NEW YORK — With all due respect to the still-injured Roman Quinn, Wander Franco was the last key piece to rejoin the Rays lineup.
Brandon Lowe, Manuel Margot, Francisco Mejia and Harold Ramirez had all previously made it back from injuries. With Franco activated Friday, the Rays are about as whole as they have been since May.
“It’s kind of what we envisioned with us coming out of the gate,” manager Kevin Cash said.
And at a pretty prime time.
Franco made a smashing return with three hits, and the red-hot Rays further closed the gap on the floundering Yankees with a 4-2 win that cut New York’s once-robust American League East lead to 3 1/2 games.
Better for the Rays (77-58), who on July 10 were in third place and 15 1/2 games back, they are just two games behind the 83-56 Yankees in the loss column.
The Rays haven’t been this close to first place since May 9, when they were three games back. They haven’t had this many of their key hitters together in the lineup since then either.
The offense wasn’t the only highlight Friday as Drew Rasmussen delivered a strong start as a new dad, striking out a career-high 10 over six shutout innings. He was slated to start Tuesday, but those plans were foiled when his wife, Stevie, went into labor early that morning and gave birth to their son, Rhett.
The Rays came out swinging against Yankees starter Frankie Montas, and quickly got a run — on three pitches. Yandy Diaz swung at the first one he saw and popped out. Franco, in his first game since his July 9 right hamate fracture, did the same and doubled. So did Randy Arozarena, scoring Franco.
The Rays added three runs in a messy fourth inning by the Yankees.
