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Art Deco · 10-28-2025, 09:35 PM

The Rays and Yankees played two of the crazier games you'll see, apparently so much so that Mother Nature couldn't take another one and rained out the finale, which will be made up on May 21. In the end the teams split a pair of games which saw each team blow leads of at least 5 runs in their losses.

The opener was particularly galling for Tampa Bay as they blew leads on 9-1 and 13-8 before Walt Kelly gave up a pair of solo homers in the bottom of the 9th to lose the game 14-13. What made the fact the Rays lost a 9-1 lead even more shocking was that they had Ruben Cerrillo on the mound, one of the better pitchers in the league and who had been virtually untouchable this season (0.90 ERA coming in). Victor Gonzalez drove in 3 runs, and Danny Rivera hit a 2-run homer (#2) to help them to that big lead but Cerrillo couldn't hold it and after Danny Mauricio gave up 3 straight hits in relief of him in the 5th Cerrillo was saddled with a 4.1 10 7 7 1 3 line and the Yankees were suddenly within 9-8. It looked as though the Rays restored things when Jeremy Begley belted a 3-run homer (#5) to cap a 4-run 6th and make it 13-8 Rays but Jerry Baylor and Moises Baca each allowed a pair of runs to make it 13-12, and after Eric Lewis had a clean 8th Kelly (2-1) came on and gave up a leadoff homer to let New York tie it and then after recording two outs gave up the walk-off winner in the wildest game the Rays have played in years.

Things started off about as badly as possible for the Rays in the second game when Sergio Espinoza was tagged for five runs in the first but the Rays battled back from that early 5-0 deficit to storm past New York 12-7. To his credit Espinoza hung in there after the brutal 1st and improved to 3-1 despite going 6 10 7 7 1 2 and leaving after giving up his third homer of the game leading off the 7th. In between the Rays went to town on Yankee pitching with Victor Gonzalez belting a 3-run shot (#5) in the 3rd to get them back in the game and Danny Rodriguez cracking a 2-run blast (#4) in the 4th to make it 6-5 New York before the Rays went ahead in the 5th on Jeremy Begley's 2-run single. And in the 6th Justin Blackwell delivered a grand slam (#4) to break it open at 12-6 and the Yankees put up little resistance thereafter. Incidentally after D-Rod's homer John Lopez was hit with a pitch and charged the mound, leading to a 6-game suspension for the backup 1B.

Team record: 10-8, still 2 1/2 behind New York. Next up: With the rainout we'll have two days off before returning home for 3 against Toronto.

10-28-2025, 09:35 PM	#1599
Art Deco Hall Of Famer Join Date: May 2020 Posts: 7,628	April 20-22, 2040: at NY Yankees (3) The Rays and Yankees played two of the crazier games you'll see, apparently so much so that Mother Nature couldn't take another one and rained out the finale, which will be made up on May 21. In the end the teams split a pair of games which saw each team blow leads of at least 5 runs in their losses. The opener was particularly galling for Tampa Bay as they blew leads on 9-1 and 13-8 before Walt Kelly* gave up a pair of solo homers in the bottom of the 9th to lose the game 14-13. What made the fact the Rays lost a 9-1 lead even more shocking was that they had Ruben Cerrillo on the mound, one of the better pitchers in the league and who had been virtually untouchable this season (0.90 ERA coming in). Victor Gonzalez drove in 3 runs, and Danny Rivera hit a 2-run homer (#2) to help them to that big lead but Cerrillo couldn't hold it and after Danny Mauricio gave up 3 straight hits in relief of him in the 5th Cerrillo was saddled with a 4.1 10 7 7 1 3 line and the Yankees were suddenly within 9-8. It looked as though the Rays restored things when Jeremy Begley belted a 3-run homer (#5) to cap a 4-run 6th and make it 13-8 Rays but Jerry Baylor and Moises Baca each allowed a pair of runs to make it 13-12, and after Eric Lewis had a clean 8th Kelly (2-1) came on and gave up a leadoff homer to let New York tie it and then after recording two outs gave up the walk-off winner in the wildest game the Rays have played in years. Things started off about as badly as possible for the Rays in the second game when Sergio Espinoza was tagged for five runs in the first but the Rays battled back from that early 5-0 deficit to storm past New York 12-7. To his credit Espinoza hung in there after the brutal 1st and improved to 3-1 despite going 6 10 7 7 1 2 and leaving after giving up his third homer of the game leading off the 7th. In between the Rays went to town on Yankee pitching with Victor Gonzalez belting a 3-run shot (#5) in the 3rd to get them back in the game and Danny Rodriguez cracking a 2-run blast (#4) in the 4th to make it 6-5 New York before the Rays went ahead in the 5th on Jeremy Begley's 2-run single. And in the 6th Justin Blackwell delivered a grand slam (#4) to break it open at 12-6 and the Yankees put up little resistance thereafter. Incidentally after D-Rod's homer John Lopez was hit with a pitch and charged the mound, leading to a 6-game suspension for the backup 1B. Team record: 10-8, still 2 1/2 behind New York. Next up: With the rainout we'll have two days off before returning home for 3 against Toronto.