Game 35 : Shades of 2014. The potent New York offense has suddenly evaporated inside the horrible lighting, alien turf and general gloom of the House of Horrors, aka Tropicana Field. The Yankees posted 2 runs in the top of the first then took the rest of the night off.
Starter Adam Warren went 7 full innings, while shaky at times definitely turned in a quality outing. Seven strikeouts, only 1 walk, and giving up a solo home run on a mistake pitch to the latest Yankee-killer Steven Souza Jr. in the first inning. After allowing two doubles and a single in the second inning, Tampa had a 3-2 lead but Warren locked it down from there. The only trouble was New York’s bats were already packed away for the night.
Here’s the box score, full recap, and video highlights.
Tampa 3, New York 2
When You Knew It Was Over
Down by one run in the top of the 5th, with Mark Teixeira on second Carlos Beltran belted a solid line drive to left-center, not deep and well played by Rays CF Kevin Kiermaier. Third base coach Joe Espada waved Tex around, and he was nabbed at the plate. Joe Girardi challenged the call on the basis that Rays’ catcher Rene Rivera blocked the plate (dumbest rule ever), but was denied after the video review. No knock on Espada as the Rays had to execute perfectly to nail the runner, which they did.
The out call at home plate would prove to be the dagger in what began as a promising night for New York. The Yanks had nothing after this, mustering only three singles over the remaining four innings.
“I moved in about two or three steps. I thought that Beltran would have to hit really good to get it over my head and Teixeira is getting a big secondary lead with where Cabrera was holding him on, so I scooted in a few steps right before that [hit], and thankfully it ended up working out because it was a bang-bang play and if I didn’t take those two steps in who knows what would have happened.” ‐ Kevin Kiermaier (Hat tip: Bryan Hoch and Troy Provost-Heron / MLB.com)
[custom_list icon=”thumbs-o-up” iconcolor=”#014284″]
- Adam Warren Warren recorded at least 6 innings in the books for a start for the first time in his 10th major league try. Taking this one into the 7th and completing that was a big step forward, as the knock on Warren has been his inability to get guys out the third time around the lineup.
“He located well. I thought his stuff got better as the night went on. I thought he used all his pitches. I thought his changeup was pretty effective to some of the right-handed hitters. He started hitting his spots.” ‐ Joe Girardi (Hat tip: mlb.com)
[/custom_list]
