In true “end-of-the-season battle of the titans” fashion, the Rays were going to be facing the Yankees in a Tuesday doubleheader. Both teams had secured their trip to the postseason, but the Rays really wanted to finally lock down their place as the AL East champions without question. To get the job done, they had Nick Martinez on the mound for game one, up against Carlos Rodon for the Yankees. One man they wouldn’t need to worry about for the whole series was Aaron Judge, who will miss the remainder
of the regular season and is a big question mark for the Wild Card series.
The Rays started out by going 1-2-3 in the top of the first. The Yankees helped out by doing the same thing in the home half.
Chandler Simpson got the first hit of the game with one out in the second. However, Jonny DeLuca grounded into a double play to eliminate the baserunner and end the inning. Martinez kept Victor Mesa Jr. busy in the bottom of the inning with multiple flyouts, but managed to keep the Yankees off the basepaths as well, setting them down in order.
It was another three-up, three-down inning for the Rays in the third, and the same story for the Yankees in the bottom half. I never like to speak too soon on these things, but this was shaping up to be a good old-fashioned pitchers’ duel.
The Rays went down in order again in the fourth. I did indeed speak too soon about that whole pitchers’ duel thing, because Ben Rice doubled to start the bottom of the fourth, then Cody Bellinger homered, putting the Yankees on the board first. With two outs George Lombard Jr. singled, then Spencer Jones singled, bumping Lombard to third. Jones then stole second, putting two runners in scoring position. An Anthony Volpe strikeout ended the inning with no additional runs scored.
Another three-up, three-down inning didn’t do much to help the Rays get any runs back. Jose Caballero got a one-out single in the bottom of the inning, then he stole second. Ben Rice walked, and Caballero stole third. Martinez got the next two outs, though, once again nipping the threat in the bud.
Victor Mesa Jr. opened the sixth with a single, but a strikeout and then a double play off the bat of Richie Palacios ended the inning with no runs scored. Thankfully the Yankees had a 1-2-3 inning to keep things status quo.
In the seventh, Jonathan Aranda got a one-out single, but two outs followed to leave him stranded. The Rays were really going to need to get something going if they hoped to clinch the division today. Nick Martinez was done after six innings with a final line of 6.0 IP, 5 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 1 BB, 7 K, 1 HR on 94 pitches. Aside from one unlucky inning it was a pretty good outing from him overall. Ty Johnson replaced him and got the side out in order.
The Rays once again failed to get a baserunner on in the eighth. The Yankees also went down in order in the bottom of the inning.
Rodon, who had made it through eight innings of really strong work, was out for the ninth, being replaced by David Bednar. The Rays did not make any effort at a rally, going 1-2-3 in the top of the ninth and dropping the first game of the doubleheader. Hopefully they were just keeping their runs for the evening game.
Final: Yankees 2, Rays 0
