About Yesterday Afternoon: A Change in Direction or a Mirage? Yankees 12- Rays 4

About Yesterday Afternoon: A Change in Direction or a Mirage? Yankees 12- Rays 4

By Tim Kabel

July 10, 2026

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The Yankees exploded yesterday, beating up on the Rays and old nemesis Drew Rasmussen.  In a game that the Yankees seemed unlikely to win, since they were going with their bullpen for the game, opening with Paul Blackburn, they certainly surprised everyone, especially the Rays and Rasmussen.

Rasmussen had thrown 13 shutdown innings against the Yankees this season entering yesterday's action. He retired the first six batters on 26 pitches before Max Schuemann led off the third inning with a double. Then, Ryan McMahon hit a double on a full count after fouling off 7 pitches. That tied the game at one. Austin Wells then hit a fly ball that moved McMahon to third base. The next five Yankees all reached on hits to knock Rasmussen out of the game.

Ben Rice hit 2 home runs, giving him 28 for the season. Rice trails Yordan Alvarez of the Astros by one for the league lead. In the Major Leagues, he ranks third behind Alvarez and Kyle Schwarber. Rice also has 65 RBI, which places him in third place in the American League.

Every Yankee in the lineup had at least one hit except for Jazz Chisholm who drove in a run with a sacrifice fly. Jazz is batting .221 for the season. He has 12 home runs and 26 stolen bases. Not only is his lofty goal of 50 home runs and 50 stolen bases an impossible dream now to borrow a line from The Man of La Mancha, but Jazz is also unlikely to repeat last year's achievement of having 30 home runs and 30 stolen bases.

Austin Wells hit a home run, giving him 5 for the season and pushing his RBI total to 11. He also nudged his batting average over the .150 mark.

If I told you before the series started that the game the Yankees would win by the widest margin in this four-game series would be the one that did not have an actual starting pitcher but instead used the bullpen and on top of that, the pitchers from the bullpen would include Jake Bird, Camilo Doval, and Angel Chivilli, you never would have believed me. I never would have believed myself. That's baseball, Suzyn.

The Yankees split the series against the Rays and remain in second place, four games behind Tampa Bay. The Yankees stand at 3-6 against the Rays for the season and if they are going to win the season series against them, they need to win the four remaining games, which will be played at the end of September at Yankee Stadium. Otherwise, the Yankees would need to finish with a record one game better than the Rays to win the division should those two teams be at the top. We remember what happened last year with the Blue Jays and certainly wouldn't want that to happen again with the Rays this year. However, I think we are getting ahead of ourselves. The Yankees were 12-14 in June and 3-5 so far in July. That's 15-19 since the end of May.

There are a lot of ways we can look at yesterday's win. Maybe it's a turning point. Maybe it isn't. The Yankees victory yesterday might very well be like the home run Austin Wells hit yesterday. In other words, something very nice but unlikely to be repeated on a regular basis.

The Yankees now have three games against the Washington Nationals before the All-Star break. Ryan Weathers and Will Warren are pitching two of those three games. The Yankees bullpen has been overworked lately and yesterday was a bullpen game. It would be nice to think that yesterday's game was a turning point for the 2026 New York Yankees. A more realistic view might be that it was a mirage and as pleasant as it was, it might not have any lasting significance.

A Few Tidbits: 

·       The six runs the Yankees Scored in the third inning were more than they had scored in any full game since June 17th.

·       The Yankees were 5-15 since June 17th entering yesterday's game.

·       Ben Rice hit 6 home runs in his last 9 games. 

·       Austin Wells’ home run was his first since May 22nd.

·       On July 9th, 2011, Derek Jeter went 5-5 against the Tampa Bay Rays. Oh yes, one of those hits was the 3,000^th of his career, a solo home run off David Price.

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Tonight, the Yankees will open a three-game series against the Nationals at 6:45 PM at Nationals Park. Ryan Weathers, (3-7, 4.29 ERA) will face Zack Littell, (7-6, 5.02 ERA).  Let’s hope Littell comes up small.