The Yankees had enough offense to make this one interesting. They had 11 hits, they pushed across four runs, Ben Rice kept swinging a hot bat, and the bullpen settled things down after Will Warren’s rough night. None of it mattered in the end, because 17 strikeouts turned a winnable game into another frustrating loss, 6-4 to the Rays on Tuesday night.
That number is the story. The Yankees have now struck out 34 times in the first two games of this series, and it’s hard to dress that up as anything other than a lineup that keeps giving away outs.
The box score shows activity. The game itself showed a team that kept running into dead ends.
Rice was the bright spot again. In the third inning, after Max Schuemann reached on a bunt single and Trent Grisham doubled, Rice stepped in with the Yankees trailing 2-0 and launched a three-run homer to left-center.
It was his 26th homer of the year, and it briefly flipped the game in New York’s favor. Rice finished 3-for-4 with three RBI, and at this point he looks like one of the few hitters in the lineup with any real rhythm.
But the lead didn’t last long.
Tampa answered with four runs in the fourth inning and took control for good. Richie Palacios doubled in the tying run.
Hunter Feduccia followed with a two-run homer. Then Yandy Díaz added another homer to cap the inning and leave the Yankees chasing the game the rest of the way.
Will Warren took the loss after allowing six earned runs in four innings. He gave up seven hits, walked two, struck out three, and surrendered three home runs. Once the Rays broke through in that fourth inning, the Yankees were stuck climbing.
The bullpen did its part after that. Tim Hill, Paul Blackburn, and Brent Headrick kept Tampa quiet, but the damage had already been done.
The strikeouts piled up everywhere else. Paul Goldschmidt went 0-for-4 with four strikeouts and is now in an 0-for-30 slide.
Aaron Boone said after the game that Goldschmidt looked “in between,” and the results backed that up. Jose Caballero also struck out four times.
Cody Bellinger struck out twice. Jazz Chisholm Jr. struck out twice.
Grisham struck out twice.
The Yankees are now 50-41, four games behind the Rays, who improved to 53-36. Gerrit Cole gets the ball next against Shane McClanahan, and New York badly needs that game to steady things. But the bigger issue is obvious: the Yankees can’t keep stacking strikeouts like this and expect the offense to carry them anywhere.
They had hits. They had chances.
They had Rice doing his job again. And they still walked out of The Trop with another loss because 17 strikeouts is not a game plan.
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