About Yesterday: Rays Defeat Yanks

About Yesterday: The Yankees Were Left in the Dark by the Rays 7-5

By Tim Kabel

May 5, 2025

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The Yankees fumbled and bumbled their way to a 7-5 loss to the Tampa Bay Rays yesterday afternoon. Unlike Friday's game, it was not a crisp, well-played affair. The fact that Max Fried was not pitching certainly had a lot to do with that. Unfortunately, Max cannot pitch every day or at the minimum, three out of every five days. This could become a problem.

Quick Stats –  

·       Aaron Judge was named the American League Player of the Week for last week. They should simply give him that award every week until he retires. Chances are he will earn it 80% of the time. I was amazed when during the broadcast, Michael Kay and Jeff Nelson stated that last year, Aaron Judge was the Player of the Week only three times and the Player of the Month three times. I agreed with Michael Kay that if Judge was the Player of the Month in a given month, he most likely would have been the Player of the Week every week in that month, or at least most of them. No matter how you slice it, Judge is the best player in the league right now, hands down.

·       Tampa Bay matched its season high output with 16 hits against the Yankees’ pitchers. Their number 9 hitter, Taylor Walls, had four hits himself, to raise his average to .192.

·       Aaron Judge, who is now batting .423, doubled in the 8th inning to extend his on-base streak to 30 games. 

·       Will Warren, who is 0-2 in his last four starts, gave up 5 runs, (3 earned), with 7 hits and 3 walks in 4 2/3 innings.  The good news is that he had 8 strikeouts. There is some real talent inside of Warren. Warren and Matt Blake just have to figure out how to bring it to the surface consistently.

·       Cody Bellinger hit his 200th career home run in the 6th inning. Unfortunately, he is still batting just .200 for the season. 

·       Carlos Carrasco pitched in relief because his spot in the starting rotation will be usurped on Tuesday by Clarke Schmidt. Carrasco pitched three innings and allowed two runs on five hits. His ERA for the season is now 5.91. After the game, Aaron Boone stated that Carrasco “sort of held the line for us there.” Since the Yankees lost by a score of 7-5 and Carrasco gave up two runs, I'm not at all sure what line he was holding. Normally, when someone holds the line on something, they maintain the status quo. Nothing changes. Putting your team in a deeper hole is not “holding the line.” But then again, who am I to quibble with the great communicator?

·       I read somewhere that the Yankees are still paying Aaron Hicks through the remainder of this season. Boy, that was money well-spent.

·       Yesterday, the Yankees moved George Lombard, Jr.  to AA because he is off to a scorching start on the season. I think he is a more likely candidate to be playing third base for the Yankees by the end of the season than is DJ LeMahieu. Could a Spencer Jones promotion to AAA be coming soon?

·       On May 4th, 1965, Yogi Berra came out of retirement to make his debut as a player for the New York Mets. His playing career in its second incarnation, lasted only four games and he retired after a Mother's Day doubleheader.

·      On May 4th, 1997, Jorge Posada hit his first Major League home run.

Big Story – 

The Yankees lost the series to the Tampa Bay Rays this weekend. Before that, they lost a series to the Baltimore Orioles. Currently, the Rays and the Blue Jays are tied for third place in the American League East and Baltimore is in last place. None of those teams have a .500 record. Going 2-4 against the Orioles and the Rays at home is not a good sign. Perhaps the Boone-Swoon will come early this year. After all, it's like Easter. You never know exactly when it's coming, but it is coming.

Player of the Game – 

Cody Bellinger hit his 200th career home run and drove in two runs. 

Notable Performances – 

Jorbit Vivas had his first Major League hit in the 8th inning, driving in two runs.

Tyler Matzek pitched 1.1 innings.  He gave up four hits but did not allow any runs. That is holding the line.

Better To Forget

That Aaron Boone was in mid-season form when it came to managerial decisions and blunders which in the case of Boone, are frequently interchangeable words.

