to catch them?
The Rays played a familiar script on Friday night. They were dormant for seven innings, then got into their opponent's bullpen. They pulled away for a 4-2 victory over the New York Yankees at Yankee Stadium to pull 5 1/2 games into the division league.
It was a similar game to their last one, a 5-3 win over Baltimore when a four-run eighth led them to a win. The Rays are 22-4 in their last 26 games.
The Rays are 14-2 in AL East games.
This time, the enemy pitcher was Garritt Cole, who was pitching for the first time in 569 days. Cole threw a two-hit shutout for seven innings.
But in the eighth, the Rays woke up. They amassed three hits, a walk, an error and a sacrifice fly and scored four runs.
Jonathan Aranda, the AL leader in RBI, tied the game with his 38th run driven in on a double. Richie Palacios had a two-out, two run single.
Palacios, Chandler Simpson and Cedrick Mullins all had two hits.
In his last seven games, Palacios has nine hits and has driven in five.
Nick Martinez went six innings and allowed just one earned run. Ian Seymour got his third win without a loss. Bryan Baker recorded his 14th ERA.
The Rays and Yankees play today at 1:35 at Yankee Stadium. Drew Rasmussen will start for the Rays against Ryan Weathers.