The Yankees beat the Rays and have now won six of their first seven series
The Yankees won two out of three games against Tampa Bay at Yankee Stadium after scoring five runs in each of their two wins. They came very close to winning the second game but lost in extra innings 2–0.
They have won an impressive six of their first seven series this season and are now 15–7 before their next series against the Athletics, who are not a good team but their eight wins is more than many would have predicted. Oakland, who is six games below .500, actually has one more win than the Astros, who lost in the ALCS last season to the Rangers.
So far this season the Yankees have nine wins in away games, which is tied for the second most away wins in MLB. They have the second best record in the American League and the only team in the junior circuit that has a better record is the Guardians, who have a 16–6 record compared to the Yankees 15–7 record. The Guardians’ +52 run differential is much better than the +21 run differential that the Yankees have. The Yankees are 7–1 in one run games so far this season.
The Yankees starting pitchers have an impressive 3.01 ERA in 22 starts this season. They have allowed three earned runs or fewer in 19 of those starts and two earned runs or fewer in 15 of those starts. The 79 runs that they have allowed this season are tied for the third fewest in the American League out of the 15 teams.
Since the series in Toronto against the Blue Jays is the only series the Yankees have lost so far this season the Yankees have a 5–4 record against the AL East so far this season. The Yankees won this series 2–1 over the Rays, they won their series 2–1 at home against the Blue Jays in the beginning of April and then lost the series in Toronto 2–1.
If the Yankees did not have a pathetic offensive performance in Saturday’s loss to the Rays then they would have won the series and had their second sweep of the season. The Yankees were 0–5 with runners in scoring position and the six through nine hitters in the lineup went a combined 0–13. Juan Soto, who has had an MVP caliber season so far, went 2–4 but the rest of the lineup went a combined 2–29.
Aaron Judge, who went 0–4 with four strikeouts in the loss on Saturday, has really been struggling and the Yankees need him to improve at the plate for the offense to reach its full potential. He will likely improve soon because of the quality of hitter he is and manager Aaron Boone did not seem concerned about Judge.
It was surprising that the crowd booed Judge, who is the Yankees captain and had 37 homers and 75 RBI last season even though he missed 56 games due to a freak injury after colliding into the chain part of the fence at Dodger Stadium, after his fourth strikeout on Saturday. Judge took it in stride and said he had been booed worse before.
“I’ve heard worse and I would probably do the same in their situation,” Judge said.
In Saturday’s loss Nestor Cortes did all he could to help the Yankees get the win. Cortes threw seven scoreless innings while only allowing six hits, not allowing one walk and recording nine strikeouts. He has now pitched at least seven scoreless innings in two of his last three starts and Saturday’s start was even more impressive than when he threw eight scoreless innings against the Marlins because the Rays are 12–11 and are a good baseball team while the Marlins are 6–17.
(The Marlins offense is better this season than their pitching staff but their offense is still not the same quality as the Rays offense. The Marlins were 2–11 after their series ended with the Yankees but since then they have gone 4–6, which is an improvement.)
Cortes is the second Yankees pitcher to pitch at least seven scoreless innings with at least six strikeouts in consecutive starts at the current Yankee Stadium. The other was CC Sabathia in 2011. Cortes has a 3.41 ERA and a very good 1.07 WHIP in five starts this season after having a 4.97 ERA and a 1.25 WHIP in 12 starts last season.
Judge went 1–4 with two strikeouts in today’s game and in the series against the Rays he went 2–11 with seven strikeouts. Judge had a low .207 average and a very good .373 OBP after the game on April 14 but his average is now .183 and his OBP is not a much lower and not very good .320 after going 4–24 (.167) with 14 strikeouts and just one walk in his last six games.
On the other hand, Soto, who hits one spot in the lineup ahead of Judge, has been hitting very well this season and has not taken anytime needing to adjust to playing with the Yankees. He was 0–4 in Sunday’s game but in his previous four games he had a four-game hitting streak and was 7–15 with two doubles, two homers and five RBI in that span. In his 22 games this season, he has five homers, 20 RBI, five doubles, a very good .337 average, a very impressive .456 OBP and a .578 SLG%.
