Tampa Bay Rays Muster Up 1 Hit in Series-Opening Loss to New York Yankees

One swing of the bat was all that it took to sink the Tampa Bay Rays on Friday.

They were locked in a scoreless tie with the New York Yankees when Paul Goldschmidt stepped up to the plate with two outs in the bottom of the fifth. Mason Montgomery had just come in to relieve Ryan Pepiot, who got the hook with two men on base.

Both of those runners came around to score when Goldschmidt took Montgomery yard, slapping a fastball 350 feet to right. It would have been a home run in only three of 30 MLB ballparks, but the Rays and Yankees' identical home fields were both on that exclusive list.

Eric Orze, Manuel Rodríguez and Garrett Cleavinger each tossed scoreless, hitless innings out of the bullpen after grabbing the torch from Montgomery, but the damage had already been done.

Tampa Bay's lineup certainly wasn't doing any damage of their own, considering they finished the contest with one hit.

Two weeks removed from allowing two hits in 7.2 scoreless innings against the Rays, Max Fried went 7.0 innings allowing one hit and zero runs on Friday. Devin Williams and Luke Weaver got a hold and a save, respectively, after completely blanking Tampa Bay in the eighth and ninth innings.

Shortstop José Caballerio was the only Rays batter to record a base hit, and he drew one of hit team's two walks. Catcher Danny Jansen drew the other.

Each of the five pitchers who saw action for Tampa Bay notched exactly one strikeout, including Pepiot, who gave up seven baserunners in 4.2 innings. He dropped to 2-4 on the season with the loss, all while his ERA dipped one point to 4.23.

The Rays fell to 14-18, falling for the fourth contest in a row. The skid has almost completely wiped out the progress they made with their preceding five-game winning streak, and they now sit just 0.5 game above the Baltimore Orioles for last place in the AL East.

Game two between Tampa Bay and New York gets underway Saturday at 1:05 p.m. ET.

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