Walls' slam continues his revival as Rays hang on

NEW YORK -- Leave it to the Rays and Yankees to get into another dogfight on Sunday afternoon at Yankee Stadium. This time, Taylor Walls put Tampa Bay on top to stay and helped it win the game, 8-7, to split the four-game series. Walls, who had three hits, ended up a double shy of the cycle.

One thing the Rays have shown all season: They don’t give up when they have a deficit, and that was the case Sunday. In the top of the fifth, the Yankees were up 4-3, but Tampa Bay came back against right-hander Clarke Schmidt. With the bases loaded, Randy Arozarena hit a deep fly ball to center fielder Harrison Bader, who made a spectacular diving catch as Isaac Paredes scored and tied the game at 4-4.

After he walked Josh Lowe to reload the bases, Schmidt was taken out of the game in favor of Albert Abreu. Walls was behind in the count, 1-2, but hit a changeup over the right-center-field wall to give Tampa Bay the four-run lead.

“It was a big one,” manager Kevin Cash said. “… Wallsy came up in a big spot. J-Lowe had a good at-bat to get him up there. The power that [Walls] has shown -- the triple off the wall [in the fourth], I thought that was a homer -- he [was able to get] a little more behind it to knock it out of the park.”

In fact, Walls' triple was hit harder (104.8 mph exit velocity) than the grand slam (100.2 mph). He hit the long ball on Abreu's fourth consecutive changeup of the at-bat.

“Honestly, seeing that many pitches -- offspeed -- in a row, my eyes kind of adjusted,” Walls said. “I was looking for a pitch that was up in the zone that I could handle. So I put a good swing on it.”

Walls has turned things around in the batter’s box. After hitting .172 in 142 games last year, Walls is hitting .281 with seven home runs and 18 RBIs this season. Cash is not surprised by Walls’ success, saying his Minor League career average of .272 proves that he is a solid hitter.

“Similar to Josh, they kind of reset themselves, worked hard this offseason,” Cash said. “They are good players. They have shown the ability coming up through the Minor Leagues [that] they can hit. I think we thought it was more a matter of time. It doesn’t always come out of the gate. This game is tough. But [Walls] has responded really well.”

Walls said he has made slight mechanical and mental adjustments at the plate.

“Nothing major, just setting my hands a little higher to help me get to the elevated pitches a little bit better,” Walls said. “All in all, I think it’s how I approach the routine and process day in and day out.

“Understanding there are bumps in the road, there are ups and downs, there are 0-for-4s, 3-for-4s. I have an understanding that what I do today doesn't affect what I do tomorrow. It’s just understanding there is a process.”

The Yankees nearly tied things up in the ninth inning as reigning AL MVP Aaron Judge hit a long fly ball, which reliever Jason Adam appeared to think was a home run off the bat before it landed in center fielder Jose Siri's glove for the final out.

“I thought it was 30 rows deep,” Adam said. “But thankfully, [Judge] missed it more than I thought. This whole series was a tough series. It was a battle on both sides. To come into today, down 2-1 in the series and win this game was huge. We carry that momentum into the off day and into the Mets series.”

Judge, however, felt he didn’t hit the ball as far as Adam and the Yankees’ fans thought he did.

“Nah. Hit it good, but off the bat, just hit it too high,” Judge said. “Especially with how deep it is out there, [I was] kind of praying for a miracle once it got up there.”

Right-hander Zach Eflin benefited from the Rays’ outburst, pitching six innings, allowing four runs on seven hits and one walk and striking out nine. Eflin needed to go deep because the bullpen has been overworked in recent games. There was a scare in the third inning when Anthony Volpe hit a line-drive single off Eflin’s thigh, but Eflin turned out to be OK.

“I thought he was really good. I told him that was a pretty gutsy performance because he knew where the bullpen was and the status of it,” Cash said. “We needed him to find a way to get through that sixth, and he did.”

With the win, the Rays improved to 31-11, best in the Major Leagues.

“Yeah, I mean, it's a good team,” Schmidt said. “They're obviously swinging it really well right now. They're leading the league in a lot of offensive categories. So we knew what we were getting ourselves into and felt like we had a pretty good game plan going into it.”