On one pitch, Yanks snatch victory away from Rays

NEW YORK -- It was a dogfight between the Rays and Yankees on Friday night at Yankee Stadium. When it was over, New York edged Tampa Bay, 6-5.

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In the top of the eighth, Tampa Bay came back from a 4-2 deficit to take a 5-4 lead when Josh Lowe hit a 2-1 fastball from right-hander Michael King over the left-field wall. It was Lowe’s second home run of the series, and he has eight RBIs in the past two games. On the road, Lowe has a slash line of .382/.433/.818 with seven home runs and 19 RBIs.

“He is swinging the bat really well,” Rays manager Kevin Cash said. “You have to be thrilled with where he is at. Offensively, he is doing a lot of good things.”

The Rays were jubilant in the dugout after Lowe’s home run, and it appeared they were on their way to capturing their 31st victory of the season.

“It was a great hit,” said Rays outfielder Randy Arozarena through interpreter Manny Navarro. “We were able to get the lead with that home run. Unfortunately, we were not able to hold on. It was a great blast for the team.”

But Tampa Bay’s bullpen couldn’t hold on to the lead. After right-hander Kevin Kelly allowed a one-out walk to Aaron Judge, reliever Jason Adam entered the game and allowed a monster home run to Anthony Rizzo to give New York the one-run lead.

The exit velocity on Rizzo’s drive was 108.7 mph. Adam threw a changeup he wished he could take back.

“Rizzo is a good hitter, obviously. Let’s get a strike here,” Adam said. “My changeup has been a pitch that got me here. I trust it. I tried to throw it probably too high in the zone, although I have not seen the replay. He is a good player. He put a good swing on it. It kind of stinks.

“I’m sure he knows the changeup is one of my best pitches. I don’t know whether he was sitting on it or not. It doesn’t really matter. He was able to barrel it. Hindsight is 20/20. But we’ll take it to battle every day.”

Rizzo credited the sellout crowd of 46,130 for getting his juices flowing in the batter’s box.

“It was electric tonight here at the stadium,” Rizzo said. “Just getting out for pregame and running around, there was extra juice behind the fans. We recognized that right away, and we feed off of that.

“A back-and-forth game is good, and I think this division is really good for the game right now. It's a dogfight every night, I feel like. I feel like as this season goes on, none of these teams in the division will back down, that's for sure.”

Cash said the matchups in the eighth inning were what the Rays wanted, but Rizzo spoiled the team’s plan.

“We’ve seen it time and time again,” Cash said. “It seems like he rises to the occasion. He certainly did tonight. It might have been mindful that a changeup was coming, but he has a solid approach. He knows what he is doing. He has done it for a long time. He knocked it out of the ballpark.”

For Cash, there was a lot to like. Arozarena had two hits, including his 10th home run of the season, and he made a diving catch in the seventh inning of a fly ball by Jose Trevino that saved a couple of runs.

“Off the bat and looking at Randy, I thought no chance from my angle, but he gained a lot of ground,” Cash said about the catch.

The Rays made Yankees starter Gerrit Cole work hard on the mound. He lasted just five innings and threw 95 pitches. However, Tampa Bay scored only two runs off him, on solo home runs by Arozarena and Jose Siri.

"We did drive the pitch count up. We were not able to add much more. He is really good,” Cash said. “Randy got him. Jose got him. On a night that he didn’t have his best command, [Cole] knows how to limit damage, make big pitches when he needed it to. So he gave the team a chance to win.”