[Art Deco]

May 11: Placed OF Randy Arozarena on the 10-day IL with patellar tendinitis, activated OF Brett Phillips from the 10-day IL.

World series hero Brett "Maverick" Phillips is back while Arozarena will be out for a week with that DL stint backdated three days.

Game 1: The Yankees came to down for an early-season showdown series with the Rays just one game behind, and Tampa Bay and Michael Wacha answered the bell to pull even with New York thanks to a 6-1 win at Tropicana Field. Things did not start well for Wacha as Mike Tauchman led off the game with a 457-foot homer to center, but he gave the Yankees nothing after that for 7 innings, scattering some hits and not walking anyone to go to 5-0, 2.97 off a 7 7 1 1 0 3 outing. Chaz Roe whiffed a pair in the 8th (he now has 29 Ks in 15 innings) and Andrew Kittredge got through the 9th without any issues. The run-scoring was kind of odd tonight for the Rays. Kevin Kiermaier led off the 3rd with a single, was balked to second by Jonathan Loaisiga, went to 3rd on a grounder and scored on another one from Willy Adames. Then they erupted for 4 in the 4th which saw Loaisiga come unglued after giving up three singles to load the bases, balking again* to force in a run, wild-pitching in another and walking Adames with the bases loaded, and after a Francisco Mejia RBI groundout it was suddenly 5-1.

*Over the last year-plus, I've managed over 2,000 Rays games in my 2020 dynasty plus the 40 or so here, and that's the first time I've seen the same pitcher commit two balks in a game.

Game 2: Meet your first-place Tampa Bay Rays! The Rays took care of Gerrit Cole and the Yankees today in a 7-4 win which puts them a game ahead of New York in the AL East, the sixth straight loss for the Yankees. After falling behind 2-0 in the first they jumped all over Cole in the 2nd through the 4th, battering him for 7 runs and 9 hits with the damage mainly coming from the unlikely trio of Yoshi Tsutsugo, Brett Phillips and Mike Zunino. Willy Adames hit a one-out triple in the 2nd, Tsutsugo tripled him home and then Phillips and Zunino had RBI singles to make it 3-2. In the 3rd, Tsutsugo hit his second double in as many innings to score a pair and in the 4th Zunino drilled HR #5 with Phillips aboard. The three combined to go 7-12 with all 7 RBI and Phillips stole a couple of bases as well in his season debut. Ryan Yarbrough started and was adequate, going 6 5 4 4 2 5, giving up a 2-run single to Aaron Judge in the 1st and a 2-run homer to Miguel Andujar in the 4th. The Peter Fairbanks-Diego Castillo-Nick Anderson triumvirate pitched the 7th, 8th and 9th allowing a total of one hit between them with Anderson nabbing save #10. Anderson tied Aroldis Chapman and former Ray Alex Colome for the AL save lead.

Game 3: High drama at the Trop as Mike Zunino hit a 2-run homer in the 7th to tie it at 4 and then another 2-run homer (#7) in the bottom of the 9th off Aroldis Chapman (it never gets old seeing the Rays take Chapman deep to win games) to give the Rays a thrilling 6-4 walk-off win and sweep of the series. In dooming New York to its 7th straight loss the Rays now open up a 2-game lead in the AL East. Chris Archer started for the Rays and was extremely wild, hitting Brett Gardner with a pitch to force in a run and walking Gio Urshela with the bases loaded to force in another. He was lucky to escape with only those two runs allowed as he went 3.1 4 2 2 5 3 on 88 pitches. Trevor Richards got him out of a 4th-inning mess and retired all 8 Yankees he faced to get through the 6th. That bought them enough time to tie it up on a Willy Adames sac fly and Ji-Man Choi RBI single, but Chaz Roe didn't fare as well in the 7th, giving up back-to-back homers to the first two batters he faced, Giancarlo Stanton and Gleyber Torres. But Zunino's first homer tied it up, Peter Fairbanks and Nick Anderson shut the Yanks down in the 8th and 9th with Anderson getting his first win of the year, and then Zunino was the hero again in the bottom of the 9th.

Team record: 24-15. Next up: The Yankees' crosstown rivals the Mets come in for 3 over the weekend.