On Saturday evening, Tampa Bay Rays hosted an MLB game at Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg with Corey Kluber starting on the mound as the main pitcher.
In that second out of three-game series, Kluber dominated the game by pitching seven scoreless innings. Meanwhile, Aaron Judge was the only Yankees batter who managed to score by tallying his 52nd home run this season.
With Kluber’s stellar performance that led the Rays to win the game, they managed to cut down their point deficit in the AL East to four games behind the Yankees.
The Yankees, the AL East’s top-ranked team, have lost six of their last seven games despite having a 15 1/2-game lead. Prior to Saturday’s loss, the Yankees were defeated by the Rays in a scoreless loss 9-0 on Friday, which coach Aaron Boone described as “embarrassing.”
However, the Yankees outfielder Giancarlo Stanton and Boone both said that they could still maintain their position even though they lost this game.
“We’re not where we want to be,” Stanton said as quoted by Score. “But we’re still in a fine opportunity, so it’s ours for the taking.”
For the Rays, this Saturday’s win was the second game won by them from six games in 10 days. After this game, the Yankees still topped the conference with a 79-54 win-loss record, while the Rays sit behind in the second position with 74 wins and 57 losses.
Game recap
Kluber, who started his game with a 10-7 win-loss record, struck out four times when pitching for seven innings. It was the first time the 36-year-old pitcher played for seven innings since his performance on May 19, 2021, when he was playing for the Yankees. With the result, Kluber helped the Rays improve their AL-best record from August 3 to 20-9 win-loss record.
In the third inning, Rays’ batter Yandy Diaz hit singles on a ground ball on the ball thrown by Yankees’ pitcher Clarke Schmidt that flew to Yankees right side of the field that led Rays’ Francisco Mejia and Jose Siri scores. With the two-player run, the Rays led the game 2-0
Kluber allowed two hits from Yankees’ batters and took down 14 players in a row before Yankees outfielder Aaron Hicks reached the second on Rays baseman Jonathan Aranda’s throwing error when Judge’s hit single in the sixth inning.
In the ninth inning, Judge tallied his 52nd home run when hit on the fly ball thrown by Rays’ reliever Jason Adam to the center field to make the score to 2-1.
Moreover, the Yankees did not manage to tie or win the game due to Adam’s performance as he retired the next three Yankees batters. Moreover, Rays’ second reliever Peter Fairbanks subbed as the last pitcher and Stanton struck out swinging in the ninth.
Both Yankees and Rays will have their matchup in the last game out of the three-series game on Sunday. The Yankees will likely start RHP Frankie Montas (4-11) on the mound to face the Rays’ RHP Shawn Armstrong (2-1).