Not even Gerrit Cole could save the Yankees from sinking even deeper into the depths of despair.
The $ 324 million ace tried to play the cap role on Sunday and gave a strong start, but the offense of the fights was still empty as the Yankees fell a fifth straight game and were swept away. for the Rays with a 4-2 loss at Yankee Stadium. .
The Yankees (5-10) scored just three hits, as the Rays (8-8) continued to have their numbers, improving to 5-1 against the Yankees this season and 15-3 against them since September 2019.
The last time the Yankees won was Cole’s previous outing Monday against the Blue Jays, but he couldn’t get them out of his funk on his own. He gave up three runs (two wins) while scoring 10 innings of more than 6 ¹ / ₃, but was burned by a poor defense in a third inning of two runs before giving up the starting run in the seventh.
Cole grabbed the mound at 98 pitches to start the seventh inning in a 2-2 game, after retiring 12 straight batters. After Mike Brosseau left, Joey Wendle lined up a single and Yoshi Tsutsugo ripped a double into the center-right gap to put the Rays 3-2 up and end Cole’s day.
Wendle later took advantage of Darren O’Day for the ninth inning of an insurance.
Giancarlo Stanton had given the Yankees (his worst start since 1997) his first round in the series in the second inning when he started a solo career on the short porch in the right field. It was the first time the Yankees led 22 innings, dating back to Wednesday’s sixth inning defeat to the Blue Jays.
However, it did not last long, as the Yankees returned it to the top of the third, courtesy of some costly defensive defenses from their outside camp. Mike Zunino chose the victory before Kevin Kiermaier came out for the center. Aaron Hicks tricked Zunino, pretending he had to catch him before he fell. He could have managed to pull off the force in the second, but he blew the ball and Zunino arrived safely.
Yandy Diaz then came on and landed a simple RBI that tied the game in midfield, where Hicks again couldn’t keep it clean, allowing Kiermaier to grab third base. This proved costly when Manuel Margot hit a sacrifice fly in the left field to make it 2-1. Even that play didn’t go smoothly, as Clint Frazier threw the throw to anyone’s ground between the mound and first base, allowing Diaz to tag and slide into the second safely. But Cole was able to get out of the jam with an attack.
The Yankees tied it again in the fifth inning, when Gio Urshela scored with a double and finally scored in a single from DJ LeMahieu’s RBI two. But with people standing waiting for more, Aaron Judge threw a couple of runners.
Later, LeMahieu had another chance to play the hero, sending a charge into the crowd with a ball flying into the right field in the seventh inning, but he fell into Margot’s glove on the warning court.