Rays look to unleash energy as soon as once more at Yankees

The Tampa Bay Rays are near the bottom of the majors in homers, but recently the power is appearing more consistently.

After tying a season high with four home runs, the Rays attempt to keep the power going and move back over .500 when they continue a four-game series with the host New York Yankees on Sunday.

Since falling to 33-38 following its 9-2 loss at Atlanta on June 15, Tampa Bay is 16-11 in its last 27 games with 37 of its 91 homers in that span. Tampa Bay hit four homers for the second time this season and slugged at least three for the eighth time this season — the sixth since June 15 — after opening the Yankees series with a 6-1 loss Friday.

In Saturday’s 9-1 rout, Randy Arozarena highlighted his seventh career four-hit game by homering in the fifth and seventh innings. He went 4-for-5, is hitting .308 in his past 17 games and is 11-for-26 (.423) during his past seven games against the Yankees.

“Randy continues to look more and more like himself,” Tampa Bay manager Kevin Cash said. “Today was a big day.”

Isaac Paredes also homered and Alex Jackson added a three-run shot as the Rays collected 11 hits and five walks.

“A lot of good swings,” Cash said.

The Yankees fell to 9-19 in their past 28 games since getting their 50th win of the season June 14 in Boston. New York went 0-for-20 with three baserunners against Tampa Bay starter Taj Bradley after rookie Ben Rice opened the game with a double.

The Yankees finished with five hits and did not score until Juan Soto tripled and scored on a groundout in the ninth. New York also hit into three double plays and made 15 outs on the ground as it went 0-for-7 with runners in scoring position.

“A little bit but we’re still having our days where we’re scoring our runs and making it happen,” said Yankees manager Aaron Boone when asked about the difficulties of finding the right lineup combination. “We gotta make it happen right now with what we have and try to piece it together.”

DJ LeMahieu went 0-for-3, is hitless in last 17 at-bats, and is batting .177 on the season.

After Bradley’s dominant outing, Shane Baz (0-1, 5.23 ERA), whose career has been stunted by injuries, will make his 12th career start since debuting in 2021. Baz is two starts into his return from Tommy John surgery in September 2022 and also had his rehab delayed due to an oblique injury in spring training.

Baz returned July 5 and allowed three runs on seven hits in six innings while throwing 92 pitches in a 3-0 loss at the Texas Rangers. He followed that up by allowing three runs on six hits in 4 1/3 innings in a no-decision on July 11 at home against the Yankees.

Baz has a 3.86 ERA with no record in three career starts against the Yankees, who have scored five runs and hit .239 off the right-hander.

Fellow righty Marcus Stroman (7-4, 3.51), who is 1-2 with 5.68 ERA in his past five starts, goes for the Yankees. After allowing 15 runs in the first four of those outings, Stroman allowed one run on seven hits in 4 1/3 innings of a no-decision in New York’s 2-1 win at Tampa Bay on July 10.

Stroman is 6-8 with a 4.29 ERA in 18 career starts against the Rays.

–Field Level Media