Rays, Kluber Shut Down Yankees Again, win 2-1 to Inch Closer in AL East
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — Corey Kluber is 36 years old and has pitched in a lot of big games. He knows what pennant races are all about.
Especially in September.
The Tampa Bay Rays turned to Kluber on Saturday in its hair-on-fire pursuit of the New York Yankees in the American League East division race. And he responded brilliantly, pitching seven scoreless innings and allowing just two hits in the Rays' 2-1 victory before a noisy crowd of 21,734 at Tropicana Field.
With the win, the Rays raised their record to 74-57, a season-high 17 games over .500, and are now without just four games behind the haughty Yankees, who have been in a free-fall for close to two months now. The Rays were once 15 1/2 games out of first, but they've close two-thirds of that gap, and have no intention of stopping now after winning five straight games.
"You marvel at what he's done,'' Rays manager Kevin Cash said of Kluber, who's a two-time Cy Young Award winner. "He's just had a lot of success against the Yankees lineup. They know him, he played there last year, and when he's executing like that, it's really tough. It was an extremely well-pitched game.
"We needed him (to pitch the seventh inning). To send him back out there will help us going forward too, giving the bullpen a little break. I marvel what he was in Cleveland. A lot of power, and electric stuff. Now, I marvel that he has late movement on his stuff and that he can pitch so well in the zone.''
The Rays opened this critical three-game series with a 9-0 whitewash on Friday night, a game so bad from the New York side that Yankees manager Aaron Boone called it "embarrassing.'' The Yankees, who lead the lead in runs scored, have been completely baffled by Rays pitching in this series.
Kluber gave them nothing other than a single in the first inning and another one in the sixth. Because of two Tampa Bay errors, he did have to work through some trouble, but did so without incident.
The Rays gave him a lead to work with in the third inning, and did it in an unconventional way — at least for the Rays. Catcher Francisco Mejia and center fielder Jose Siri led off the inning with singles, and then Taylor Walls moved them both up with a sacrifice bunt, a strategy that Tampa Bay often eschews.
Yandy Diaz then singled to right center, scoring both runs and giving the Rays a 2-0 lead. "With Yandy in a contact situation, we wouldn't want anyone else up there either,'' Cash said. "Wallsy had a really big game, and that bunt was on his own. It was impressive that he did that.''
It wasn't until the ninth inning that the Yankees finally scored a run, with likely MVP winner Aaron Judge hitting his 52nd home run of the season, a solo shot off of closer Jason Adam. But Adam settled down from there and got three straight outs to end the game, striking out Giancarlo Stanton and Josh Donaldson to seal the deal for his eighth save of the season.
"I fell behind to Judge and threw a bad changeup and he barreled it,'' Adam said. "So after that, the trick was to get ahead, throw strike one. I did that.
"We want to keep it rolling now. That's the name of the game. You want to be playing your best baseball this time of year, and I feel like we're doing that.
The Yankees are a mess right now. Judge's homer ended a 21-inning scoreless streak.
“Well, we’re No. 1 in the [American] league in scoring, as amazing as that is,’’ Boone said of the disappearing offense after the most recent defeat.
Even more amazing is that the Yankees had three hits or fewer 13 times this season, the most times that has happened to them since 1914.
That's more than a century ago.
The Rays are now 7-8 against the Yankees this season, but can tie it up on Sunday in the series finale. This was supposed to have been Shane McClanahan's turn in the rotation, but he is on the 15-day injured list with a minor shoulder issue. Instead, the Rays will turn to Shawn Armstrong to start the game, with left-hander Ryan Yarbrough likely to get a bulk of the innings.
Yarbrough is just 1-8 on the season, but that win came against the Yankees three weeks ago in a 4-0 road win. He pitched four scoreless innings at New York, allowing just three hits. Frankie Montas, who has struggled for New York since coming over from Oakland in a trade last month, gets the ball for the Yankees. He's 0-2 with a 7.01 ERA in his five starts with the Yankees, and he is just 4-11 on the year.
These two teams will meet for the last time next weekend in New York, with games set for next Friday, Saturday and Sunday.
Related stories on Rays baseball
- RAYS 'EMBARRASS' YANKEES (Friday): Jeffrey Springs pitched 5 2/3 scoreless innings for Tampa Bay and the Rays blew the game open late to win 9-0 over the New York Yankees on Friday night. With the win, the Rays are now just five games out in the American League East. CLICK HERE
- TOM BREW COLUMN: In the past month and change, the Tampa Bay Rays have gained nine games on the New York Yankees, and are now just six games behind in the American League East. As the two rivals start a three-game series in St. Petersburg on Friday night, the question has to be asked: Can the Rays still win the division with just 33 games to go? CLICK HERE
- RAYS SWEEP MARLINS (Wednesday): Drew Rasmussen pitched six innings of one-run ball and Manuel Margot had an RBI single and a great catch in the 10th inning to help the Tampa Bay Rays beat the Miami Marlins 2-1 on Wednesday. The Rays swept the series with the Marlins, going 4-0. CLICK HERE
- RAYS BEAT MARLINS WITHOUT McCLANAHAN (Tuesday): When Shane McClanahan's shoulder didn't feel right during his pregame warmup on Tuesday night, Tampa Bay opted to shut him down as a precaution. The bullpen, led by Shawn Armstrong, picked up the slack and dominated in a 7-2 win over the Miami Marlins. CLICK HERE
- SPRING TRAINING SCHEDULE FOR 2023: The Tampa Bay Rays announced their 2023 spring training schedule on Wednesday. The spring season will start on Feb. 25 against the Minnesota Twins and conclude on March 27 against the New York Yankees in Tampa. The Rays will play 14 home games at Charlotte Sports Park in Port Charlotte, Fla. CLICK HERE
- RAYS 2022 SCHEDULE: Here are all the results for the Tampa Bay Rays in 2022, plus the remaining schedule, with opponents, dates, gametimes and more. CLICK HERE
