It's the Yandy and Randy show as Rays slug past Yanks

ST. PETERSBURG -- After a couple of quiet nights at the plate, and six weeks without their two best hitters at the top of their game, the Rays’ lineup looked a lot more like it should Saturday afternoon at Tropicana Field.

Yandy Díaz went 3-for-4 with a home run and two doubles, Randy Arozarena hit a three-run homer in his first multihit game since March 30 and the Rays’ pitching staff held up its end of the bargain to secure a 7-2 win over the Yankees.

“It’s a different offense, obviously, as we can see, when those two guys are contributing at the level they’re capable of,” manager Kevin Cash said.

The Rays halted a two-game losing streak and pulled back to .500, at 20-20, due in large part to the contributions of two sluggers who have scuffled through surprising slumps over the past six weeks. They finished the night a combined 5-for-7 with two homers, three doubles, six RBIs and five runs.

“You know what they're capable of,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said. “They're really good hitters, and obviously they made a big difference in them winning the game.”

Díaz has looked more like himself lately, going 10-for-29 during the first seven games of this lengthy homestand after batting just .211 with a .556 OPS through his first 31 games. But the power that propelled the leadoff-hitting first baseman’s breakout last season had been noticeably absent since he clubbed a home run in the Rays’ first plate appearance of the season back on Opening Day.

Maybe it was a matter of time, or perhaps it’s the new goatee he’s sporting this weekend, but that changed on the first pitch Díaz saw Saturday afternoon.

Left-hander Nestor Cortes threw Díaz a first-pitch fastball, and Díaz swatted it a Statcast-projected 401 feet out to left-center field. His second home run of the season, which was also his 13th career leadoff homer, was his first in 37 games and 116 plate appearances.

“I was just trying to take advantage of the first pitch, and thank God I was able to take advantage of it,” Díaz said through interpreter Manny Navarro. “I feel good. It looks like I’m becoming the hitter from the past, and hopefully I can continue that way.”

The Yankees pulled ahead in the second, when Anthony Volpe hit a two-run single off Rays starter Zack Littell, but Littell retired eight in a row after that and worked 5 2/3 innings without permitting another run. And the Rays quickly pulled ahead again.

Slumping center fielder Jose Siri worked a leadoff walk in the third, then Díaz roped a 113.6 mph double to left field off Cortes. He is now 12-for-30 with four doubles and three homers against the Yankees lefty, crediting an aggressive approach against the strike-throwing starter.

Up came Arozarena, who blasted a first-pitch fastball out to right-center for his seventh home run of the season. Arozarena has three homers in his past six games and four in his past eight, part of an 8-for-52 stretch in which all of his hits have gone for extra bases. According to the Elias Sports Bureau, that is the longest such stretch for the Rays since Brandon Lowe had eight straight extra-base hits from June 27-July 11, 2021.

“I was just trying to hit a home run. I wasn’t looking for a specific pitch. I was just trying to hit it out,” Arozarena said, smiling, through Navarro. “Thank God I was able to hit it out, and we were able to get the lead.”

Díaz and Arozarena gave the Rays’ bullpen some breathing room in the seventh. With former Yankee Ben Rortvedt at second base, Díaz ripped an RBI double to center to record his first game with three extra-base hits since May 26 of last year.

“Hitting’s hard, and he’s kind of worn it here over that first month, but he seems to be coming out of it,” Cash said. “You start seeing Yandy hitting line drives all over the ballpark -- home runs, double down the line, double in the gap -- that’s a good thing for us.”

Arozarena followed with an RBI double to left, securing his (long-awaited) first two-hit game since the season’s opening series, and scored on a sacrifice fly by Isaac Paredes. Arozarena said earlier this week he couldn’t say he was truly back until he had two hits in a game, so he was feeling good as he stood in front of his locker after snapping that career-long 35-game streak.

“Yeah, I’m starting to feel a little bit better. It’s been a long time, since the beginning of the year, since I’ve gotten multiple hits,” Arozarena said. “So I’m definitely starting to feel a little bit better, thank God.”