There Are Bigger Things Than This Yanks-Rays Series

If a Major League Baseball series happening over Memorial Day Weekend can be considered "big," the one that began at Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, Florida last night is.

Bigger still is the terrorism that some people are using guns to inflict upon this country. Before the game, both the Yankees and the Tampa Bay Rays issued statements about this. 

The Yankees sent Nestor Cortes out to start. Once again, Nestor was nasty: Over the 1st 8 innings, he allowed no runs, just 3 hits, and only 1 walk, striking out 5.

That called for good support from the Yankee bats. It took a while, and it needed some help at the start, but it came. Making his Yankee debut, wearing Number 24, former St. Louis Cardinal All-Star 3rd baseman Matt Carpenter led off the top of the 6th by getting hit by a pitch from Rays starter Ryan Yarbrough. Marwin Gonzalez singled. Aaron Judge singled Carpenter home. Anthony Rizzo popped up. Judge stole 2nd. Gleyber Torres popped up. Miguel Andújar singled Judge home. It was 3-0 Yankees.

The Yankees got another run in the 7th: Isiah Kiner-Falefa drew a leadoff walk (since the Yankees already had, as it turned out, enough runs to win the game, this leadoff walk didn't "kill" the Rays), Jose Trevino singled, Carpenter moved the runners over with a groundout, and IKF scored on a wild pitch.

IKF led off the 9th with a single, and was moved over by a Trevino groundout. Carpenter and Gonzalez walked to load the bases, and Judge got IKF home with a sacrifice fly. Rizzo doubled Carpenter and Gonzalez home. 7-0.

Cortes was sent out to see if he could complete the shutout. He gave up a leadoff single, and was allowed to try no more. Aaron Boone replaced him with Wandy Peralta, who was a little shaky, allowing 2 runs, but finished the job. Yankees 7, Rays 2. WP: Cortes (4-1). No save. LP: Yarbrough (0-1).

The Yankees are now 5 1/2 games ahead of the Rays in the American League Eastern Division, 5 in the all-important loss column.

The series continues tonight. Jameson Taillon starts against Jeffrey Springs.

I want to win. But if someone offered me a deal of banning assault weapons, and the price was the Yankees losing every game for the rest of the season, and I would be the only one who knew, and would face mockery over what would then be the worst season in Yankee history, I would take it. I could live with it. So could a lot of people who are going to die from gunshot wounds this year.