Afrigather ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — Earlier than Saturday’s sport, whereas discussing Gleyber Torres’ early-season struggles, Aaron Boone made notice of how a number of good hitters on the Rays have been off to equally gradual begins.
The 2 most notable bats, Yandy Diaz and Randy Arozarena, spent the following few hours ganging up on the Yankees.
Diaz and Arozarena each homered off Nestor Cortes after which saved piling on the remainder of the sport to carry the Rays to a 7-2 win over the Yankees at Tropicana Discipline.
Diaz, who gained final 12 months’s AL batting title, entered Saturday hitting simply .237 with a .595 OPS. Arozarena had been even colder, coming into the sport batting .143 with a .555 OPS.
However on Saturday, the highest two hitters within the Rays lineup mixed to go 5-for-7 with three doubles, two dwelling runs, 5 runs and 6 RBIs to even the sequence forward of Sunday’s rubber sport.
The Yankees (26-15) obtained a three-hit day from Anthony Volpe, however solely two different hits from the remainder of the lineup.
With the Yankees trailing 4-2 within the seventh inning, Juan Soto seemed like he may put them forward with a three-run dwelling run, however his deep fly ball got here up simply in need of the center-field wall.
The Rays (20-20) then broke the sport open within the backside of the inning towards reliever Dennis Santana, with Diaz and Arozarena proper in the course of it.
For Cortes, Diaz’s large day was all too acquainted.
The primary baseman entered the sport batting .370 with a 1.097 OPS towards the Yankees’ left-hander, a pattern that continued on Saturday as Diaz crushed his first pitch of the sport for a house run.
Cortes then issued a pair of walks via the primary two innings that didn’t result in additional hassle, however the third one did.
Cortes walked No. 9 hitter Jose Siri to steer off the third inning, which Diaz adopted by ripping a double off the bottom of the left-field wall.
Arozarena got here up subsequent and jumped on a fastball down the center for a three-run dwelling run that put the Rays again up 4-2.
Confronted with an early deficit, the Yankees had come again to take a lead within the second inning towards powerful right-hander Zack Littell.
Anthony Rizzo drew a four-pitch stroll and Austin Wells shot a double to the hole earlier than Trent Grisham loaded the bases with a two-out stroll.
Volpe then lofted a single to left-center to offer the Yankees a 2-1 lead, although the chance so as to add on was shortly erased when Grisham took a large flip round second base and was ultimately tagged out in a pickle.
