The Yankees lost to the Rays on Tuesday after striking out 17 times

On Tuesday night at Tropicana Field, after winning the first game of the series 5–1, the Yankees lost to the Tampa Bay Rays 6–4 and are now four games behind the Rays for first place in the AL East.

The Yankees have struck out 17 times in each of their last two games. It’s the first time that a team has struck out at least 17 times in back-to-back 9-inning games in MLB history. Jose Caballero struck out in all four of his at-bats in this game and in the second inning he was taking all the way on a 3–2 pitch that was right down the middle. He even dropped his bat before the ball got to the catcher. Paul Goldschmidt also went 0–4 with four strikeouts. The Yankees have the most strikeouts in the Majors in their last 19 games.

“We do not want to lead in that number (strikeouts), clearly,” manager Aaron Boone said. “But, as far as approach, I am confident in our approach. But, we got to get some guys on track right now. Some really good players, obviously, that are going through a tough time right now. We are not going to overhaul and change, but part of our approach is being a tough out and being situational, and we have to do a better job of that right now.”

The Yankees are now 2–10 in their last 12 games since June 25. The Yankees have scored three runs or less in seven of those 12 games and have scored an average of just three runs in their last 12 games.

Goldschmidt has done nothing offensively since June 26. Goldschmidt is 0–30 in his last nine games and the Yankees have gone 2–7 in those nine games. He had a .301 average and a .933 OPS on June 25 but now his average is .261 and his OPS is all the way down to .815. Cody Bellinger went 1–4 with two strikeouts in this game and in his last 14 games, he is 5–52 with 16 strikeouts. In those 14 games, his average has gone down from .276 to .248 and his OPS has gone down from .843 to .762. Caballero had a Golden Sombrero in this game after going 2–3 with two homers in the first game of the series on Monday.

The Yankees went just 1–5 with runners in scoring position in this game. Goldschmidt, Trent Grisham (0–2) and Caballero combined to go 0–4 with runners in scoring position. The only hit the Yankees had with runners in scoring position was when Ben Rice had his three-run homer in the third inning to score Max Schuemann and Grisham to give the Yankees a 3–2 lead. The Rays then outscore the Yankees 4–1 the rest of the game. Yankees backup catcher Ali Sanchez had a sacrifice fly to to right to score Jazz Chisholm in the seventh inning to make the score 6–4 Tampa Bay, which would be the final score.

Sanchez went 2–4 and was the only Yankee besides Rice with a multi-hit game. Sanchez went 2–4 in this game after going 2–13 in his previous eight games played. In this game, he raised his average from .222 to .267 and he raised his OPS from .572 to .636.

Rice hit a homer in this game, which means he has hit a home run in back-to-back games. His 26 homers are the most by a Yankee not named Aaron Judge before the All-Star Break since Alex Rodriguez had 30 homers before the All-Star Break in 2007. Rice went 3–4 in this game and is 7–21 with a .462 OBP, three homers and six RBI in his last six games after going 3–35 in his previous nine games. Rice is back to hitting like an MVP candidate.

Rice now has 26 homers this season, which puts him in a tie with the Rays’ Junior Caminero for the second most homers in the American League. Caminero went 0–4 with two strikeouts in this game. Rice’s 184 total bases are the third most in the AL, his .364 OBP is 13th in the league, his .577 SLG is second best in the league and his .941 OPS is second best in the league.

Will Warren continued to struggle for the Yankees in this game. He allowed six earned runs with three homers in his four innings pitched in this game. He threw a first pitch strike to just 12 of the 21 batters he faced. Warren has now allowed at least five runs in two of his last three starts. In his last three starts, his ERA has gone up from 3.45 to 4.15. He has allowed two runs or less in just three of his last six starts after allowing two runs or less in 10 of his first 12 starts of his season. The Yankees have lost each of the last four games that Warren has pitched in after they went 12–2 in the first 14 games that he started this season.

In this game, Warren allowed two runs in the second inning on a solo homer by Victor Mesa Jr, which was his fourth homer in 29 games this season, and an RBI single by designated hitter Yandy Diaz to score Brooklyn native Richie Palacios. Diaz has an impressive .319 average and an .893 OPS in his 85 games this season. Palacios has gone 4–5 in the two games in this series (two hits in each game) after going 3–20 in his previous seven games played.

