ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — The Rays did what they could Friday afternoon to tamp down expectations and defuse the hype over the weekend series with the struggling Yankees. Almost to a man, they insisted they were focused only on winning Friday’s game and not the rapidly shrinking margin between them and first place in the American League East.
Then the Rays went out and further fueled the conversation and turned up the heat by beating the Yankees, 9-0, cutting the once mighty lead to five games (and four in the loss column).
David Peralta singled in a run in a sloppy Yankees fourth inning and Christian Bethancourt hit a two-run homer in the seventh before a Rays’ onslaught (six runs) in the eighth. Jeffery Springs delivered a strong start, and JT Chargois, Colin Poche, Jason Adam and Calvin Faucher provided the relief.
The Rays (73-57) have played extremely well, especially with an an American League-best 19-9 record since Aug. 1, to reduce the Yankees' lead that on July 10 was 15 1/2 games. The Yankees (79-53) going 18-28 in that span also helped. The teams play again at Tropicana Field on Saturday and Sunday, then three more times next weekend in New York.
The Rays took a 1-0 lead the fourth.
Harold Ramirez reached when Yankees third baseman Josh Donaldson booted his one-out grounder to third. Randy Arozarena then hit a grounder to third that Donaldson gloved, looked briefly to second then decided to throw to first, and wildly.
Ramirez, who slid into second, popped up and raced around third and home, but was thrown out as right fielder Oswaldo Cabrera fired home. With catcher Jose Trevino diving across the plate to try and make a tag, Ramirez slid past the plate and tried, unsuccessfully, to get a hand in.
Arozarena raced around to third, and that paid off when Peralta, acquired July 30 from Arizona, stepped up and singled to center field.
Springs, with no apparent issues from the pitch-tipping problem in his last start, gave the Rays a strong start, shutting the Yankees out with two outs into the sixth.
Springs allowed only four hits, walked three and struck out seven, and got out of what little trouble he had, with the Yankees three times getting two men on, but none in.
In the first inning, Springs allowed a two-out double to Andrew Benintendi (who later left the game with a right wrist injury) and walked Giancarlo Stanton, but struck out Donaldson.
In the third, he had two on after a one-out walk by DJ LeMahieu and a curious decision by Yankees manager Aaron Boone to challenge why catcher’s interference wasn’t called on Bethancourt with MVP candidate Aaron Judge at the plate. The Yankees won the challenge and the call was reversed, taking the bat out of the hands of their 51-homer hitter. Springs got Cabrera — who finished the at-bat after Benintendi was hurt — to pop out and struck out Stanton.
Then in the fifth, Springs allowed a leadoff double to Isiah Kiner-Falefa and a walk to Judge, but got Cabrera to fly out and fanned Stanton again.
