Before the game, Brandon Lowe said the current three-game series in New York was going to be “huge” given that the Yankees and Rays will be battling for the top spot in the American League East over the next six weeks.

Lowe, who had some tense words to say about the Yankees after their previous meeting in St. Petersburg, certainly did his part on Tuesday, launching a three-run home run off Masahiro Tanaka to lead the Rays to a 6-3 win over the Yankees at Yankee Stadium.

• Box score

“It’s a big win, for sure,” said Rays manager Kevin Cash. “We’ve been beat here, so anytime we can come in here and start a series off with a win is nice. We’re still behind them, we know that. … We’re fortunate that we started this series off with a win, and we’ll look to come right back and put pressure on them again tomorrow.”

The third-inning blast -- which had an exit velocity of 105.7 mph -- continued Lowe’s dominant stretch at the plate. Coming off an AL Player of the Week honor, he entered Tuesday’s game leading the AL in bWAR (1.5) and was among the league leaders in home runs, RBIs, runs scored, extra-base hits and total bases. He has also now homered in five of his last six games and seven of his last 15. Lowe extended his hitting streak to nine games.

• Inside the numbers of Lowe's hot start

“Let’s hope not,” Lowe said with a smile, when asked if he considered his recent stretch a hot streak. “Hot streaks tend to end, so let’s see how long I can keep this rolling, and hopefully it’s not just a little streak and we can look back in a couple of months and there wasn’t any down time to what I’m doing now.”

“That man [Lowe] is going crazy,” added Rays starter Blake Snell, who picked up his second win of the season after allowing three runs on four hits and two walks in five innings. “That’s a lot of fun to watch. He’s swinging at the right pitches and doing damage. What an amazing talent he is and to be able to watch that every day, it’s been pretty amazing to watch what he’s been able to do so far this season, and what he’s going to do.”

With Lowe leading the charge, the Rays have now scored 62 runs in the past eight games, and they were able to flip the script on Tanaka and the Yankees on Tuesday.

Yankee Stadium has been a house of horrors for the Rays over the past few seasons, particularly when Tanaka is on the mound. They went 2-8 in the Bronx in 2019 and were unable to score a run on the road off the Yankees right-hander, who tossed 15 scoreless innings against them in two outings in the Bronx.

But on Tuesday, the Rays’ offense had a much better approach and made a significant amount of hard contact against Tanaka. In his past five starts against the Rays, Tanaka held Tampa Bay to just five runs. The Rays used homers from Lowe and Austin Meadows to score six runs (five earned) in four-plus innings off New York’s starter.

Tampa Bay’s offense had 10 hard-hit balls -- which are balls with an exit velocity over 95 mph -- against Tanaka on Tuesday, its most against him over the past two seasons. In fact, last season, the Rays had a combined 11 hard-hit balls off him in those two starts at Yankee Stadium.

“Overall, just really encouraged by the entire offense’s approach,” Cash said. “Masahiro is a guy that has been really tough for us and he’s good. We adjusted a little bit. I think being ready for those offspeed pitches and handling them a little bit maybe allowed Brandon to get a fastball there that maybe he wouldn’t have normally and he was able to hit it for the three-run homer.”

Lowe’s recent tear at the plate has given the Rays an added sense of confidence. Tampa Bay is now 7-1 on the current road trip and moved just 1 1/2 games back of the Yankees for first place in the AL East. With a win on Wednesday, the Rays could clinch just the second series win in the Bronx since Cash took over as manager in 2015.

“It’s great right now,” Lowe said of the team’s confidence. “There are smiles all around the locker room. Everybody wants to get to the yard, everybody wants to play and it’s a great group to be around right now because everybody is bringing each other up.”