Yankees Frustrated In Tampa Bay

The Devil Rays, south of Georgia, they were looking for some games to steal. The Yankees came to put 'em to shame, but could they close the deal?

Not on Monday night. Luis Severino did not get the job done, allowing 7 runs (6 earned) on 11 hits over 5 innings. He struck out 8, and didn't walk anybody, so his control wasn't the problem. He just got hit.

Chad Green, Adam Warren and A.J. Cole each pitched a scoreless inning, but it didn't matter. Giancarlo Stanton went 4-for-4 with a 2-RBI double, and Miguel Andujar went 2-for-4 with an RBI, but it didn't matter.

Rays 7, Yankees 6. WP: Matt Andriese (3-4). SV: Jose Alvarado (4). LP Severino (14-3 -- he had been 14-1).

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But last night, Masahiro Tanaka was brilliant. He went the distance, Aaron Boone showing him more confidence than Joe Girardi would have, and he rewarded that confidence with a 3-hit, 1-walk, 9-strikeout shutout. Of his 105 pitches, 74 were strikes.

The Yankees staked him (as an Arsenal fan, I hope the correct grammar isn't "stoke him") to a 1-0 lead before he ever took the mound, starting the game with singles by Brett Gardner and Aaron Judge, a wild pitch by the Rays' Yonny Chirinos that moved the runners over, a strikeout by Stanton, and a groundout by Didi Gregorius that got Gardner home.

The same script was followed in the 5th inning, sort of. Brandon Drury was hit by a pitch, Tyler Wade was sent in to pinch-run for him, Neil Walker singled Wade to 3rd, and Austin Romine hit a groundout that got him home.

A Romine sacrifice fly in the 7th and a Walker single in the 9th provided the final score: Yankees 4, Rays 0. WP: Tanaka (8-2). No save. LP: Chirinos (0-2).

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This afternoon's game was frustrating. Injuries to the pitching staff meant that Luis Cessa was sent out to start. A Walker sac fly gave him a 1-0 lead in the 2nd, and he was doing all right, until the 6th inning, when he gave up a single to Adam Moore and home runs to Kevin Kiermaier, 2 runs, and C.J. Chron, solo. (Sounds like the name of a newspaper, short for Central Jersey Chronicle.)

The Yankees left a man on 1st in the 7th, got a run on a Stanton sac fly but stranded another man on 1st in the 8th, and had men on 1st and 2nd with just 1 out in the 9th, but stranded them.

Rays 3, Yankees 2. WP: Diego Castillo (2-1). SV: Sergio Romo (12). LP: Cessa (1-2, and he deserved a better fate).

Attendance for the 3 games: 14,670, 19,579 and 27,372, for a total of 61,621. The Wednesday afternoon game had almost twice as many people as the Monday night game.

I guess all those old people in Tampa Bay weren't willing to stay at a ballgame until 10:00 at night, but they were willing to see a matinee. It's not like they had to go to work the next day.

Or do they? I haven't yet checked the morning papers to see if Trump ended Social Security and Medicare.