ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — Little went right for the Rays on Wednesday in their 3-1 loss to the Yankees in 10 innings.
New York went ahead quickly in the 10th, Aaron Judge knocking in the go-ahead run with a hard single off the glove of shortstop Wander Franco that scored Gio Urshela, who was the runner on second to start the inning.
Reliever Pete Fairbanks started the inning by hitting Greg Allen to put two on, then gave up Judge’s single, which Franco took a couple of steps to his left for but couldn’t corral. Compounding the Rays’ problems, Fairbanks then left the game injured.
Andrew Kittredge took over, and his wild pitch allowed Allen to score from third.
Tampa Bay went down rather meekly, with just three hits on the night, including none after the fourth inning.
The Rays had a chance to gain ground on the American League East-leading Red Sox, who lost the first game of a doubleheader against Toronto. Instead, the Rays dropped to 60-42 and 2½ games back as the Red Sox won the nightcap.
The Rays went into the ninth with some momentum. The Yankees had the go-ahead run on second with one out after a Gary Sanchez single and a balk by Matt Wisler, but Brandon Lowe snared a line drive and dove to second base to double off pinch-runner Tyler Wade. That didn’t help as the Rays couldn’t do anything in their half of the ninth against Chad Green, the only right-hander they saw all night.
Michael Wacha gave the Rays a strong five-inning start, allowing one unearned run and three hits, walking one and striking out a season-high nine before a Tropicana Field crowd of 11,525. It was his second strong start against the Yankees this season; on April 16 he worked six shutout innings, allowing one hit and also striking out nine.
Throw in two relief appearances, and Wacha this season is 1-0, 2.16 against the Yankees versus 2-1, 5.60 against all other teams.
Wacha allowed his only run in the fifth. Urshela reached when third baseman Joey Wendle made a good grab but threw wildly past first, went to third when Allen doubled and — after Wacha struck out Judge, who was pinch-hitting after being a late scratch from the lineup — scored on a sac fly by DJ LeMahieu.
Yankees lefty starter Nestor Cortes was equally effective, allowing just one run and three hits over his five innings.
Franco beat out a slow grounder for an infield single, then raced home when Lowe laced a two-out double into the rightfield corner. Lowe went to third on the throw home, and Randy Arozarena was hit by a pitch to put runners on the corners. But Wendle lined out to end the threat.
The Yankees decided using mostly lefties was the right move against the Rays, and it seemed to work.
Reliever Lucas Luetge followed Cortes, and he set the Rays down in order over two innings, and with four strikeouts.
Next was lefty setup man Zach Britton. After Francisco Mejia drew a leadoff walk, the Rays let lefty Brett Phillips bat, and he grounded into a double play.
