Dominant New York Yankees Putting Frustrations Against The Tampa Bay Rays Well Behind Them

For the better part of two seasons, no team seemed to frustrate the Yankees like the Tampa Bay Rays, who are now dealing with the frustrations they inflicted in the Bronx.

Those frustrations against Tampa Bay were apparent during the 60-game pandemic sprint when the Yankees were outscored 47-34 and lost eight of 10 meetings and then lost Game 5 of the Division Series. It remained apparent somewhat last season when the Rays won 11 of 19 meetings, including two in the final weekend that forced the Yankees into losing homefield advantage in the ill-fated wild card game at Boston.

This year is different, as evidenced by the Yankees winning three close games by scores of 2-0, 4-3, 2-1, over the Rays, following up their 7-2 and 2-0 victories last month in Tampa.

The latest was achieved by Anthony Rizzo’s bat, the same one who you could make the argument should still be on the Cubs. The Yankees followed up their domination of Rizzo’s now woeful former team by doing enough to frustrate the Rays with their dominance on the mound.

It was impressive enough when Gerrit Cole ended his outing Tuesday by getting Randy Arozarena to into a double play. It continued Wednesday when Nestor Cortes outpitched Shane McClanahan and Clay Holmes matched Mariano Rivera’s 28 team record of consecutive scoreless appearances.

Perhaps the most impressive performance unfolded during the two hours 38 minutes it took for the Yankees to get their 47th win in 63 games. The Yankees threw 134 pitches to 31 hitters and the quartet doing so was Clarke Schmidt, Ryan Weber, Ron Marinaccio and Michael King.

“It’s impressive,” Rizzo said in the afterglow of his 267th career homer, which also occurred 11 years and four days after his first career homer. “We’re winning games in a lot of different ways.”

Different ways include with a pitching outline that unfolded differently than originally anticipated.

While King was someone you might expect, Clarke Schmidt was pressed into his third career start about six hours before first pitch when Luis Severino was placed on the COVID-19 injured list. Severino is feeling better now and the Yankees were left feeling even better when Schmidt started off a four-hitter that marked the ninth time in 15 games Yankee pitching allowed one run or less.

The Yankees lowered their team ERA to 2.78, a mark that was 3.96 after their 63rd game in 1998 when they also were 47-16. They also are on a 14-game home winning streak for the first time since winning 15 straight in 1961 when Roger Maris closed in and ultimately broke Babe Ruth’s single-season home run record.

Aaron Judge has 25 homers, putting him on pace for 64. Six are during the 14-game winning streak where the Yankees own 83-22 run differential and are outhitting the Orioles, Angels, Tigers, Cubs, Rays 122-82.

By comparison when the Yankees won 15 straight at the original Yankee Stadium Aug. 16-Sept. 26, 1961, Maris hit eight of his homers, getting to No. 60 in the final game of the streak.

Whether these Yankees reach the heights of the 1961 and 1998 group is unknown, but it seems like a stronger possibility for the first time since 2009.

“We’re not satisfied with just winning the division,” Judge said earlier this week. “We want to go out there and bring a championship back. I think with that in our mindset, each and every single day, that’s what’s kind of pushing us all here.”

Meanwhile the Rays are expressing similar laments as some of the other opponents to face the Yankees so far and are doing so while averaging 4.11 runs per game, a decrease from the 5.29 a year ago en route to winning the AL East over the Red Sox and Yankees by eight games.

“Losing three ballgames here, especially with the way we pitched — we really threw the ball really well,” Tampa Bay manager Kevin Cash said. “We’re going to get out of this. We’d like it sooner than later, but we’ve just got to find a way to stay together through these tough times. We can’t deny it. We’re in a tough stretch right now.”

And based on what they are showing through the first 63 games, the Yankees seemed headed to put more opponents through tough stretches.