The Rays went 2–3 with runners in scoring position in this game. The Rays scored four runs in the fourth inning to give them the six runs that they would end the game with. Palacios had an RBI double to score Taylor Walls, catcher Hunter Feduccia had a two-run homer that scored Palacios and then Diaz hit a 368 foot homer to give the Rays back-to-back homers. That was Feduccia’s second homer of his season and Diaz’s 13th homer. Warren allowed three homers in this game after allowing a combined three homers in his previous six games.

Ryan McMahon had a one out single for the Yankees in the sixth inning and then Cody Bellinger singled to right to advance McMahon to third but Bellinger made a base running mistake and was thrown out at second trying to take an extra base. This meant that there was a runner on third with two outs instead of runners on first and third with one out. Caballero then struck out swinging to end the sixth inning.

In the seventh inning, against former 19th round pick Kevin Kelly, Sanchez had a sacrifice fly to right to score Jazz Chisholm to make the score 6–4 after Chisholm and Jasson Dominguez had singled to start the inning. Cam Booser was then brought into the game and he got Trent Grisham to fly out and Goldschmidt to strikeout out in back-to-back at-bats to end the 7th inning. The Yankees went 0–2 with runners in scoring position in the 7th.

Chandler Simpson came to the plate in the seventh inning and faced Paul Blackburn. Simpson flew out to Grisham in right center to end the seventh. Simpson, who went 0–4, had a nine game hitting streak coming into this game. Simpson went 12–37 with three doubles and four steals in those nine games. Blackburn allowed just one base runner (a walk) in his 1.1 innings and he has now allowed just two earned runs in his last 20.1 innings in a span of 14 games to lower his ERA from 3.33 to 2.22.

Garrett Cleavinger has a really good sinker and slider combo. In Clevenger’s last 10 games he had a 1.00 ERA. He has late movement on his 97 mph sinker. Cleavinger pitched the eighth inning and the only baserunner he allowed was when Rice picked up his third hit of the game, which was a single. Anthony Volpe pinch hit for McMahon in 8th. Volpe grounded into a fielder’s choice to end the eighth inning. Volpe is now 4–32 in his last 11 games to lower his average from .278 to .240 and his OPS from .762 to .663. Volpe has been a very streaky hitter in his four MLB seasons.

Bellinger struck out swinging on a high 98 mph four seamer just off of the plate for the second out of the eighth inning. Caballero came into his at- bat in the 8th with three strikeouts. Caballero struck out swinging on a 97 mph fastball to end the 8th.

Brent Headrick has a whiff rate of 53 percent on his slider. That is the third highest whiff rate on a pitch by any pitcher in MLB this season. Headrick retired the side in order in the ninth inning for another dominant game for him. He struck out utility infielder Ben Williamson for the third out of the 9th. Headrick threw nine of his 11 pitches for strikes and he has now not allowed a run in his last 13 games in a span of 13.1 innings to lower his ERA from 2.03 to 1.42.

The Yankees faced the Rays All Star closer Bryan Baker in the ninth inning and they needed to score two runs to tie the game. In the ninth inning, Chisholm had a high fly out to center field, Dominguez grounded out to second and Sanchez then kept the game going with a two out single to left center. Grisham struck out on a 88 mph changeup to end the game for the team’s 17th strikeout of the game. Baker, who was an 11th round pick in 2016 out of the University of North Florida, now has a 1.78 ERA in 37 games with 24 saves, just two homers allowed and 38 strikeouts in 35.1 innings.

The 11 hits that the Yankees had in this game were their most since June 23. They also have not had 10 hits since June 23. This game on July 7 was the anniversary of when Yankee great centerfielder Bernie Williams made his MLB debut on July 7, 1991. Williams’s 80 RBI are the most in MLB postseason history. Williams’s 83 runs scored are the third most in MLB postseason history, his 128 hits are the second most all time in the playoffs, his 223 total bases are tied with Manny Ramirez for second most all time in the playoffs, he has the second most doubles all time in the playoffs behind Derek Jeter and his 22 homers are fifth most all time in the playoffs. Ramirez’s 29 homers are most all time in the playoffs.

Williams was a five-time All-Star, a four-time Gold Glove winner and his .339 average was the best in the American League in 1998. In his 16 seasons, all with the Yankees, he had 2,336 hits, 449 doubles, 287 homers, a .297 average, a .381 OBP and a .858 OPS. He had at least 18 homers nine times in his career and his career-high was 30 homers in 2000, when he also had 37 doubles a career-high 121 RBI and a 140 OPS+. Williams also was the Yankees center fielder when they won the World Series in 1996, 1998, 1999 and 2000. He was the ALCS MVP in 1996 after finishing the series with three doubles, two homers, six RBI, a .474 average and a 1.531 OPS in five games.