NEW YORK _ This time, the Tampa bullpen held steady.
A day after the Yankees rallied for three runs in the ninth to take over first place in the AL East with a walk-off victory, Rays pitchers had few hiccups in sending the Bombers to a 2-1 loss in 11 innings Saturday afternoon in front 43,074 at Yankee Stadium.
Austin Meadows' one-out homer to right off Luis Cessa in the 11th gave the Rays (27-16) a lead they would not relinquish and thrust them back ahead of the Yankees (27-17) by one-half game in the division.
Jose Alvarado, who coughed up a 3-1 ninth-inning lead Friday night, picked up the save. He allowed a leadoff single to Luke Voit, who started Friday's rally with a leadoff homer, but struck out Aaron Hicks and got Gary Sanchez, who struck out four times his first four times up, to ground into a 5-4-3 double play.
Six Tampa pitchers scattered eight hits and struck out 15.
Masahiro Tanaka was brilliant for a second straight outing, though it came with an asterisk as the right-hander left the game with an injury of unknown severity.
Tanaka left with what the Yankees called "a right shin contusion" after taking a ground smash off of the area to end the sixth inning. X-rays were negative, though it wasn't immediately clear just how much of a bullet the Yankees had dodged.
Tommy Kahnle, who brought a 1.06 ERA into the day, allowed a leadoff homer to Brandon Lowe to start the seventh, which tied it at 1.
The Yankees scored their first run in the second when Brett Gardner singled with one out and scored later in the inning on a wild pitch. They had a runner, Aaron Hicks, thrown out at the plate to end the sixth on a bang-bang play at the plate after a single by Gleyber Torres.
Blake Snell, the reigning AL Cy Young Award winner, struck out nine over six innings in which he allowed one run, six hits and a walk for the Rays.
Saturday's game was a rematch of last Sunday in St. Petersburg, Fla., a 7-1 Yankees victory in which Tanaka allowed one run and five hits over seven innings and Snell struck out 12 over 5 2/3 innings in which the left-hander allowed two runs and four hits.
After Tanaka struck out the side in a 15-pitch first on Saturday, the Rays put two on in the second. Avisail Garcia reached with one out on a rare error by Gio Urshela at third, and Kevin Kiermaier reached on an infield single. Tanaka then struck out Willy Adames, who homered Friday night off CC Sabathia, looking at a slider to end the inning.
The Yankees got something going in the bottom half. Gardner, in a 6-for-53 slide, lashed a single to center with one out. DJ LeMahieu followed with a ground smash back up the middle for a single. Voit walked to load the bases but Hicks, who collected his first hit of the season with a first-inning single, struck out swinging at a curveball. With the count 1-and-1 on Sanchez, Snell threw a wild pitch that brought in Gardner for a 1-0 lead. Snell struck out Sanchez, giving him six through three innings.
Tanaka responded with a 1-2-3, seven-pitch fourth that left him at 57 pitches, the same number Snell needed to get through three.
Tanaka retired nine straight before Ji-Man Choi doubled with two outs in the sixth. Yandy Diaz followed with his ground smash that deflected off Tanaka and directly to Voit at first for the third out.
