New York completed a three-game sweep of Tampa Bay on Thursday night with a 3-2 victory. The Yankees are now over the .500 mark at 5-4, and the Rays say goodbye to their hot start and fall to 5-5. New York's starting pitcher, Luis Severino, got his first win of the season. He punched out 11 of Tampa Bay's batters and gave up two earned runs on five hits. He gave up a home run to Peter Bourjos, the left fielder's first slam of the season. Things all started in the bottom of the first. After Jacoby Ellsbury had stricken out on three pitches, Aaron Hicks slammed one out of the park to make it 1-0 early for the Yankees.
Sucre pulls the Rays back even
That lead wouldn't last much longer. Logan Morrison took a walk between strikeouts. Mallex Smith singled to move Morrison to second with two outs. Jesus Sucre would bring in Morrison, but the threat would end after Smith was called out at third base. Still, the game was tied at 1-1. The Yankees would get another opportunity in the bottom of the third. Austin Romine singled, then after a couple of groundouts that moved him to third base, both Aaron Hicks and Matt Holliday took bases on balls to load things up. After a coaching visit to the mound with Rays pitcher Matt Andriese, he was able to strike out Starlin Castro to end the threat.
Another threat for the Yankees came in the bottom of the fourth.
Chase Headley recorded a single and eventually moved to third base on a Romine double. With two in scoring position with two outs left. Ronald Torreyes would line out. Tampa Bay capitalized on New York not being able to reel in a run with Peter Bourjos putting up his first home run of the year in the top of the fifth to take a 2-1 lead.
In the next two frames for the Yankees, they would open things up with a leadoff walk and leadoff double, but didn't do anything with it.
Hicks finally delivers again for Yankees
Finally, the Yankees were able to come through in the bottom of the seventh. Torreyes hit a single that made the Rays go to their bullpen to trot out Xavier Cedeno.
After Ellsbury grounded into a forceout, Hicks again delivered a home run out of left field to give New York a 3-2 lead. That put the Yankees' starting pitcher in position to win the game, and he was taken out before the beginning of the eighth inning.
That could have been disastrous. The Rays started off with a walk and a single, but Kevin Kiermaier and Evan Longoria got back-to-back strikeouts to end any threat. Closer Aroldis Chapman came into the final inning and picked up his second save of the season. He allowed a single by Morrison but struck out two of the four batters he faced to seal the deal for the Yankees.
