ST PETERSBURG — A 6-0 lead ought to have been greater than sufficient to beat the Rays, particularly with Gerrit Cole on the mound. But little has gone effectively for the Yankees outdoors of their ace this 12 months, and Cole lastly contributed to a sorry stretch that he had in any other case solely interrupted with a dominant run till Sunday’s 8-7 collection finale loss towards the primary place Rays.
Cole surrendered his first two dwelling runs of the season, the primary coming off the bat of No. 9 hitter Jose Siri within the fifth inning. Cole had gone 51 innings with out giving up a longball to open the season after main the American League in dingers final 12 months, however Siri’s shot was solely of the solo selection. However, the Rays added one other run on a fluky play involving Gleyber Torres and Oswaldo Cabrera, and extra hassle adopted within the sixth.
First, Isaac Paredes’s RBI double minimize the Yankees’ result in three. It then evaporated altogether when Christian Bethancourt, the Ray’s No. 8 hitter, crushed a three-run homer off Cole to straightaway heart. The blast knocked Cole out of the sport, and he accomplished simply 5 innings whereas tallying 5 earned runs, two walks and 6 strikeouts.
Cole attributed the demanding innings to poor depend leverage and his breaking balls missing command, as “those pitches were over the heart of the plate,” he mentioned.
“It feels awful,” Cole added of blowing the Yankees’ six-run lead. “Just gotta find a way to do a better job to get us out of there and get us a little bit deeper and prevent the runs. But the lack of command really burned us and balls over the plate were touched.”
Cole’s ERA rose from 1.35 to 2.09 within the course of. In hindsight, Aaron Boone mentioned he “probably” ought to have pulled Cole earlier within the sixth – earlier than Bethancourt’s homer.
“But it’s also our ace, and he’s been so good managing situations this year,” the skipper continued. “He’s pitched great, but even in the outings where he’s had a little bit of trouble, I feel like he’s done a great job navigating.”
The Rays weren’t performed scoring within the sixth, as Jimmy Cordero did not look Siri again on a chopper to the primary base aspect of the mound. Siri, who took off from second and by no means stopped, scored on the throw to first — and barreled over the house plate ump within the course of.
“Gotta be more aware in that situation,” Boone mentioned of the play.
The Yankees tied the sport within the seventh, however the Rays walked it off within the tenth when Paredes singled off Albert Abreu.
The Yanks had an opportunity to take the lead within the tenth, however a chaotic contact play involving Aaron Hicks failed to provide a run.
Boone mentioned that Hicks made the proper name breaking on contact, whereas the outfielder defined the odd sequence, which noticed him tagged by pitcher Garrett Cleavinger, who damage himself on the play. No name was signaled on the preliminary tag, although, so Hicks scampered dwelling, the place he was additionally tagged.
“I felt a lot of contact,” Hicks mentioned of the primary tag. “I took a look on the umpire, and he nonetheless hadn’t mentioned something, so I simply bought up and tried to get dwelling.
“I was on contact right there, so as soon as Gleyber’s getting ready to swing, I kind of have to get ready to go. About halfway, I realized I was pretty dead, so just tried to stay in a rundown.”
The Yankees’ shedding effort spoiled dwelling runs from Anthony Rizzo and Harrison Bader, in addition to RBI doubles from Gleyber Torres and Hicks. Hicks’ was his first extra-base hit of the 12 months. The .143 hitter mentioned he’s been “feeling better at the plate” and “making better contact,” which confirmed Sunday.
“Now it’s all about just getting hits and results,” Hicks mentioned.
Josh Fleming, the Rays’ bulk man, gave up six earned runs within the sport. It was the primary time the Yankees scored a minimum of seven runs in a sport since April 26.
“We progressed as a group throughout the series, Cole said of the Yankees’ weekend at The Trop, which featured three one-run games. “I just let ‘em down today by coughing up the lead.”
Having sunk an opportunity to take a wanted collection from a division rival, the Yankees return dwelling Monday to start a collection towards the Athletics, one other final place staff – although a far worse one.
Nestor Cortes is scheduled to start out the opener towards former teammate JP Sears. Clarke Schmidt will oppose Drew Rucinski on Tuesday, whereas Jhony Brito and Kyle Muller are Wednesday’s possible starters.
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Source: www.bostonherald.com