Call this one a message in a bumblebee.
Get all the stipulations out of the way: just one game Friday at Tropicana Field. Only seven games in the season. The Yankees remain strong, mathematically alive to win the 2021 Championship.
If any Yankee is trying to tell you that the club does not want to open this season with a haymaker at the Rays, you need to link the person to a lie detector test after everything that happened last year. Instead, it was the bunch of Aaron Boone, without Aaron Judge once again striking a huge blow at a 10-5 loss, on the day the Rays raised their banner as the defending American league champion.
“We always want to send a message. “We always want you to know who you’re playing for,” Boone said after the stink. ‘But the message is being sent throughout our year, and we have to play [consistently] and play well. If we do, we are the team we expect. ”
The Yankees, who as you know lost eight of ten fights in the regular season and then the AL series to the 2020 Rays, certainly did not present themselves as a challenger on this day. Rather, they serve as an ointment for the Rays, who opened their home schedule as the owners of a 2-4 record, underperformance and injury that determined their first week. Joey Wendle, third baseman from Tampa Bay, said: ‘Such a special game and fun. It was generally one that I think we will remember.
Strong hitting power, shaky hitting and defense and another headache from the Judge defined the Yankees’ first week, when they were 3-3 on their home field outside the gate, and The Trop healed nothing that bothered them.
Corey Kluber, who also chased the Rays last year when the Yankees brought him a staggering $ 11 million, fared poorly in his second start as the Yankees, and did not make it through the third innings as he led his team took one lead (a four- run at the top of third place to set up the visitors, 4-2) and gave it back and then a few at the bottom of the frame. In the spirit of spreading the blame, Kluber did not receive much help from his defense as DJ LeMahieu’s second innings error on Yandy Diaz’s baseball occurred after the third – LeMahieu switched to the hot corner because Gio Urshela side- effects of the coronavirus vaccine – start with a duel rally. In the next play of that rally, LeMahieu’s keystone replacement, Tyler Wade, could not stop a Wendle foundation from reaching the right field.
The game-turning, third innings rally began after beleagured Yankees shortstop Gleyber Torres failed to trap Yoshi Tsutsugo’s dirty doll after a long run on the left; given another chance, Tsutsugo hit a single to the right field. Although the official goal scorer Torres rightly did not charge a foul, you could not help but wonder if a more capable shortstop would make the catch.
“It’s a very difficult play,” Boone said. “It is clear that [that and the LeMahieu miscue are] those we expect to make. ”
The Yankees attack continued its hot-and-cold nature by putting together a beautiful, two-time Rays starter Rich Hill starter in the top of the third innings: Wade singles, LeMahieu doubles, Giancarlo Stanton doubles single and Aaron Hicks two-way homer. However, when the Rays succeeded in the setback, the Yankees did not regain the favor, and Nick Nelson – who, like almost everyone else in the team’s squad, struck extraordinarily through the home field – let the game get out of control with a four-run fourth. The Yankees have scored four forwards, including a solo homer from LeMahieu, over the last six innings.
Throw another that was not played from the right due to his enigmatic injury on the left, and the Yankees found little silver lining at the office. No reasons to make the rays tremble because of their reintroduction.
“We moved past that,” said Brandon Lowe, Tampa Bay’s second baseman, about last year’s Yankees Rays rivalry. “What happened, happened. It’s done. We’re going on. ”
The Yankees, still shaky, blow their first shot to move on the rays. For such a talented group, they have definitely sent an inviting message so far.