ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. _ The Yankees' chances of making the playoffs all but disappeared over the weekend, the result of a four-game sweep at the hands of the Red Sox.
But there remains compelling reasons to watch, Gary Sanchez first among them.
Central is this question: Just what kind of numbers, in less than two months work, will he end 2016 with?
The rookie catcher, already with head-shaking numbers, added to them Tuesday night, crushing a tiebreaking three-run homer in the seventh inning to propel the Yankees to a 5-3 victory over the Rays in front of 12,732 at Tropicana Field.
With two on and two outs in the seventh, the 23-year-old Sanchez stepped in against Tampa right-hander Brad Boxberger, who threw a first-pitch curveball.
Sanchez, 0-for-2 with a walk to that point, pounced on the pitch and hammered it out to left-center for his 17th home run in a span of 136 at-bats (his first homer was Aug. 10) to give the Bombers a 5-2 lead.
The Yankees (78-72), who snapped a five-game losing streak, entered the night 4 { games behind Baltimore and Toronto for the AL wild card, but with three teams (Detroit, Houston and Seattle) between them and those two clubs.
"I don't think any of us are ready to give up on the season," Joe Girardi said before the game. "I think it's important that we put together some wins here and we put a streak together so we stay relevant. I think that's the most important thing as we move forward here and give ourselves a chance that last week."
After Tyler Clippard allowed a run in the bottom of the eighth, Dellin Betances threw a perfect ninth for his 12th save.
Michael Pineda snapped his streak of three straight starts in which he didn't make it out of the fifth inning, but only barely.
The right-hander, who came in 6-11 with a 4.94 ERA, was mostly terrific but a high pitch count limited him to 5 1/3 innings. Pineda allowed two runs and five hits. He struck out 11, one short of his season high, and walked one.
Luis Severino (3-8) came next and threw 1 1/3 scoreless innings.
Rays left-hander Drew Smyly allowed one run and four hits in six innings, departing with a 2-1 lead, which his bullpen soon eviscerated.
The Rays (64-86) took a 2-0 lead in the third, the rally starting when leadoff man Logan Forsythe singled with one out. Kevin Kiermaier struck out and Evan Longoria, who doubled in the first inning, followed by yanking one down the third-base line. Donovan Solano, starting at third as Chase Headley is out with a lower-back issue, made a diving stop to his right. But Solano's throw was high, pulling Mark Teixeira off the bag, the play scored as a hit.
Brad Miller followed with a towering drive, on a hanging full-count slider, to left-center, where center fielder Mason Williams couldn't quite get to it, the two-run triple making it 2-0.
Teixeira cut that deficit in half in the fourth with two outs, ripping a 1-and-2 fastball down the leftfield line, that flew past the upper part of the foul pole, for his 13th homer of the season and 407th of his career.
With Smyly out of the game, the Yankees jumped on the Rays' bullpen. Right-hander Brad Boxberger started the seventh and Ronald Torreyes greeted him with a single. Solano fouled out to first and Williams banged a single back up the middle, putting two on for Brett Gardner. He got ahead 2-and-0 before sending a 2-and-2 pitch to right for an RBI single that tied it at 2 and put runners on the corners for Aaron Hicks, who struck out. That turned out to be a mere footnote as Sanchez came next and did what Yankees fans have come to expect.
