As Joe Torre might say, You'd have looked at me like I had 2 heads.
And yet.
Kendrys Morales singled home DJ LeMahieu in the bottom of the 1st, staking Green to a 1-0 lead. But in the top of the 2nd, he allowed back-to-back home runs to Kevin Kiermaier and Willy Adames.
Then he hit the next batter, Daniel Robertson, in the head with a pitch. A 94-mile-per-hour fastball.
In Green's defense, it was with the 4th pitch of the at-bat. If he was going to hit a batter on purpose, to send the opposing team a message after back-to-back homers, it would have been on the 1st pitch, and probably someplace less dangerous. And his control didn't seem to be good enough to hit a batter where he would have wanted to.
Robertson was able to stay in the game, and Aaron Boone took the opportunity of a break in the action to relieve the hopeless Green, with rookie Nestor Cortes Jr.
Cortes got out of the inning, and then Rays starter Charlie Morton, the winning pitcher for the Houston Astros in the Yankees' loss in Game 7 of the 2017 American League Championship Series, walked Gio Urshela to start the bottom of the 2nd. Cliche Alert: Walks can kill you, especially the leadoff variety. Brett Gardner was up next, and he gave the Yankees back the lead with a home run.
But Cortes was no better than Green. For the 2nd game in a row, Brandon Lowe hit a home run for the Rays, a 3-run job, and that gave them a 5-3 lead. It was looking like another long day in The Bronx.
But it was all Yankees from that point onward. In the bottom of the 4th, Rays 3rd baseman Yandy Diaz made an error, allowing LeMahieu on base with 2 outs. Aaron Hicks, not really known as a power hitter, crushed a 416-foot drive to right field, tying the game.
Cortes allowed a walk and a single in the top of the 6th, and Boone pulled him for Adam Ottavino, who got out of the jam. And then came the bottom of the 6th, an inning that could loom very large at the end of the regular season.
Diego Castillo was pitching for the Rays. Gardner hit a shot back to him, and he couldn't handle it, and couldn't quite throw him out at 1st. It was hard enough of a liner, and difficult enough of a fielding play, to be scored as a hit.
Gardner stole 2nd. Clint Frazier drew a walk. LeMahieu tried to bunt the runners over, but popped up to 1st. Hicks drew a walk to load the bases with 1 out. Luke Voit drew another walk to force in the go-ahead run with Gardner.
Rays manager Kevin Cash had seen enough. He brought Ryne Stanek in to pitch. Stanek was named for Chicago Cubs Hall-of-Famer Ryne Sandberg -- who was named for Ryne Duren, the Yankees' relief ace of the late 1950s.
With Gary Sanchez up, Stanek tried to pick Voit off 1st, but the ball got away. The runners all tried to advance, but Frazier was thrown out at home. That opened 1st base, and Sanchez was intentionally walked to set up the play at any base. It didn't work: Morales worked Stanek for a walk, forcing home Hicks. Gleyber Torres grounded to 3rd, and there was no play. Voit scored.
Boone sent Thairo Estrada to pinch-hit for Urshela. Pinch-hit for your hottest hitter? What was he thinking? Whatever it was, it worked: Cash lifted Stanek, and brought in Casey Sadler. Estrada justified his managers decision with a double to left. The Yankees had batted around. Gardner came up again, and made it back-to-back RBI doubles. 7 runs in the inning, on just 4 hits.
LeMahieu led off the 7th with a home run, to cap the scoring. Ottavino got just that 1 out, but the 7-run inning made him the winning pitcher. Chance Adams went the rest of the way, 3 innings, a hit, a walk, and a hit batter, but no runs.
Yankees 13, Rays 5. WP: Ottavino (2-1). SV: Adams (1, the 1st career save for the 24-year-old righthanded native of Scottsdale, Arizona). LP: Castillo (0-3)
With the win, the Yankees are once again half a game ahead of the Rays, in 1st place in the American League Eastern Division, albeit even in the all-important loss column.
The Yankees go down to Baltimore. Maybe that bandbox by the Inner Harbor will result in more big innings.
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