{"id":636822,"date":"2026-05-11T16:04:15","date_gmt":"2026-05-11T16:04:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/636822\/"},"modified":"2026-05-11T16:04:15","modified_gmt":"2026-05-11T16:04:15","slug":"yankees-rivalry-roundup-the-first-place-tampa-bay-rays","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/636822\/","title":{"rendered":"Yankees Rivalry Roundup: The first place Tampa Bay Rays"},"content":{"rendered":"

I\u2019d prefer to not talk about the entire weekend as it pertains to baseball. The Yankees<\/a> got utterly spanked in Milwaukee<\/a>, suffering their second sweep of the season. For that reason alone there was very little to cheer about the past few days.<\/p>\n

But to make it worse, the godforsaken Tampa Bay Rays continued their infuriating start. Oh. Look at me. I have a +20 run differential through 39 games and am somehow playing .667 ball. Their a couple blowout losses from a neutral run differential.<\/p>\n

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Nothing like being in second place in the AL East because of the Rays\u2019 loathsome devil magic. I cannot accurately describe how much Tampa<\/a> infuriates me.<\/p>\n

Tampa Bay Rays (26-13) 4, Boston Red Sox<\/a> (17-23) 1: Boston is useless. The one time we need them to do something, they shrivel up and die. Tampa split the first two games of this weekend set and wasted no time in the rubber match. Junior Caminero hit a solo shot in the first. In the third, a pair of singles plated two more runs and, lo and behold, that\u2019s all the Rays needed on the day.<\/p>\n

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On the mound, Nick Martinez<\/a> continued his mesmerizing season. 5.2 innings of one-run ball lowered his season ERA to 1.70, just a speck lower than his career 4.04 mark. After he departed, three Rays relievers combined to hurl 3.1 scoreless frames. Of course. Ladies and gentlemen, the first place Tampa Bay Rays.<\/p>\n

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Toronto Blue Jays<\/a> (18-22) 1, Los Angeles Angels<\/a> (16-25) 6: Jays fans rejoice. Y\u2019all managed to score a run off Angels ace Jose Soriano<\/a>. And in the first inning, no less. Kazuma Okamoto<\/a> doubled in Daulton Varsho<\/a> and the Jays had the Angels on the ropes early. But then, Soriano did Soriano things. One of the early season favorites for the AL Cy Young Award, Soriano allowed not a run the rest of the way, departing after 7.2 frames.<\/p>\n

At the dish, former Yankee Oswald Peraza<\/a> provided all the offense the Angels ended up needing. His two-run home run in the top of the fifth made it 2-1 Angels. They added two more that inning, with lone runs in the sixth and ninth cementing their win over last season\u2019s Junior Circuit champs.<\/p>\n

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As an aside, if I tried, I don\u2019t think I could describe how much Peraza learning to hit major league pitching makes me want to gnaw on the floorboards. After Sunday, Peraza is hitting .282 with an .815 OPS. Last year, in his most extended stint as a Yankee, he hit .152 with a .452 OPS in 71 games. You can\u2019t predict baseball, Suzyn.<\/p>\n

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Other Games<\/p>\n

Cleveland Guardians<\/a> (21-21) 4, Minnesota Twins<\/a> (18-23) 5: This one was tight into the middle innings, at which time the Guards and starter Gavin Williams<\/a> fell apart. Double, single, double, single off Williams in the fifth made it 3-1 Minnesota. Not finished, after Williams managed to get two outs, the Twins added two more run-scoring singles to extend the lead to 5-1. Give Cleveland credit. They clawed their way back into it, with runs in the fifth and sixth cutting the lead in half. Then in the eighth, they scratched another run across and even put the winning run in scoring position. Alas, Rhys Hoskins<\/a> grounded out to end the threat. That was their last best chance.<\/p>\n

Detroit Tigers<\/a> (19-22) 6, Kansas City Royals<\/a> (19-22) 3: The American League Central, mediocrity is thy name. Detroit and the Royals faced off on Sunday Night Baseball and, after fighting one another to a draw early, the Tigers\u2019 offense broke through in the late innings for the win. The big blow came off the bat of Gage Workman<\/a>. Coming in to tonight with zero career home runs in limited action, the Tigers\u2019 #99 channeled his inner Aaron Judge<\/a> when called on to pinch-hit in the sixth. His tw0-run dinger broke a 3-3 tie and sent the Tigers to victory.<\/p>\n

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Seattle Mariners<\/a> (19-22) 1, Chicago White Sox<\/a> (19-21) 2: The Mariners offense managed to score early, scraping a lone run across in the first. Then, it went into hibernation, making nary a dent in the run column the rest of the way. Predictably, one run was not enough to win, though it looked like it might for most of the game. But in the bottom of the eighth, recent Yankee friend Randal Grichuk<\/a> tied the game with a solo home run before a Miguel Vargas<\/a> sacrifice fly later in the inning scored the eventual game-winning run. Tough times in Seattle, with Cal Raleigh<\/a> hitting .161 with a .573 OPS after Sunday\u2019s game.<\/p>\n

Texas Rangers<\/a> (19-21) 3, Chicago Cubs<\/a> (27-14) 0: Listen, beating the Chicago Cubs these days is a big deal. No duff. It helps that Texas sent Jacob deGrom<\/a> out for Sunday\u2019s game. The multi-time Cy Young Award winner was in vintage form, stymieing the Cubs for seven shutout innings with 10 strikeouts, allowing a paltry three hits and no walks. A fourth inning fielder\u2019s choice put Texas on the board. An Evan Carter<\/a> two-run home run in the eighth provided the insurance and closed out the scoring.<\/p>\n

View Link<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"I\u2019d prefer to not talk about the entire weekend as it pertains to baseball. The Yankees got utterly…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":636823,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[65],"tags":[4260,374,275019,1993,479,2318,2320,92894,372,104338,125646,80664,13822,222473,9878,2321,133757,2322,76813,8263,2326,363,37181,18701,99361,120547,481,99,624,974,2330,40913,364,12404],"class_list":["post-636822","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-aaron-judge","tag-boston-red-sox","tag-brady-williams","tag-cal-raleigh","tag-chicago-cubs","tag-chicago-white-sox","tag-cleveland-guardians","tag-daulton-varsho","tag-detroit-tigers","tag-evan-carter","tag-gage-workman","tag-gavin-williams","tag-jacob-degrom","tag-jose-soriano","tag-junior-caminero","tag-kansas-city-royals","tag-kazuma-okamoto","tag-los-angeles-angels","tag-miguel-vargas","tag-milwaukee","tag-minnesota-twins","tag-mlb","tag-nick-martinez","tag-oswald-peraza","tag-randal-grichuk","tag-rhys-hoskins","tag-seattle-mariners","tag-sports","tag-tampa","tag-tampa-bay-rays","tag-texas-rangers","tag-the-rays","tag-toronto-blue-jays","tag-yankees"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/636822","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=636822"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/636822\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/636823"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=636822"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=636822"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=636822"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}