ST. PETERSBURG, Florida – The new Yankee needed his greatest success.
Rougned Odor, who played his first game since reaching a Rangers office, delivered a two-RBI single in the tenth inning on Sunday to drive in the winning race before the Yankees retired to win 8-4 on the rays.
He got a three-game losing streak and came after the Yankees had numerous previous chances to advance and fail.
Aaron Judge started 10th in second and Aaron Hicks was grazed on the leg by a Collin McHugh throw. Mike Tauchman wrapped the runners up for Gleyber Torres.
With the inside field, Torres left the field short and Willy Adames easily threw the judge to the plate.
Just as it looked like the Yankees were willing to miss another chance, Odor, designated for the Rangers before Opening Day, delivered his first hit as a Yankee to score Hicks.
Gary Sánchez followed with a single scorer to make it 6-4 and Gio Urshela arrived with his fourth hit of the day, an RBI single on the right that also scored Sánchez when Manuel Margot let the ball past.
Albert Abreu, just remembered from the alternate spot, finished the match with a goalless bottom in the 10th.
Before the match, Aaron Boone insisted that his lineup was ready to explode despite some recent shiny performances.
“If the guys we have, as talented as they are, routinely go up there chaining good bats, I promise you the results will be there,” Boone said. “And someone will have to pay for the struggles this first week.”
These turned out to be the rays, at least in the 10th.
An earlier entry, the Yankees bats were still lost as they found a way not to score on a wild top of the ninth.
Urshela started the match with a hard ball from the center that a diver Adames deflected to the right field, which allowed Urshela to quickly reach the second position by a double lead.
Brett Gardner did not go from Urshela to third and took a walk.
Then DJ LeMahieu hit a ground to third to force Urshela, but Kevin Padlo’s throwing error allowed Gardner to reach third and LeMahieu to second.
With the judge on the plate, Diego Castillo skipped a shot and Gardner started to come home, but receiver Mike Zunino caught him off the air and Gardner was caught in a summary for the second outing.
Judge followed by short ground to end the threat.
Torres had tied it with an RBI single in the eighth, but the Yankees’ struggles with runners in goal position continued.
The back-and-forth game also featured some drama, as warnings were issued to both banks after Jordan Montgomery punched Austin Meadows in the shoulder at the bottom of the first inning.
Then Montgomery hit Meadows again, this time on the left wrist, with two outings and no one in the fifth. The referees met, but let Montgomery stay in the game.
It was the fourth time this series had a Rays hitter receive a throw.
Montgomery also put the Yankees in a hole in the second.
He allowed a simple lead to Mike Brosseau and, after a couple of volleys, Zunino crushed a 3-2 change in the left seats to give the Rays a 2-0 lead.
It was short-lived as Tampa Bay opener Brent Honeywell Jr. was eliminated after two perfect innings in his MLB debut and was replaced by ex-acquaintance Michael Wacha.
The first four Wacha Yankees faced off at base, with Urshela throwing a two-run shot into the center that went about 453 feet, scoring Gary Sanchez to tie the game at 2-2.
Gardner got a single on the field and passed to the third by LeMahieu’s double rule on the right. A walk to the judge loaded the bases for Hicks, who founded on a double play.
This marked Gardner, but helped Wacha escape the entrance as he got Giancarlo Stanton to third on the ground to keep it 3-2.
Wacha retired the last nine batters he faced before being replaced by Cody Reed to start the seventh.