ST. PETERSBURG -- The Rays got back to their winning ways at Tropicana Field on Tuesday night, mashing three home runs and striking out 17 batters in a 6-4 win over the Yankees.
The victory halted the Rays’ three-game losing streak, improved their record to 53-36 and reestablished a four-game lead over the Yankees in the American League East.
Here are three takeaways from Tampa Bay’s power-hitting, bat-missing win.
1. Seymour’s a strikeout artist.
On Monday night, Griffin Jax tied his career best with 10 strikeouts, part of a 17-strikeout performance by Tampa Bay’s staff. Left-hander Ian Seymour took it a step further on Tuesday, racking up a career-high 12 strikeouts over 5 1/3 innings to continue his relatively seamless transition from the bullpen back to the rotation.
Seymour gave up a three-run homer to Ben Rice in the third inning, but that was the only mark against him in an otherwise excellent start. He has now put together three of his most impressive outings in a row, recording a 1.33 ERA with 27 strikeouts and only two walks during that stretch.
Seymour appeared to be in complete command of his three-pitch mix, using a nearly even distribution to keep the Yankees off-balance. The deceptive southpaw forced New York’s hitters to whiff on 17 of their 45 swings, piling up strikeouts with his changeup (five), fastball (four) and sweeper (three).
2. The Rays have some pop, too.
Tampa Bay was on the wrong end of a homer-heavy attack on Monday, as the Yankees’ only three hits were home runs. These teams are on opposite ends of the power spectrum, as the Bronx Bombers lead the Majors in homers while the Rays rank 13th in the AL, but that wasn’t the case on Tuesday night.
After being held without a homer in their past two games, the Rays cracked three off Yankees starter Will Warren: a second-inning solo shot by Victor Mesa Jr. followed by back-to-back blasts from Hunter Feduccia and leadoff man Yandy Díaz in the fourth.
Feduccia’s second career homer was a tiebreaking two-run shot to right-center, and Díaz immediately delivered an opposite-field drive to right field for his 13th homer of the season.
The Rays are simply not built to outmuscle their opponents, but the numbers show how helpful it is when they run into a few pitches. They improved to 40-12 this season when hitting at least one homer and 20-4 on the year when going deep twice or more.
3. Start it from the bottom.
The past few weeks, manager Kevin Cash has occasionally mentioned Tampa Bay's need to lengthen its lineup -- to get more out of everyone beyond the “Big Three” of Díaz, Jonathan Aranda and Junior Caminero, in other words.
Díaz delivered in a big way on Tuesday, moving into fifth place on the franchise’s all-time RBI list, with 451 -- but the other guys came through, too.
Mesa launched his fourth homer of the season in the second, a high-arcing shot to right. Then Richie Palacios singled with two outs, Feduccia kept the inning alive with a walk and Díaz drove in Palacios.
The Rays’ four-run fourth also started with the bottom of the order. Taylor Walls hit a one-out single to right, Palacios smacked an RBI double, then the No. 9-hitting Feduccia smashed the biggest hit of the night.