Sweep! The Tampa Bay Rays are able to exit the Bronx in huge, sweeping fashion on the heels of a huge 6-3 win against the Yankees. Despite falling behind early, Tampa Bay battled back — putting up one spots in the third, fourth, and fifth innings knotting things up at three apiece. Then they pulled ahead in the sixth inning on a huge Sean Rodriguez two-run blast to left-center — the longest homer at Yankee Stadium in two years (445 feet, measuring 102.1 MPH off the bat).
They were able to tack on an insurance run in a gaffe filled ninth inning, thanks to Yangervis Solarte and former Ray Kelly Johnson.
Jake Odorizzi wasn’t dominant in his 5.2 IP/8 H/3 ER/1 BB/4 K/2 HR 101 pitches (66 K, 65% K%) outing, though — credit where it’s due — he was able to work his way out of jams in the first, third, and fourth innings — making the big pitch when he needed to. Brad Boxberger came on in the ninth to close out the game, tallying his first save of the year, after putting down the tough top of the order in, well…order.
For the Rays, they are now 6-1 on their road trip following the three-game sweep of the Yankees. They’ll make their way to the Motor City for a four game set against the AL Central leading Detroit Tigers.
Consider this scant recap, since I’m working on the Rays/Tigers series preview at the moment. I live blogged the game on our Tumblr site. You can check out the (almost) blow-by-blow account of the game there.
We’ll have our series preview tomorrow morning.