My Take – 

When I wrote about the inevitable Boone-Swoon in my Saturday article, I didn't think it was coming so soon (apologies to Dr. Seuss). The Yankees lost two series back-to-back to the Orioles and the Rays. Both of those teams are struggling. Yet, they didn't struggle against the Yankees. Things can change rather quickly in baseball, so it is entirely possible that the next time the Yankees meet these two teams, they may be playing a lot better. If the Yankees want to make the World Series, they need to take advantage of the easier games that are on the schedule. In other words, they need to beat teams that are inferior or teams that are struggling when they play the Yankees. The goal is to accumulate as many wins as possible as early as possible. The last six games the Yankees played did not help in this regard.

It was clear that Anthony Volpe would not be playing yesterday. He injured himself Saturday. It is not considered to be something that will keep him out of the lineup for a long period of time. It is fine for him to miss a game here or there. He missed just a handful of games in his first two years. Although he is young, he could use a few more days off. Jazz Chisholm, Jr. is on the IL. The question is, did Aaron Boone have to empty his bench into the starting lineup yesterday? Clearly, he needed two bench players to fill in for Chisholm and Volpe. That brings us to the first question. Pablo Reyes has not been hitting well at all for the Yankees. True, he plays only sporadically, but even when he plays, he doesn't hit, and it is not as if he is a Gold Glove caliber fielder. He is not. Reyes is also, a right-handed hitter. The starting pitcher for the Rays, Taj Bradley is right-handed as well. It would have made a lot more sense to have Jorbit Vivas playing second base. Eventually, he pinch-hit for Reyes anyway. He drove in two runs. Why didn’t Vivas start?

Another question would be why were both Ben Rice and Austin Wells on the bench, especially when Chisholm and Volpe were already out of the lineup? If Boone wanted to give Wells a day off, why didn't he have Rice catch? Rice caught several games in Spring Training and has appeared as a catcher during the regular season. Furthermore, he has more professional games under his belt as a catcher than he does as a first baseman.

Will Warren struggled with his consistency again and although only three of the five runs he gave up were earned, he was not effective. Because Saturday’s game was a bullpen day, Boone did not have a lot of available pitchers. That combined with the fact that Clarke Schmidt will be taking Carlos Carrasco’s spot on Tuesday led Boone to use Carrasco yesterday. Carrasco gave up two runs in three innings. For Boone to say with a straight face after the game that Carrasco, “sort of held the line for us” is ludicrous. 

Let's jump ahead to the 8th inning. Jasson Dominguez came to the plate with one run in and runners on first and second. Dominguez hit an absolute bullet off the right field wall that held him to a single and loaded the bases. JC Escarra was due up. Why didn't Boone pinch hit for him with either Rice or Wells?  Escarra hit into a double play. Vivas came up and drove in two runs with a single. Then, Boone used Ben Rice to pinch hit for Oswaldo Cabrera. Cabrera is a much better hitter with a more substantial track record than Escarra. Rice walked. Oswald Peraza, who is a right-handed hitter, came up against the right-handed pitcher. It would have made more sense to let Cabrera bat and then use Rice or Wells to pinch hit for Peraza. Regardless, Peraza made the final out of the inning and then Wells came in to catch and Escarra moved to third base. Boone could have had Wells pinch hit for Cabrera and not wasted both Rice and Wells in one move. Alternatively, Boone could have had Rice catch after he pinch hit for Cabrera.

I'm not saying that Aaron Boone cost the Yankees the game yesterday, but he sure didn't help things. He has a long pattern of dubious decisions that put the team in precarious positions. The Yankees need to make some call-ups or some trades to shore up the starting rotation. That would be a big help. It would also be helpful if Aaron Boone utilized his talent in a more effective way. He makes a lot of head scratching decisions. Unfortunately, the head scratching is never done in a manner to reflect amazement at how clever he is. On the contrary, it's usually because what he does makes little to no sense. The Boone-Swoon may have begun.

Next Up-

The Yankees will open a three-game series against the Padres tonight at 7:05 PM at Yankee Stadium. Nick Pivetta, (5-1, 1.78 ERA) will pitch for San Diego. The Yankees will send Carlos Rodon, (4-3, 3.43 ERA) to the mound.