ST. PETERSBURG — Gerrit Cole had his no-hit bid broken up in the eighth, and Clay Holmes finally surrendered a run. It didn’t matter. After watching their bullpen blow a lead for the second straight day, the Yankees simply rallied in the top of the ninth for a 4-2 win over the Rays at Tropicana Field.
It’s the 13th time this season the Yankees (50-17) have responded with a win after losing a game. They have only lost back-to-back games three times this season and they’ve not had a losing streak longer than three games. The Rays (36-31) have lost four straight to the Yankees now and six out of their last seven games. The Yankees improved to 25-11 against the American League East, and are the first team in baseball to reach 50 wins.
Josh Donaldson singled with one out off Jason Adam and scored when Manuel Margot was injured on Aaron Hicks’ fly ball to the wall in right field. Margot crashed into the wall and had to be carted off after apparently injuring his knee. Hicks scored on Trevino’s sacrifice fly.
Isaac Paredes’ scorched a ground ball up the middle to break up Cole’s no-hit bid with no outs in the eighth.
After Cole left, Holmes gave up a one-out double to pinch hitter Francisco Mejia and allowed Paredes to score on Yandy Diaz’s soft grounder back to the mound. It was only the second inherited runner out of 13 that Holmes allowed to score this season. Holmes saw the first run scored against him since April 8 when Manuel Margot beat out a short infield grounder. His franchise record streak was snapped at 31 consecutive scoreless innings and 29 appearances.
So, Cole had nothing to show for a pretty terrific night. The Yankees $324 million man was charged with that one run on one hit over 7.1 innings pitched. He walked three and struck out 12.
Cole retired the first two batters he faced, but then his nemesis Ji-Man Choi worked a six-pitch walk. He responded by striking out Randy Arozarena to end the inning and then went on to strike out the next five hitters he faced. He had to work out of the stretch again in the fifth when he gave up a one-out walk to Brett Phillips, who was an emergency replacement for an injured Kevin Kiermaier. After getting a flyball out from Isaac Paredes, he walked Josh Lowe. Cole struck out catcher Rene Pinto to get out of the jam.
The 31-year-old had flirted with a perfect game earlier this month. Cole took a no-hitter into the seventh inning against the Tigers on June 3. Jonathan Schoop spoiled Cole’s perfect night with two outs in the seventh. Schoop grounded up the middle, just past the mitt of diving second baseman DJ LeMahieu. That came on the heels of Jameson Taillon taking a no-hitter into the eighth inning the night before. It was the fourth time this season a Yankee starter has taken a no-hit bid into the sixth inning or later.
His last start was also against the Rays, back in the Bronx. Cole threw six scoreless, striking out seven and walking one. In three starts against the Rays this season, Cole has allowed one earned run over 19.2 innings. Cole has struck out at least 10 batters in his last six starts at Tropicana Field, the longest such stretch by a visiting pitcher at the venue.
It wasn’t the only dominant pitching performance at the Trop Monday night. Shane McClanahan kept the Yankees’ offense off balance for most of the night.
Anthony Rizzo homered in his first at-bat, his fourth home run in his last five games. It was Rizzo’s first hit off the Rays’ young lefty after going 0-for-8 with two strikeouts against him in previous meetings. He also singled off him in the sixth.
That was all the Yankees got against McClanahan, who allowed one run through six innings of work. He walked one and struck out eight. The Yankees got four hits off him.
The Yankees got their second run off Ryan Thompson in the seventh. Gleyber Torres doubled to lead off the inning and then scored when Choi dropped the throw on Jose Trevino’s ground ball.
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