The Tampa Bay Rays halted their four-game slide with a comeback victory over the New York Yankees Saturday, using an eighth-inning rally and aggressive baserunning to secure a 3-2 win despite another impressive performance from Aaron Judge.
Judge continued his remarkable start to the season by connecting for his 11th home run in the first inning off Rays starter Zack Littell, who settled in afterward to retire his next 11 batters before surrendering a fifth-inning solo shot to Austin Wells that gave New York a 2-1 advantage. The Yankees slugger extended his hitting streak to 13 games and has now reached base in 29 consecutive contests while maintaining a major league-best .432 batting average.
Tampa Bay, who had taken an early lead on Taylor Walls’ sacrifice fly against former Ray Ryan Yarbrough (starting in place of the scratched Clarke Schmidt), mounted their decisive comeback in the eighth inning. The rally began when Christopher Morel reached on an infield single that saw Yankees shortstop Anthony Volpe land hard on his left shoulder during a diving attempt.
After strategically employing three stolen bases during the inning – part of their six-steal performance for the game – the Rays tied the score on Curtis Mead’s RBI single off Mark Leiter Jr. They took the lead when José Caballero hit a grounder that Volpe misplayed for his fourth error of the season while attempting to start a double play.
Tampa Bay’s bullpen secured the victory with Edwin Uceta working out of an eighth-inning jam by getting Judge to ground out with runners at the corners, followed by Pete Fairbanks’ perfect ninth inning for his seventh save in as many opportunities.
The game featured a defensive highlight from Yankees outfielder Cody Bellinger, who made a leaping catch while playing left field in a defensive shift to save two runs in the eighth inning. The victory sets up Sunday’s series finale between Yankees right-hander Will Warren and Rays right-hander Taj Bradley.