Yanks break Rays’ game open in 10th inning

by Gary Shelton on April 12, 2021

in general

Meadows was hit by pitches twice./STEVEN MUNCIE

Monday, 4 a.m.

It ended with the New York Yankees running away in the 10th inning. Before that, however, it was a matter of what the Tampa Bay Rays ran out of along the way.

They ran out of bullpen. They ran out of bats. They ran out of control. To a degree, they ran out of momentum.

The Yankees scored four times in the top of the 10th inning Sunday, salvaging one game of their three-game series against the Rays. The Yankees won this one 8-4, although the Rays had a one-run lead with five outs to play and were tied with two outs in the 10th before falling.




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What caught up to the Rays?

Start with the bullpen, the stars of Saturday's victory. This time, the Rays' relievers gave up eight runs in eight innings.

Throw in the sticks, which had battered New York for two games. But on Saturday, the Rays managed just one hit in their last seven at-bats, a double by Mike Zunino.

And, there was the control. The Rays walked seven and gave up nine hits, all by the bullpen.

"In the seventh and eighth innings, we allowed four free passes," said Rays manager Kevin Cash. "A hit-batter and three walks.  You're not going to keep a team like that that quiet if you're giving them free passes. We’ve to do a better job at that."

In the 10th, the Yankees scored their four runs with two outs on singles by Rougned Odor and Gary Sanchez and an error by right fielder Manuel Margot.

During the game, the Yankees hit outfielder Austin Meadows twice, running their total of hit-batters to four for the three-game series.

"It’s unfortunate," Cash said. "Do I personally think the guy was trying to hit him? I do not. But this continues to roll over. It was so grossly mishandled by Major League Baseball last year. Intent or not, most major league players are going to look at you and say 'It doesn't feel good and I don’t care if he did it intentionally or not. I don’t like it.' You had the other element of coming up around the shoulders or head area. None of us like that.

”Major League Baseball is here to protect its players on all 30 teams. I don't think they did that last year. They could have done a better job and maybe we could move past this."

The Rays scored on two-run homers by Zunino and Randy Arozarena.

Starting for Tampa Bay was pitcher Brent Honeywell, who hadn't pitched in a competitive game since September of 2017. He had had four surgeries since then. He pitched a hitless two innings before giving way to the bullpen.

The Rays now play host to the Texas Rangers in a four-game set at Tropicana Field. Today, Tyler Glasnow of the Rays will pitch against Dave Dunning. The game will begin at 7:10 p.m.

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