Saturday, 4 a.m.
Might the Tampa Bay Rays make a race of the American League East, after all?
After all the adjectives pointed toward the New York Yankees this season, and after all the doubts that surrounded the Rays, just glance at the standings. The Rays trail the Yankees -- who have so much power and so much money -- by just five games after Friday night's 9-0 bashing. They trail by just four in the loss column.
The Rays took their eighth shutout of the season, breaking open a close game and running away from a sloppy Yankees team. The Yankees committed three errors, walked five (two of them with the bases loaded) and managed just five hits in the loss.
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"The score in that game was not the story of that game, obviously," said Rays' manager Kevin Cash.
And certainly, Domingo pitched well, too. He trailed just 1-0 on an unearned run going into seventh inning. Rays' pitcher Jeffrey Springs (7-4) was better, however, allowing no runs and four hits over 5 2/3 innings.
In the seventh, however, Christian Bethancourt hit a two-run homer to pad the lead, and the Rays piled up six more in the eighth on five hits, three walks, a hit batter and an error.
The Rays, sticking to their one-game-at-a-time mantra, didn't want to talk about the standings. However, the Yankees have seen their 15 1/2 game lead (on July 8) shrink to a handful.
The Rays got three hits from Manny Margot, two from Harold Ramirez and two from Bethancourt.
Pitching was huge for the Rays, who have fared better than most staffs do against the Yankees. They've held them to a .186 average for the season.
The Rays will face the Yankees again today at 6:10 p.m. at Tropicana Field. Corey Kluber will start for the Rays against Clarke Schmidt.