A wacky 10th inning capped by two hits — a bunt and infield single — doomed the Yankees on a night Jose Caballero nearly became an unlikely hero.
Following Caballero’s go-ahead RBI single that put his team up, 4-3, in the top of the 10th, Rays first baseman Jonathan Aranda’s RBI infield single proved to be enough for a walk-off 5-4 victory at Tropicana Field on Saturday night.
Aranda’s walk-off on Yankees closer David Bednar followed Taylor Walls’ sacrifice attempt that turned into an RBI bunt single that tied the game, 4-4.
Tampa Bay’s speed on the bases — mainly by Chandler Simpson, who scored the winning run — defeated the Yankees in the final frame, giving the Bombers its fourth consecutive loss.
The division foes ruined Caballero’s clutch moments: a RBI single in the 10th and a 2-RBI double in the eighth that put his team up, 3-2.
The struggling shortstop entered the night hitting .125 and was 0-for-3 before his double in the eighth. The team was 0-for-6 with runners in scoring position before Caballero’s eighth-inning double.
The team’s early, anemic offense came with starter Max Fried holding the game together, pitching eight innings while allowing six hits, no walks and striking out six batters.
Eventually, the Bombers totaled eight hits, but left 12 on base while going 2-for-12 with runners in scoring position.
Jonny DeLuca’s RBI single in the second accounted for Fried’s first earned run of the game. Aranda’s sixth-inning sac fly and Yandy Diaz’s eight-inning infield single tax Fried for two more runs.
Simpson scored on Diaz’s eighth-inning single and the game’s game-winning run, proving costly for a Yankees squad now facing a series sweep on Sunday. Before scoring the winning run, Chandler got on base with a bunt single of his own.
Before the Yankees’ offense went cold, Austin Wells got the scoring started with his first RBI of the season, a 396-foot solo home run to right field in the second inning.
Missed opportunities were frequent for the Bombers on Saturday.
Giancarlo Stanton struck out swinging with the bases loaded in the fifth; Amed Rosario failed to score an insurance run right after Caballero came up big in the eighth; and Randal Grichuk — who ended up in a key spot fifth in the order after pinch running for Stanton in the eighth — flied out to center with runners on the corners in the ninth to end the inning.
Rays reliever Cole Sulser finished with the win after pitching in the top of the 10th. Bednar tallied his second loss of the season after allowing three hits, two runs (one earned) and a walk in the bottom of that frame.
The Yankees will look to avoid its first series sweep Sunday with Cam Schlittler on the mound against Tampa Bay’s Drew Rasmussen.