Yesterday was not a good day for the New York Yankees. The Tampa Bay Rays swept the Yankees during a matinee game at Yankee Stadium. The Yankees also found out that set up man Zack Britton had a hamstring injury. Hamstrings usually take a few weeks to heal. Later in the day during the game, Gleyber Torres was pulled from the game with a supposed injury after stumbling running the bases. After the third loss in a row to the Rays, Paxton was found to have an elbow problem. He was sent for an MRI.
Not only does it seem the New York Yankees can’t ward off the injury bug, they also can’t ward off the Tampa Bay Rays. For the third day in a row, the Rays were victorious over the Yankees. Yesterday’s game marked the first time since 2017 that the Yankees have been swept at Yankee Stadium. The 2017 sweep was by the Cleveland Indians.
After an encouraging start by James Paxton on August 15th, against the Red Sox, when he went five innings giving up three runs, Paxton imploded in the fifth, giving up three runs. This time the bad inning may have been caused by an elbow injury. In his Red Sox start, he cruised along scoreless for two innings with an increased fastball. Yesterday he increased that to four innings, but the result was the same, a failed start.
Paxton looked good at the start as he put down the Rays hitters, one, two, three in the first inning. The most exciting time for the Yankees came in the bottom of the first inning when Luke Voit stepped to the plate and hit a monster blast into monument park, his fifth home run in the last four games. In the bottom of the third while base running Gleyber Torres endured some type of injury, but Mike Tauchman scored making it 2-0 Yankees.
At the top of the fourth inning James Paxton again put down the Rays in order, and it was beginning to look like the Yankees finally would win a game against the Rays. But then everything went south. At the top of the fifth Paxton got his seventh strikeout, then with two on, Joey Wendle hit a double into the left-field corning, scoring Adames and Margot, all the way from first. Just like that the game was tied. Wendle scored on a sac fly, and the Rays took the lead.
At the bottom of the fifth, the Yankees would take the lead back when Gio Urshela hit his fourth home run of the season, a two-run shot well into the left-field stands. Yankees 4, Rays 3. But things would get much worse for the Yankees when the bullpen failed them. Adam Ottavino in relief of Paxton gave up three runs in two-thirds of an inning, in the sixth, Luis Avilan followed completing the inning by giving up another two runs to the Rays. Jonathan Holder then pitched two clean innings followed by Luis Cessa giving up another two runs in the ninth for the final score of Ray 10 and the Yankees 5.
This third game exacerbated an already bad pitching picture for the Yankees, the starter failed and the bullpen failed mightily. Adam Ottavino took the loss and Castillo the win for the Rays.