The New York Yankees Finally Get The Upper Hand Against The Rays

  It has been a while since the New York Yankees took a series from the Rays, but May 13th of the 2021 baseball season will go down in the record books that the script was changed. It has been just about 2 years since the Yankees last had a victory against the Tampa baseball club, but for the first time in a long time, the Bronx baseball squad sought a series victory on the road against their A.L. East rivals.

  After a 3-1 victory over the Rays in game 1, the Yankees entrusted the baseball to their ace in Gerrit Cole to get a series victory and that he very well did.

  Stepping onto the mound at Tropicana Field last night, Cole knew what he was up against and he expected  a tough battle from the opposition. Considering what was at stake for both teams, in terms of where they would be positioned in their divisional standings, game two was even more pressing than game one. Luckily for the Yanks, while their offense took some time to get something going, their ace was throwing up zeros on the scoreboard. For those who watched Cole's stellar performance last night, you know that he wasn't anything short of a phenom.

 Cole's performance was the highlight of the entire game, as he managed to get 12 punch-outs (strike calls) over eight scoreless innings, which allowed the Yankees to blank the Rays, 1-0, on Wednesday night. New York has now won 11 of its past 14 games, improving to a season-high four games above .500 with a 20-16 win-loss record.  

  Aaron Hicks lifted a seventh-inning sacrifice fly that provided the necessary margin of victory for Cole, who leaned heavily on his four-seam fastball to scatter four hits without a walk in a stellar 106-pitch performance. Cole now has 1,508 strikeouts over his nine-year MLB career.

  All around, while Cole did his regularly expected work on the mound, the Yankees showed that they didn't need the home run ball to win. All they need last night was a single by Judge, a double by Urshela that moved Aaron Judge to third base, and then a sac-fly by Aaron Hicks to get a run in.

  A 1 NYY- 0 TB win was all the Yankees needed to secure a series win over the Rays. With a 20-16 record, the New York Yankees will go for the sweep today  and will remain hungry in the hunt for the number one spot in their division.