Brandon Lowe stroked a three-run double to highlight a four-run fourth inning as the Tampa Bay Rays posted a 10-5 win over the New York Yankees on Friday afternoon in St. Petersburg, Fla.
The Rays unveiled two banners toward the top of Tropicana Field before the first meeting between the division rivals. One banner read AL East 2020 Champions, while the other read American League 2020 Champions.
Austin Meadows went 3-for-4 with a double and two runs as Tampa Bay belted out 13 hits en route to snapping a four-game skid.
Willy Adames went 2-for-4 with a homer, double and two RBIs, and Joey Wendle, Yoshi Tsutsugo and Yandy Diaz each added two-hit outings for the Rays.
Rich Hill (1-0) overcame a four-run third inning to pick up the win.
The 41-year-old lefty worked six innings and gave up four hits. He struck out seven without a walk and retired the final 10 batters after Aaron Hicks’ two-run homer in the third.
DJ LeMahieu also went deep and Giancarlo Stanton singled in a pair of runs for the Yankees, who recorded four of their seven hits in the third inning.
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Corey Kluber (0-1) lasted just 2 1/3 innings and allowed five runs – three earned – on five hits.
Switched to third base before the game after Gio Urshela (COVID-19 vaccination) was scratched, LeMahieu committed a throwing error on Diaz’s grounder in the second inning. Adames’ double and Brett Phillips’ sacrifice fly produced runs.
In the third after Hill opened with two strikeouts, Stanton drove in Tyler Wade and LeMahieu with a two-out chopper to right to even the score at 2.
Then Hicks, who was 2-for-21, launched a 1-2 fastball deep to left for his first homer.
With one out and the bases loaded in the bottom half of the third, Wendle greeted reliever Nick Nelson with a two-run double to left for a 5-4 lead after Randy Arozarena’s RBI single in the three-run frame.
Lowe lined his run-scoring double to left-center and Diaz singled him in for a 9-4 advantage in the fourth.
Adames cracked his first homer, an opposite-field solo shot, in the seventh.
LeMahieu popped his first in the eighth to cap the scoring.
–Field Level Media