Yankees' Avoid Sweep In Tampa And Are Ready For A Rematch Against The Blue Jays

  It has been a roll coaster ride type of season so far for the New York Yankees, but baseball is baseball, so you never know what will happen next.  The team's home opener didn't go according to plan, as they only managed to captured 1 game out of the three, but then they welcomed the Baltimore Orioles to the Bronx by almost sweeping the birds. Talk about an up-and-down way to start a new season.

  To make matters worse, after almost sweeping the Baltimore birds, they headed to Tropicana Field to help the Rays open their season, only to the  Tampa Bay baseball team threaten them with a sweeping opportunity of their own. Fortunately, the Yankees were able to wiggle themselves out of that situation

  Yankee fans have to be happy that their team has not experience a series sweep so far with a lot of baseball left to play. A big part of that has to do with guys stepping up in big or small ways to put together comeback rallies. 

  In their latest efforts to add to their winning column of their record book, Aaron Boone and his Yankee squad have to be grateful to the small ball efforts of the game of baseball. With their backs pretty much up against the wall against Tampa Bay, the Yankees didn't really have much to show in the first two games of the series.

  In game one, Yankee fans didn't have have much pleasure in watching baseball, as it had to feel like they were being slapped in their faces by the Rays, after all it had to be terrible to watch a former Yankee pitcher just attack the strike zone against the Bronx Bombers. Rich Hill was pretty much controlling the strike zone through six solid innings of work. The Yankees continued to be the underdogs against the Rays, as they have been for a handful of seasons now. . A shaky outing in game one by Corey Kluber, who was pretty much in search mode through one out into the bottom of the third inning paved the way to the Rays gaining early control of the ball game. Despite a couple of Yankees' getting their first homeruns under their belts to start season, the Bronx squad came up short in their first outing against the Rays.

   Despite the pesky Rays just continuing to be a legitimate A.L East competitor, the Yanks did manage to put together a couple of runs against the former Yankee lefty hander. The scoreboard saw the Yankee offense put up a good fight, as some batters produced their first homeruns of the season to help their team inch closer to win. Aaron Hicks was one of those batters   that connected with a pitch that did some base clearing on the pads. In the third inning, Hicks launched a ball into the stands and when gravity pulled it down, the Yankee switching hitting center fielder had his  first homerun of the season. He gave his team a a chance against Hill, as he gave the Yankees a 4-2 lead when the ball landed. Later in the game after Hill left the game, DJ LeMahieu went to work against the Rays' bullpen in the 8th, and he also connected with a ball for his first homer of the season.

  Nevertheless, the late effort against the weak bullpen of the Rays wasn't enough to get ahead of them in game 1 of the series. The Rays ended up cashing in on their 10-5 victory over the Yankees.

  Following their Opening Day victory, the Rays once again went to work against the Yankees in game two of the three game set.

   This time around, the Yankees just got blew out in every sense of the game. They didn't put a run on the board and the starting pitching didn't improve from Kluber's outing. Domingo German didn't bring his arsenal that he was showcasing in Spring Training, as he got knocked around in the first three innings he pitched in Tampa Bay, Florida.

  As a matter of fact, the Rays got all the offense they needed in the first three innings against Germán. In the first, Austin Meadows crushed his third home run of the season off the right-field foul pole. In the second, Francisco Mejía bounced a comebacker off Germán’s glove into shallow right field for a two-run single.  Then in the third, Randy Arozarena launched his first home run since his historic postseason to straight away center field.

  As a matter of fact, game two was more of a bullpen game for both side, because with an early lead and an unexpectedly early exit by starter Chris Archer, manager Kevin Cash called upon his  bullpen to step up and find a way to record 20 outs in the  Saturday matinee.

  Tampa's relievers were up to the task as they hurled 6 2/3 innings during the Rays’ 4-0 win over the Yankees at Tropicana Field. Andrew Kittredge, Jeffrey Springs, Ryan Thompson, Cody Reed and Chris Mazza worked to together to provide a combination of two hits and two walks while striking out five.

  “They all did a really nice job. I mean, look, any time you shut out a team in Major League Baseball, it's saying something,” Rays manager Kevin Cash said. “When you do it in that fashion against that lineup, it's really saying something given that Chris could only go 2 1/3.”

