Biggest Win For Rays In 2019
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Travis d’Arnaud capped a record setting night by belting three homers including a 3-run blast off Aroldis Chapman with 2-out in the 9th to propel the Rays to a 5-4 victory.
Oliver Drake replaced Andrew Kittredge with 2-out and the go-ahead run at the plate in the form of Luke Voit who worked the count full before being called out on strikes to end the game.
Andrew Kittredge (1-0, 1.98 ERA) picked up the victory for Tampa Bay who improve to 56-40 and they are five games behind the Yankees in the AL East. By striking out Voit, Oliver Drake picked up his first save as a Ray and just his second save of his career.
Aroldis Chapman (2-2, 2.45 ERA) takes the loss for the Yankees who have dropped three in a row to Tampa Bay 59-33.
The Rays jumped out to a 2-0 lead on d’Arnaud’s solo shots in the first and third off James Paxton.
Blake Snell kept the Yankees off the board for the first three innings but allowed a solo homer to Edwin Encarnacion in the fourth that cut the lead to 2-1.
Snell labored through five innings allowing just the one run on three hits while striking out four and walking one.
Diego Castillo followed Snell to the mound and was terrific in 1.2-innings of hitless work while striking out a pair and walking one. Emilio Pagan replaced Castillo with 2-out in the seventh and allowed a solo homer to Gio Urshela that tied the game at 2-2.
New York took a 4-2 lead in their half of the eighth inning when Edwin Encarnacion deliverd a 2-out 2-run homer off Andrew Kittredge with 2-out. It was his first multi-homer game as a Yankee.
It appeared as if the Rays were going to suffer another defeat in their personal house of horrors. They have lost 14 of their last 15 series in New York and 14 straight series openers in the Bronx. They had also held a lead in 32 of their last 46 games there (69.6%) but only won 26.1% of those games (12-24).
It appeared as the Rays would follow the same bluepring of taking a lead, giving it up, and losing the opening game of a series in the Bronx until Travis d’Arnaud delivered the 2-out 3-run homer to put the Rays on top 5-4.
Easily the biggest victory of the season for the Rays.
d’Arnaud Joins The Three Homer Club
Travis d’Arnaud is the first Rays player to hit three homers against the Yankees. He is just the fourth Rays player to hit three homers in a game joining Evan Longoria (twice), B.J. Upton, and Jonny Gomes. Longoria was the last Ray to hit three homers in a game doing so back on October 3, 2012 against the Orioles.
He’s also the first catcher in MLB history to hit three homers out of the leadoff spot. He’s also the first catcher to hit three homers in a game against the Yankees.
