Yanks Outlast Rays, Mother Nature, Win 7-5

On a very wet night in the Bronx, the Yankees beat the Rays to improve to 10 games over .500  for the first time this season. Although Michael Pineda got the start for New York tonight, the big righty did not go deep enough into the game to recieve a decision. Getting the ball and the loss for Tampa Bay was the rookie Blake Snell, who fell to 5-8 with his subpar performance tonight against one of the hottest teams in baseball.

The Yankees were quick to jump on young Snell as they hit the scoreboard in the bottom of the first inning. Jacoby Ellsbury led off the frame with an opposite field single and scored when the next batter Rob Refsnyder drilled a double into the left-center field gap, giving the Bombers an early first inning one run lead.

Snell's struggles continued in the bottom of the third: as the Yankees poured it on, knocking the young lefty out of the ballgame. Gary Sanchez absolutely obliterated a Snell fastball to dead center, sending the ball into Monument Park to put the Yanks up by two. Mark Teixeira followed with a double, advancing to third on a Didi Gregorius ground out. During Chase Headley's at bat, Snell chucked a wild pitch that enabled Teixeira to score from third to make it a 3-0 game. Headley ended up with a single to right, forcing manager Kevin Cash to pull his rookie out of the game.

Pineda was cruising through the first three frames, but it was the top of the fourth that the Rays got to Big Mike. With one out, Pineda served up back-to-back solo shots to Logan Morrison and Steven Souza Jr., pulling the Rays to within one.

In the bottom of the fourth, Rob Refsnyder hit a two-out single before the rains came. After about a 20 minute delay, the Rays put Kevin Jepsen in to attempt to keep the game at a one run deficit. Jepsen proceeded to allow a single to Sanchez and a walk to Starlin Castro to load the bases for Teixeira. And Big Tex delivered in a big way as he smacked the 11th grand slam of his career, a paint-scraper that bounced off the top of the wall and into the seats to extend the Yankee lead to five.

Although he had a five run lead. Pineda continued to nibble at the strike zone, which ultimately led to his departure from the game. With one out, Pineda served up a walk to Logan Forsythe and a hard hit single to Kevin Kiermaier. After a ground out by Evan Longoria, originally called a double play but was overturned, Girardi pulled a disgruntled Pineda for Chasen Shreve.

Shreve got out of the fifth unscored upon, but he did give up a run in the top of the sixth as Tampa tried to claw their way back into the game. Logan Morrison started the sixth with a double, coming around to score when the next batter Souza lofted a single to right that made it a four run game. After a strikeout of Corey Dickerson, Shreve was pulled for Adam Warren, who proceeded to cough up an RBI single to the light-hitting Bobby Wilson that made it 7-4 Yankees. Warren did get Forsythe out on strikes, preventing any further damage.

There would go on to be two more rain delays, with the latter being the most significant. While Betances was on the mound with two on and one out in the top of the ninth, the skies opened up yet again to force the tarps on the field for a third time. After a 50 minute delay this time, the 6'8" closer came back out to give up another run but ended up closing out a very long night with an enormous win that pulled the Pinstripers to within ONE game of the second Wild Card spot.

These two teams will face off in game three tomorrow, probably extremely tired, with first pitch scheduled for 4:05 PM/EST.