"How bush-league are they, Uncle Mike?"
They're so bush-league, they haven't even paid their electric bill.
Masahiro Tanaka took the hill for the Yankees in the rubber game of a 3-game weekend series against the Rays, who were hanging on to 1st place in the American League Eastern Division. He got the job done, pitching 7 innings, allowing 1 run on 5 hits and no walks, striking out 7.
But no matter how well your starter pitches, you've got to score runs for him. The game was scoreless with 2 outs in the top of the 5th, but Austin Romine and Mike Tauchman hit back-to-back doubles, and DJ LeMahieu followed with an RBI single. That made it 2-0 Yankees.
The Yankees picked up a 3rd run in the 8th, and then came the power outage at Tropicana Field. A stadium designed to make rain delays impossible, and we had a delay due to unplayable grounds anyway.
The delay ended up lasting 43 minutes. The Rays may now be wishing that power had not been restored. The Yankees added four runs in the top of the 9th, including a home run by rookie infield fill-in Thairo Estrada.
Zack Britton pitched a scoreless 8th, and Chad Green returned from the minor leagues, and pitched a perfect 9th. Yankees 7, Rays 1. WP: Tanaka (3-3). No save. LP: Blake Snell (3-4).
The Yankees are now just half a game out of 1st place in the AL East, 1 game behind the Rays in the all-important loss column.
They come home to play the Baltimore Orioles. When last these teams met, the injury crisis had just begun, and the Orioles handled the Yankees fairly easily. Fans were outraged, saying that we shouldn't lose to such a lousy team.
Since then, normal service has been restored, and the Orioles are in last place. And Aaron Hicks is going to be activated from the Injured List today, making the Yankees quite a bit more maneuverable, and possibly stronger.