ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. _ The Rays wiped away of the pain of their bad Friday with a 7-2 win over the Yankees on Saturday.
The day started well, with a relatively good news diagnosis of Tyler Glasnow's arm injury being only a mild strain that is expected to keep him out four-six weeks, and the arrival of veteran catcher Travis d'Arnaud to provide coverage with Mike Zunino and Michael Perez injured.
Then it got better as the Rays took an early lead, then responded when the Yankees tied it, then went back ahead and added on for the win before a Tropicana Field sellout crowd of 25,025, re-opening a 1 { game lead in the AL East.
"Good major league clubs find ways to overcome adversity," Rays manager Kevin Cash said before the game. "And there's no doubt this is adversity when you lose two of your catchers and then you lose arguably the best pitcher in baseball over the first six weeks of the season."
The Rays offense was a combination of muscle and hustle.
Yandy Diaz hit two homers, giving him a team-high nine, and Avisail Garcia another. And they scored twice in the pivotal sixth inning on ground ball singles.
The Rays got on the board with a pair of solo homers off Yankees starter CC Sabathia. Garcia led off the second with a shot to center that was his sixth of the season, and then Diaz did the same in the third to left for his eighth, matching Brandon Lowe for the team lead.
The Yankees tied it off Yonny Chirinos, who worked four innings behind opener Ryne Stanek. Gleyber Torres singled to start the fifth then raced through a stop sign from third-base coach Phil Nevin and scored on Clint Frazier's double for the first run. D.J. LeMahieu homered leading off the sixth for the second.
The Rays came back, taking advantage of the Yankees failing to make some plays, to score twice with two outs. Garcia opened the sixth with a single, then stole second with two outs and went to third on an errant throw. A walk by Guillermo Heredia put runners on the corners.
They got the first run when Willy Adames hit a grounder up the middle that LeMahieu fielded but couldn't make the toss to second to force Heredia, allowing Garcia to score. That paid off again when Ji-Man Choi grounded to the right side and beat the throw to first, and Heredia kept running and he scored.
The Rays (24-14) and Yankees (23-16) wrap up the first of back-to-back weekend series on Sunday with Blake Snell facing Masahiro Tanaka.
