Rays fall flat vs. Yankees: 'One hit short'

ST. PETERSBURG -- As frustrating as the first 8 1/2 innings had been, the Rays found themselves with the tying run on first base and the right man at the plate with two outs in the bottom of the ninth Tuesday night at Tropicana Field.

Top prospect Wander Franco had just worked an impressive two-out walk, taking four straight balls after falling behind 0-2 and fouling off a 103.1 mph fastball from flame-throwing Yankees closer Aroldis Chapman. Up came Nelson Cruz, the Rays’ big-time trade acquisition. The veteran DH clubbed a ninth-inning walk-off homer against Chapman for the Twins on June 10, and second baseman Brandon Lowe said Tampa Bay’s dugout was hoping for a “repeat scenario” in his home debut for the Rays.

Cruz got ahead of Chapman, 3-0, then took two fastballs and went down swinging on a slider to seal the Rays’ 4-3 loss to the Yankees. Tampa Bay couldn’t come up with the one big hit it needed, a fitting end to a night the club left nine runners on base.

“I think we were one hit short a few times,” Lowe said. “Not even a hit -- there were a couple situations where we could’ve used a deep fly ball or something. That’s just how the game works sometimes. Sometimes you just don’t get that hit, and they got it today.”

So began a pivotal week for the Rays, who have lost consecutive games for the first time since dropping five straight from June 27-July 3. Tampa Bay (60-41) fell two games behind first-place Boston (62-39) in the American League East standings to begin a homestand with series against the Yankees, Red Sox and AL Wild Card-hopeful Mariners, a key stretch of games with Friday’s 4 p.m. ET Trade Deadline and a Sunday night showdown against Boston in the middle.

Given their own ability to come back late in games and the Yankees’ 25 blown-lead losses this season, the Rays had every reason to believe they had another come-from-behind win brewing in Tuesday’s series opener.

Yankees left-hander Jordan Montgomery gave up five hits and three walks while needing 102 pitches to get through five innings, but he kept Tampa Bay from touching the plate.

In the first inning, leadoff man Manuel Margot worked a 10-pitch walk, took second base on a wild pitch, then ran into an out trying to steal third. Randy Arozarena singled and advanced to second on a balk in the second inning, but he was left there as Montgomery retired Lowe and Mike Zunino. Cruz grounded into a double play to end the third and struck out swinging with a runner on first to end the fifth.

“Their pitchers made big pitches,” Rays manager Kevin Cash said. “It felt like we were close multiple times [to] getting something big going, but they just executed their pitches.”

The Rays came to life in the sixth, when Lowe ripped his 22nd home run of the season out to left field off right-hander Chad Green to make it a 3-2 game.

“Just really trying to stay on the attack with Green up on the mound,” said Lowe, who’s hitting .305/.423/.678 this month after snapping a 10-game streak without a home run. “I was trying to stay on a certain pitch and see something up. Thankfully, I was able to see it and make some good contact.”

No. 8-hitting left fielder Ryan LaMarre jumped on a first-pitch sinker from Jeffrey Springs in the eighth, clubbing his second home run of the season and restoring the Yankees’ two-run lead. It turned out to be a pivotal run as the Rays, authors of 30 come-from-behind wins, kept fighting back.

Arozarena drove in Yandy Díaz in the eighth with a ground-rule double to right field and moved to third as Lowe hustled out an infield single, but lefty reliever Zack Britton got Zunino to ground into an inning-ending double play. That missed opportunity seemed to summarize the night.

“There were certainly some good things,” Cash said. “We just came up short, it felt like, the whole day. Just a little behind.”

Rays starter Shane McClanahan, meanwhile, danced out of trouble early on, working his way out of jams in the first, second and fourth before the Yankees finally got to him in the fifth and sixth. Greg Allen hit a leadoff double to left field in the fifth and came around to score on DJ LeMahieu’s single to right field.

McClanahan avoided further damage with his second big double-play ball of the night, this one off the bat of Aaron Judge, but gave up two runs on three straight hits -- including a two-run double by Gio Urshela -- to begin the sixth.

“It was a frustrating night. I got the ground balls that I wanted and the weak contact, but that’s baseball,” McClanahan said. “Sometimes it doesn’t roll your way. Guys behind me made a lot of great plays -- Wander and B-Lowe with those double plays and Manny [Margot] with a great sliding catch to end the sixth.

“I had a lot of help behind me. It’s just baseball. It didn’t go our way.”