Through Friday’s game, Soto’s numbers with runners in scoring position this season were remarkable. In his first 20 games this season, his slash line was .563/.636/1.188 (9-for-16) with three homers, 17 RBI, and five walks.
This is what Clarke Schmidt said about Soto after Friday’s game: “He’s a special player. Just sign on the dotted line, however much he wants.”
In the series finale on Sunday, Luis Gil got his first big league win in three years. He only pitched in one total game the previous two seasons due to having Tommy John surgery, which is why his previous win before today came on August 3, 2021, which was his first career start. He got a win in his debut and then did not get the win in his next five starts in 2021.
He now has a very good 2.75 ERA in his four starts this season after allowing zero earned runs and just two hits in 5.2 innings pitched. He has so much movement on his pitches, which helped him have a career-high nine strikeouts today, and he showed quality improvement in command from his previous start.
Gil only allowed three walks in today’s start in 5.2 innings after allowing an alarming seven walks in 5.0 innings in his previous start. It was an impressive that he only allowed three earned runs in 5.0 innings in his previous start after allowing those seven walks and three hits. Gil now has at least six strikeouts in each of his four starts this season and this was his first start that he pitched into the sixth inning. Gil should be able to continue to have success if he can continue to allow three or fewer walks going forward while limiting his hits like he has so far.
He made an adjustment between his previous start and today’s start and the adjustment led to him having more success and pitching deeper into the game. He was told to square his shoulders more, and this was able to help him have 14 swings and misses, including 11 with his fastball.
”It’s a really good peek at how good he is when he is filling up the strike zone,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said.
Six of Gil’s strikeouts came on fastballs, two of his strikeouts came on changeups and one came on his slider. He threw 64 of his 97 pitches for strikes four of his nine strikeouts were called.
“Throughout that time, you stay positive. You keep your head up, you keep doing all the work and you’re looking for it to pay off,” Gil said after the game about all his missed time due to injury the last two years.
Dennis Santana made the game a nail biter since he allowed three earned runs in the eighth inning to make the score 5–4 but Victor Gonzalez was able to come through in the clutch filing in for Clay Holmes and pitch a scoreless ninth inning to ensure the Yankees got the win. The Yankees got Gonzalez in a trade with the Dodgers in the offseason and the lefty has dominated so far with a 1.08 ERA in nine games this season out of the bullpen.
Santana allowed three earned runs to increase his ERA from 3.00 to 5.40. Santana allowed two earned runs in his first game this season but then allowed just one earned run in his next five games (before today) and those five games were a total of 7.1 innings. Before today’s game, Santana, who pitched last season with the Mets and is in his seventh MLB season, had been a reliable pitcher for Boone in the bullpen but he took a step back and was not effective against the Rays.
The Yankees were a very good 4–9 with runners in scoring position in today’s game. The 7–9 hitters in the lineup drove in four of the team’s five runs going a combined 6–12 and 3–4 with runners in scoring position. The Yankees scored one run in the first inning on an Anthony Rizzo RBI single and then they scored four runs in the fifth inning.
Alex Verdugo was 3–4 with two RBI. He had two RBI in this game after having only two RBI in his previous 11 games. He had his second three hit game of the season and his fourth overall multi-hit game in his 22 games this season.
Oswaldo Cabrera, who has a .303 average in 18 games, had the other multi hit game as he went 2–4 with an RBI. He now has 14 RBI in 18 game this season after having just 29 RBI in 115 games last season. He also has three homers this season after having just five homers in his 115 games last season. He has performed better than expected this season filing in for DJ LeMahieu, who has been on the injured list since towards the end of spring training.
It was announced on Sunday night that after a slight delay in his recovery LeMahieu will join the Double-A Somerset Patriots for a rehab assignment on Tuesday at Reading. LeMahieiu was first put on the injured list on March 28 (retroactive to March 25) due to a right foot contusion.
