Even when they blow late leads, the New York Yankees continue to pile up wins against the Tampa Bay Rays.
On Saturday, the Yankees will hope to hold a late lead as they seek their seventh consecutive victory over as Rays when the American League East teams continue their four-game series in St. Petersburg, Fla.
The first-place Yankees hold a season-high 8 1/2-game lead on second-place Tampa Bay, and their sizable advantage can be attributed to numerous things, including their results against the Rays.
New York is 9-2 in the season series and continued its dominance Friday with an 8-4 victory. Aaron Judge hit his second homer of the night in the 11th inning, and Brett Gardner followed with a three-run homer.
The Yankees have won both games in the series by identical scores, and each victory occurred in extra innings after they blew a lead. On Thursday, Aroldis Chapman blew a 3-1 lead, and on Friday, Nestor Cortes Jr. could not hold a 3-2 lead in the seventh.
Despite the late collapses, the Yankees got it done with their power prowess. Friday marked the 34th time in 35 games the Yankees homered, and their four homers marked the 13th instance in the last 17 games they hit multiple homers.
“Just really proud of the effort,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said. “It gets to be winning time, these guys know what to do. Just another really impressive performance.”
In its losing streak against the Yankees, Tampa Bay is getting outscored 50-17. The Rays also have allowed 15 homers in their last six games against New York.
Tampa Bay also is 8-12 in its past 20 games, going from a half-game division lead to a large deficit.
“There’s a lot of baseball left,” Rays manager Kevin Cash said. “We just got to play better against this team. You take out what we’ve done against the Yankees, I think we’re all really thrilled, but you can’t do that. We’d certainly like to feel better about ourselves going into the break.”
The Rays will attempt to halt their skid against the Yankees by sending out Blake Snell (5-7, 4.87 ERA), who is hoping it goes significantly better this time. Snell last pitched against the Yankees on June 19 in New York and recorded only one out while allowing six runs on two hits in a 12-1 loss.
Snell is coming off one of his better showings as he allowed two runs and three hits in six innings of a 6-2 win over the Texas Rangers on Sunday.
Snell is facing the Yankees for the fourth time this season and is 3-6 with a 4.85 ERA in 14 career starts against New York.
CC Sabathia (5-4, 4.04 ERA) will oppose Snell for the second time this season. Sabathia picked up his 250th career win on June 19 when he allowed one run in six innings.
Sabathia will be pitching for the first time since allowing two runs on six hits in six innings of a 10-8 win over the Toronto Blue Jays on June 24. He was skipped due to the Yankees having two off days before last weekend’s series in London and another day off on Monday.
The veteran left-hander is tied with Hall of Famer Bob Gibson for 47th on the all-time wins list. He is one behind Al Spalding and two behind Carl Hubbell.
Sabathia is 18-16 with a 3.59 ERA in 51 career starts against the Rays.