Some strange things happened Yankee Stadium after the seventh inning, with the Rays and Yankee trading leads.
NEW YORK – How many times were the Yankees on the verge of winning or losing Wednesday night’s game?
After being blanked through seven innings by the Tampa Bay Rays’ pitching, the Yankees scored five runs from the eighth inning on, finally winning it in the 11th.
Playing his fifth game as a Yankee, Ryan McMahon delivered a none-out single that scored automatic runner Jazz Chisholm Jr. from third base, allowing the Yanks to walk off with a 5-4 victory.
With runners at first and second as McMahon came to bat, a balk by Kevin Kelly, the Rays’ sixth reliever Wednesday, set the Yanks up for a win that was in and out of their grasp since the eighth.
That’s when Trent Grisham belted a go-ahead two-run homer off Bryan Baker, only to watch the Rays take a 3-2 lead in the ninth on Josh Lowe’s two-run homer off closer Devin Williams.
Anthony Volpe’s one-out homer in the ninth tied it off Rays closer Pete Fairbanks, the subject of trade talk before Thursday’s 7 p.m. MLB deadline – as is Rays’ starter Zack Littell, who tossed five scoreless innings Wednesday.
But the Yanks’ chance at winning it in the ninth ended when Austin Wells forgot how many outs there were on a sacrifice bunt by Grisham, and was tagged out between first and second base.
The Rays scored once in the 10th, but left fielder Jasson Dominguez made perhaps his finest catch of the year, banging into the wall on a Jonathan Aranda sac fly, but saving two more runs in the process.
Cody Bellinger’s one-out, RBI triple tied it 4-4 in the bottom of the 10th, but he was stranded there by Giancarlo Stanton and Chisholm Jr.
But the Yanks’ fifth reliever, the unsung Tim Hill, held the Rays scoreless in the 11th and eventually earned the win.
Yankees starter Will Warren yielded just one run over six innings, matching a season high with 102 pitches in his 23rd start of the year.
String of throwing errors continues for Yankees' Anthony Volpe
One night after committing two throwing errors – but also delivering an RBI single and a long home run in a 7-5 Yanks’ win – Volpe heard the boos again for his eighth inning error.
With two out and nobody on base, Volpe charged a softly hit grounder and threw a one-bouncer that first baseman Ben Rice couldn’t handle.
Having acknowledged his shortstop is in a defensive slump, “I think Anthony’s super tough. He’s wired for this,’’ said manager Aaron Boone.
“He’s got a really high standard for himself. You get in your own way a little bit, especially when you’ve made mistakes,’’ said Boone. “But when you get out there, and it’s game time, go make plays.’’
Boone said his message to Volpe, the 2023 AL Gold Glove Award winner at shortstop, is that “you’re really good at this…he’s a playmaker.
“He’s made some mistakes on balls he needs to nail down, but it happens to guys at different points in their career. I feel like his mental toughness…will get him through this.’’
Boone added that he would “continue to pay attention’’ to the Volpe situation defensively, and “make decisions where I see necessary.’’
To date, benching Volpe for the .152-hitting Oswald Peraza isn’t an option.
“I have not wanted to do that or decided to do that,’’ Boone said before the game, while acknowledging that “clearly, he’s gone through some struggles here…and not make some plays.’’
This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: Yankees survive in 11 innings, walking off the Rays
Category: Baseball
