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Yankees: Rays troll NYY and continue cocky Twitter war after Kiermaier HR

Adam Weinrib
Adam Weinrib

Yanks Go Yard

Kevin Kiermaier #39 of the Tampa Bay Rays celebrates with Willy Adames #1 after hitting a 2-run home run in the fifth inning against the New York Yankees at Yankee Stadium on September 01, 2020 in New York City. (Photo by Mike Stobe/Getty Images)

The Yankees tried to clap back against the Rays’ gibberish despite being unable to beat them, and Tampa Bay got the last laugh — of course.

The Rays have been essentially impenetrable against the Yankees in 2020, fighting back constantly and in a blink, often treating the big-market squad like a JV club.

So it makes perfect sense that they’d bring that same energy to Twitter — even when it makes no sense at all.

Just a few batters after first pitch, fresh off six straight victories over the Yanks, the Rays’ Twitter account dropped a simple “lol” to let us know they were laughing at … something. Something we surely didn’t find funny.

But then the Yankees made a fatal mistake: They took the bait.

Right now, the NYY are being bullied in the season series against TB, and have very little to be proud of other than their playoff dogfight with the Toronto Blue Jays, a few late-inning wins against the Mets, and their lengthy list of wounded contributors.

And still the Yanks decided to tweet DJ LeMahieu’s first-inning home run with the same cryptic caption. As if being cocky in the first inning of nine innings was the right look for the Yankees in this scenario.

Naturally — and you’re not going to believe this — it came back to bite them.

When Kevin Kiermaier tied the game up with a two-run shot off Masahiro Tanaka, the Rays brought their favorite little trick right back out and showed it to New York. Didn’t even have to wait for the final score!

We don’t know where this argument came from or what it means. To the outside observer, it has the air of arguing with a five-year-old. Why are we saying the same thing? Who wins? Who wields the power here?

But, just like in that exact scenario, the Yankees fell victim to the pitfalls of attempting to make sense of nonsense. You get down in the mud with your rival who owns you, and they usually end up shining.

Can’t explain it. Don’t like it.

Adam Weinrib

Adam Weinrib

Adam Weinrib is a Content Director on the FanSided network, and has been the co-editor at Yanks Go Yard for 6 years. He also co-hosts The Baseball Insiders Podcast thrice weekly, alongside FanSided MLB insider Robert Murray, as well as the Yanks Go Yard Podcast. Previously, he was a Senior Editor at 12up.com, and has been covering MLB and NFL for 10 years. He was also a headline and features contributor at ClickHole and Onion Sports, as well as the Associate Producer of the ESPN 30 for 30 film "Believeland". An avowed fan of the New York sports teams -- specifically the Yankees -- as well as the North Carolina Tar Heels, you can find Adam complaining mid-game on Twitter, as well as on Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn if the game goes really poorly.