Wednesday, 4 a.m.
The New York Yankees won the big moments Tuesday night, the home runs and the pitching.
But they won the little moments, too.
The Tampa Bay Rays, continuing the play the worst baseball in the major leagues, dropped a 7-5 decision to the New York Yankees. The Yankees bombed two home runs en route to their win, and Max Fried dominated the Rays despite a wobbly start.
Ah, but self-inflicted wounds hurt, too.
For instance, Cody Bellinger tied the game in the third inning with a three-run homer after the Rays had jumped to an early lead. Before the homer, however, the Yankees drew walks from Austin Wells and Ben Rice.
That was largely responsible for chasing Rays’ starter Joe Boyle from the game after 3 1/3 innings. Boyle allowed just four hits, but he also walked three.
If that weren’t bad enough, the Rays committed two errors in the fourth inning. One of those was by newly acquired catcher Nick Fortes, who threw into left field while trying to throw out a runner stealing third.
The Rays had taken a 3-0 lead on a two-run triple by Jonny DeLuca in the first and a solo homer by Jonathan Aranda. But the Rays didn’t get another hit until the seventh when Taylor Walls doubled in Fortes. The Rays picked up another run in the ninth Josh Lowe scored on Tristan Gray’s groundout.
For the night, the Rays were just one-for-10 with runners in scoring position (they’re three-for-22 two games into the series). They struck out 10 times.
The Rays got two hits from Aranda.
Tampa Bay is 54-54 on the season.
The Rays play the Yankees at 7:05 p.m. at Yankee Stadium. Zack Littell will start for the Rays against Will Warren.