NEW YORK � So much for all the script-flipping the Rays supposedly did in Monday's dramatic come-from-ahead-and-then-behind win over the Yankees.
Because Tuesday was back to the same old story where the Rays took a lead into the late innings and then watched it painfully slip away.
The final was 8-3 Yankees, and the result that the Rays dropped to 56-41 and back to six games behind the AL East leaders.
But the damage could be much worse, because whatever confidence the Rays felt they gained on Monday, and whatever demons they vanquished, were negated.
The Rays led 4-3 going to the eighth when rookie reliever Colin Poche made the first mistake of walking leadoff man Gleyber Torres, then the grander of giving up a two-run homer to Aaron Judge on a full-count fastball.
Making it worse, Poche went on to load the bases and gave up a grand slam.
The Rays had seemed in position to take the second game of this series, and a fourth overall from the Yankees, to that point. Heck, they even got the role-reversed benefit of taking advantage of some sloppy base running by the Yankees, who ran into two outs on the same play in the fifth.
There also was some drama.
Yankees starter CC Sabathia seems to have something for the Rays, and that showed again Tuesday night when he was the apparent cause of the benches and bullpen emptying in the middle of the sixth inning.
Sabathia got Rays outfielder Avisail Garcia looking at a called third strike to end the inning, and what started out as long glance between them led to some words and then tempers flaring all around.
Sabathia was headed to the dugout but then started to get more aggressive in his comments to Garcia, who remained at home plate. Yankees shortstop Didi Gregorius stepped up to step in front of Sabathia.
There seemed to be no more than some mild shoving as the players assembled on the field and the situation was quickly defused.
Garcia heard plenty from the Yankee Stadium crowd of 40,401 when he took his position in right field for the bottom of the inning, and them more so when DJ LeMahieu's homer sailed over his head, and the fence, to cut the Rays lead to 3-2.
It already was a frustrating game for Garcia, who had an apparent home run robbed in fourth by Yankees leftfielder Brett Gardner's leap at the wall.
Sabathia was ejected from a Sept. 27 game at the Trop last season for hitting then Rays catcher Jesus Sucre in retaliation for the Rays Andrew Kittredge earlier hitting Austin Romine. And Sabathia has had things to say about the Rays this season both on the field and in the clubhouse.
Tuesday, the Rays took the early lead and added on.
Lefty swinging Austin Meadows, getting a start against lefty Sabathia with Guillermo Heredia sent to the minors, hit a two-out homer in the second. The Yankees came right back and tied it on a long and loud homer by Edwin Encarnacion, who has 28 total after hitting two Monday, and, as a result of the December Rays-Indians-Mariners trade is getting $5 million of his salary paid by the Rays. Plus, they tried to get him before the Yankees swung a deal last month.
Two innings later, the Rays went up 2-1 on a laser-like 110.3 mph homer by Yandy Diaz, the key return the Rays got in that winter deal.
They extended the lead to 3-1 in the sixth when rookie Mike Brosseau beat out an infield single and came around to score on a double by Diaz.
The Yankees cut the lead to 3-2 in the sixth when D LeMahieu led off with a homer off Jalen Beeks.
The Rays came into Tuesday's game coming off the high of Monday night when they came back to stun the 5-4 when Travis d'Arnaud hit a three-run homer off closer Aroldis Chapman with two outs and a full-count in the ninth. Adding to the storyline, it was the career-most and team-record tying third homer of the game for the catcher released in May by the cross-town Mets.
The teams are slated for the third of the four-game series on Wednesday night, though rain is in the forecast. Yonny Chirinos is set to start for the Rays against Domingo German.