  Unfortunately for the Yankees, they were victims to the Rays for yet another season, as it was Tampa's  second shutout of the season, along with their 1-0 victory in Miami on Opening Day, making this the third time in franchise history (also 2013 and ‘15) that the Rays have pitched multiple shutouts within their first eight games of the season. 

  All and all, the Yankees served as a stepping stone for their A.L East foes and to add insult to injury, winning that game gave the Tampa their fifth consecutive series victory against New York---a streak in which has reached six, if you count the postseason.

  Games one and two just were some upsetting brand of baseball for Yankee fans to watch, but baseball is full of surprise. Game three was looking to be set up as a potential Rays' sweep over the Yanks, but late innings provided a springboard for the Yankees to project themselves ahead on the scoreboard.

  If you love comebacks in sports, then game three between these rivals was a good one to watch. It ended up being 10 innings of intense baseball at the Trop that allowed the Yanks to push ahead in the later part of the game. The Sunday matinee was the type of baseball game that had that last minute clutch feeling.

  Think about it, manager Aaron Boone and his team pulled off what can only be explained as "an impressive brand of baseball". They prevented a sweep in style, as it took a new face in the lineup to put his bat on the ball to snap the skid they consistently find themselves in against the Rays.

  Oh boy!, it was surely looking like the Yankees were going to be handed their first sweep of the season as they came into game three of the series with two loses from the previous games and started game three on the losing side of things. Then came time for Rougned Odor's time to debut, playing his first game since arriving in a trade from the Rangers. He delivered a big at bat in his first appearance in his new Yankee uniform. In his road gray uniform, he provided his new teammates with a two-out RBI single in the 10th inning Sunday to drive in the winning run in a 8-4 win over the Rays.

  With Odor's RBI, it provided the Yankees with their path to snapping a three-game losing streak and it came after the Yankees had multiple previous chances to take the lead. 

“I just tried to put the ball in play and drive the run in...I got a good pitch to hit and made good contact and stayed up the middle of the field.”-Rougned Odor

  Odor had been hitless before the at-bat and the Yankees were going through another rough day with the usual issue of not being able to capitalize with runners in scoring position, going just 1-for-11 before Odor’s single.

Even in the 10th, RISP was an issue for the Yanks. Even though Gleyber Torres tied the game with a single in the eighth, Aaron Judge couldn't come  in down the line  from third. Judge was thrown out at the plate for the second out on Torres’ grounder to short.

On the bright side Odor came through in his plate appearance. Acquired for a pair of minor leaguers after being designated for assignment, Odor drove in Hicks.

  Gary Sanchez then followed up with a run-scoring single to make it 6-4 and Gio Urshela came up to get his fourth hit of the day, an RBI single to right that also scored Sanchez when Manuel Margot let the ball get by him in right.

  Albert Abreu, who just recalled from the alternate site, finished the game with a scoreless bottom of the 10th.

“He has a lot of energy and I like the way he plays,’’ Urshela said of Odor. "......He’s coming here to win.”

  Urshela’s four hits included a 453-foot two-run homer in the third inning off ex-Met Michael Wacha.

  Before the game, Aaron Boone insisted his lineup was poised to break out despite some recent lackluster performances. 

  With Aaron Boone's confidence in his team, can they get revenge on the Jays at TD Ballpark in Dunedin, Florida? Can they keep the Jays flightless, like did to the Baltimore birds in New York? We will fin out this evening starting at 7:07 P.M.  

  RHPGerrit Cole will get the start for the Yanks, as he is 1-0 on the season, with an impressive ERA of 1.46, and has accumulated 21 Ks so far. Cole's Ks/strikeouts are tied with Al Downing (1964) for the most strikeouts thrown by any Yankee through their first two starts to a season. Cole actually owns a 3-0 record and a 2.97 ERA against the Jays through five starts, which includes an Opening Day no decision.

  The Yankee ace will toe the pitching rubber against LHP Robbie Ray. Ray pitched in four spring training starts (2-0,1.98 ERA, 18 strikeouts), but he landed himself on the IL after falling down some stairs and bruised his left elbow. He missed two turns in the rotation, but from the looks of it, he seems ready to go.