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Yankees Recap: Rays Spoil Yogi’s Birthday in Win over Yanks

By Michael Cambria

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Prior to Tuesdays night’s ballgame between the New York Yankees (21-12) and Tampa Bay Rays (17-16) down in St. Petersburg Florida, the Yankees thought they’d send Yogi Berra, who turned 90-years old today a very special video message wishing him a happy birthday. However Berra had a message of his own for the team. According to skipper Joe Girardi, Berra “Just told us to keep going.”

As inspiring as Yogi’s message was, Tuesday presented a tall task for the Yankees, as Chris Archer (3-4, 2.49 ERA) was entering the game 5-0 with a 1.93 ERA through his first five games against the Yankees. He was aiming to join the list of Bernie Boland, Bill Lee, Schoolboy Rowe, Tom Phoebus and Greg Hibbard as starting pitchers who won their first six games in a row v. the New York Yankees.

Taking the hill to oppose Archer and the Rays was Nathan Eovaldi, who entered Tuesday night a perfect 3-0 with a 3.97 ERA. This would be his first matchup of the season against Tampa Bay.

The New York Yankees continued their trend of scoring early and tacked on two early runs in the top of the first, one on a line drive single off the bat of Brian McCann that plated Jacoby Ellsbury and another off the red-hot bat of Carlos Beltran that scored Brett Gardner.

Nathan Eovaldi dominated his way through way six innings and was in complete control of the ballgame until the bottom of the seventh inning when he coughed up an RBI single to David DeJesus that brought in Evan Longoria and Logan Forsythe to knot the ballgame up at 2.

Despite giving up the lead, Eovaldi started the eighth inning and was able to retire the first hitter of the inning in Rene Rivera on a strikeout, but walked the next batter he faced in Kevin Kiermaier. Souza followed up the previous walk with a line drive single that moved Kiermaier over to third.

Joe Girardi called upon Dellin Betances in an attempt to keep the ball tied up at 2, but he uncharacteristically gave up a sacrifice fly to the first-batter he faced in Evan Longoria and threw multiple wild pitches later on in the inning that eventually plated Steven Souza Jr. Both runs were charged to Nathan Eovaldi, and the Rays wouldn’t look back.

Archer didn’t earn the win, but the combined efforts of Kevin Jespen and Brad Boxberger shut the door on the Yankees, as the Rays cruised to a 4-2 win.

All in all it was a pretty decent start for Eovaldi. His final line was 7.1 innings pitched, 6 hits, 4 Earned Runs, 2 walks and 6 strikeouts in what became his first loss of the season.

The Yankees dropped to 21-13 but still hold a 3.0 game lead on the Rays for first in the AL East. Both teams will square off again tomorrow night in a matchup that will feature Adam Warren (2-1, 4.65 ERA) v. Nathan Karns (2-1, 3.79 ERA). First pitched is scheduled for 7:10 pm.

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