Yankees miss chance to leapfrog Tampa Bay

ST. PETERSBURG -- For most of the past week, it seems as though the Yankees have hung their hat on maintaining early and staying close enough to strike at the opportune moment.

On Saturday, the strike just didn't come during a 7-2 loss to the Rays at Tropicana Field.

"Anytime you're in a game like that and don't finish an inning off the way you can, that's frustrating, but it's also part of it," Yankees manager Aaron Boone said. "We just couldn't get that final out there unfortunately, and then they were able to shut us down."

• Box score

It was less that New York couldn't get anything going than it was that the Yankees just couldn't quite finish it off. The biggest squandered opportunity, however, was that with a win, New York would've leapfrogged the Rays into first place in the American League East. Instead, the Yankees will enter Sunday 1 1/2 games back.

New York had a runner in scoring position in three of the first five innings but capitalized just once, and Tampa Bay didn't permit the Yankees many more chances.

After not having much luck against Rays opener Ryne Stanek through two innings, the Yankees began to peck away at his replacement, Yonny Chirinos, in the fifth. Gleyber Torres opened the frame with his second hit of the game, then scored from first on Clint Frazier's double to center to bring New York to within 2-1.

DJ LeMahieu then led off the sixth with a homer, his second of the year, to tie the game. Chirinos responded by sandwiching a double-play groundout between two hit batters but wiggled out of trouble when Torres grounded out to end the threat.

"We've been playing great," LeMahieu said. "We've been playing great baseball. Hopefully, [we'll] come out tomorrow and win the series."

CC Sabathia labored throughout his five-inning outing but managed to limit the damage to a pair of home runs, one each to lead off the second and third innings. Sabathia was assisted in large part by the defenders behind him who made sure the Rays' hard contact turned into harmless flyouts.

During a game in which the left-hander said he "didn't really have good stuff," Sabathia managed to save the bullpen from early action. He allowed three hits, walked a season-high-tying four and struck out two. He threw 76 pitches, 49 for strikes.

Boone said conversations had begun in the fourth inning about pulling the veteran starter simply because it was obvious Sabathia was without his best tools. He entered for the fifth anyway and rounded out his day on a high note with a seven-pitch frame.

"I was just trying to battle. That's a good lineup," Sabathia said. "I was just trying to make pitches and try and get us back in the dugout to score some runs."

Tampa Bay took the lead for good on consecutive two-out singles in the sixth off reliever Jonathan Holder. Yandy Diaz, who homered in the third, hit a three-run home run in the bottom of the eighth inning for the final margin.

Roster move
Following the game, the Yankees optioned left-hander Nestor Cortes Jr. to Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre. The 24-year-old pitched the seventh and the eighth innings Saturday, allowing the second home run to Diaz among his four hits allowed and striking out three.

A corresponding move is expected Sunday.