By Zachary McMahon-
The New York Yankees hosted the Tampa Bay Rays in the second game of the first series of the second half of the MLB season on Saturday Afternoon at Yankee Stadium in Bronx, NY. The Yankees took the first game of the series 6-1 over the Rays on Friday night.
The Rays placed Yandy Diaz on the restricted list for “personal reasons” after he did not accompany the team on the flight from Tampa to New York. So, Curtis Mead was called up from Triple-A Durham before the game, and he was in the DH spot for this game
Taj Bradley pitched seven shutout innings for the Rays with a one-hitter and five strikeouts, while Nestor Cortes had a rough outing with eight hits, six earned runs and just one strikeout.
The Rays started their run by a RBI double by Mead in the third, and then they went off for four home runs in the game.
It started with a three-run homer by Austin Jackson, then a solo homer by Issac Parades, and then two home runs by Randy Arozarena as the Rays were up 8-0 in the middle of the seventh inning. Arozarena had his seventh multi-homer game of his career in the seventh off Josh Maciejewski in his fourth career appearance for the Yankees.
Jackson was 2-for-32 against left handers this before hitting a home run off the lefthander Cortes.
Josh DeLuca, who went 0-for-5 in the game, brought home Mead on a groundout in the ninth as they ended the half inning leading 9-0. Jahmai Jones, who came in for Aaron Judge on defense for the Yankees, was able to break the shutout with a RBI groundout in which Juan Soto scored, but the Yankees could not cut the deficit any further as the Rays won 9-1.
Bradley had had a 0.92 ERA in his last eight starts since June 8th with a pitcher who had gone 30+ innings in that span, leading Paul Skenes who had 1.14, Bradley has a 4-0 record in that span.
DJ LeMathieu went 0-for-3 with two strikeouts as he does not have a hit in his last 17 at-bats, dropping his average to .177, as he got booed at Yankees Stadium. Alex Verdugo, who was dropped from cleanup to sixth in the order, went 0-for-3, including grounding into a double play. Oswaldo Cabrera and Austin Wells also hit into double plays for the Yankees, as they grounded into three in the game, and lead the majors with 92 in the season.
Carlos Narvaez made his major league debut when he came in on defense for Wells, and singled to right for his first major league hit. Narvaez has been in the minor leagues since he signed as an international free agent from Venezuela in July 2015. He was called up from Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre on July 13 after the Yankees place Jose Trevino on the 10-day injured list with a left quad strain.
The teams will be playing the third game of the four-game series on Sunday as it will be Macrus Stroman going up against Shane Baz at 1:35 pm first pitch.
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