ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. – It took the latest Yankee to score their biggest hit.
Rougned Odor, who has played his first game since arriving in the Rangers series, delivered a double RBI single in the 10th innings to ride in the winning run before the Yankees pulled away for an 8-4 victory over the Rays.
It broke a three-game losing streak and came after the Yankees had numerous previous chances to take the lead – and failed.
Aaron Judge started 10th in second place and Aaron Hicks was grazed on the leg by a pitch by Collin McHugh. Mike Tauchman persuaded the runners for Gleyber Torres.
With the interior inside, Torres fell short, and Willy Adames easily threw Judge out on the board.
Just as it seemed the Yankees were ready to squander another chance, Odor, who was named by the Rangers before the opening day, delivered his first hit as the Yankee to score Hicks.
Gary Sanchez followed with a running points lead to make it 6-4 and Gio Urshela came on with his fourth hit of the day, an RBI single to the right that Sanchez also scored when Manuel Margot brought the ball to him.
Albert Abreu, who had just been recalled from the alternative website, finished the match with a pointless bottom of the 10th.
Aaron Boone insisted before the game that his setup would be ready to break out despite recent poor performances.
“If the guys we have, as talented as they are, go up there regularly to tie good bats together, I promise you, the results will be there,” Boone said. “And someone will have to pay for the first week’s problems.”
It turns out to be the rays – at least in the 10th.
An innings earlier, the Yankees’ bats were still lost as they found a way not to score in a wild top of the ninth.
Urshela started the innings with a hard ground ball in the middle that deflected a diving Adames into the right field, and a roaring Urshela was able to become second for a lead.
Brett Gardner did not beat Urshela in third place and rather worked a walk.
DJ LeMahieu then hits a foundation to third to force Urshela, but Kevin Padlo’s throwing error allows Gardner to become third and LeMahieu to become second.
While Judge was going on, Diego Castillo jumped a pitch and Gardner started coming home, but catcher Mike Zunino grabbed it from the air and Gardner caught for a second time.
Judge followed by short of land to end the threat.
Torres tied it with an RBI single in the eighth, but the Yankees’ battle with runners-up in the standings continued.
The back-and-forth game also contained some drama, as warnings were given to both banks after Jordan Montgomery drilled Austin Meadows in the shoulder down in the first innings.
Montgomery then beat Meadows again, this time in the left wrist, with two out and no one in the fifth. The referees met, but let Montgomery stay in the game.
This was the fourth time this series had hit a pitch of Rays with a pitch.
Montgomery also put the Yankees in a hole in second place.
He allowed a lead single for Mike Brosseau, and after a few playoffs, Zunino struck a 3-2 upset in the seats to the left to lead the Rays 2-0.
It was short-lived as Brent Honeywell Jr., the opening batsman from Tampa Bay, was removed after two perfect innings in his MLB bow and replaced by former Michael Wacha.
The first four Yankees facing Wacha reached the base, with Urshela blowing a two-run shot to the center, which was estimated to have traveled 453 feet, and Gary Sanchez scored to make it 2-2. 2 too late to be equal.
Gardner reaches on an inside single and moves to third on LeMahieu’s ground line, double to the right. A walk to Judge laid the foundation for Hicks, who grounded in a double play.
It scored for Gardner, but Wacha helped the innings escape as he got Giancarlo Stanton on a hard-fought third to keep it 3-2.
Wacha retired the last nine batsmen before being replaced by Cody Reed to start seventh place.