The Yankees handled the Tampa Bay Rays 12–4 on Thursday to split the series

On Thursday at Tropicana Field in Florida, the Yankees easily defeated the Tampa Bay Rays 12–4 to earn a split of their series. The Yankees had lost two of the first three games in this series. The Yankees are now 3–6 this season against the Rays with one more series against Tampa Bay after the All-Star break.

The Yankees are now four games behind the Rays for first place in the AL East but they would have been six games behind in the division if they had lost the series finale. The Yankees scored 12 runs in this game after scoring just 14 runs in their previous five games. The Yankees scored 12 runs in this game after not scoring more than five runs in any of their previous 20 games. The Yankees scored at least 10 runs in back-to-back games on June 16 and 17 but then had scored less than six runs in each game since then.

This was a much needed offensive outburst for the Yankees. The Yankees went a very productive 7–14 with runners in scoring position, they had three stolen bases, they had four doubles, they did well going from first to third on the bases and the offense had three home runs. Jose Caballero, Jasson Dominguez and Max Schuemann each had a stolen base for the Yankees. Caballero stole his 21st base of the season, which is the fifth most steals in the American League behind the Rays’ Chandler Simpson (22), Jose Ramirez (24), teammate Jazz Chisholm (26) and Bobby Witt Jr. (30).

Ben Rice had two homers and five RBI in this game. He drove in five runs and the Rays only scored four runs in this game. He is on a five-game hitting streak and in those five games he is 8–20 with four homers, nine RBI and five runs scored. He has increased his average from .267 to .275 and has increased his OPS from .926 to .956 in his last five games. In his last 24 games, he has 10 homers and 20 RBI. Rice now has 28 homers, which is the second most homers in the AL behind Yordan Alvarez’s 29 homers.

Rice had his fourth career multi-homer game in his 276th game of his career and he is the first Yankee to hit four homers in a series against the Rays. The Rays have been in the Yankees division since 1998, which is the year they became an MLB franchise. In addition to being second in homers, Rice is third in the AL in RBI (65), first in extra-base hits, second in runs scored (63), second in SLG (.590), second in OPS (.956) and second in wRC+ (162). He has a legit chance to be the AL MVP going into the last series before the All-Star break.

Drew Rasmussen threw just eight pitches in the first inning but then threw a 53 pitches combined in the second and third innings and struggled in those two innings, which led to him being taken out of the game after just 2.1 innings. In his 2.1 innings, he allowed six earned runs with seven hits and one homer allowed. His ERA went up from 2.78 to 3.26 in this game.

The Yankees scored six runs in the third after being shutout in Wednesday’s game. There was a Let’s Go Yankees chant in the third inning. Ryan McMahon doubled to right to score Schuemann for the Yankees’ first run of the game. Trent Grisham had a really good at bat for an RBI single on a 97 mph fastball in the third inning. Rice then had a fly ball that was ruled a homer that had a 102.4 mph exit velocity. Umpires did a review and ruled it was still a homer even though it appeared it was below the yellow line on the wall. The umpires ruled it was a homer upon further review since it actually landed over the yellow line and bounced back onto the field. Rice’s homer gave the Yankees a 4–1 lead.

Dominguez then hustled down the first base line for an infield single. Jonathan Aranda, the first baseman that has the fifth most RBI in the AL, caught the grounder down the line but Dominguez was able to barely beat the toss to first. Dominguez then stole second with a head first slide after getting a really good jump. A hustling Cody Bellinger then got an infield single to second to advance Dominguez to third. Caballero singled to right to score Dominguez and then off of relief pitcher Cam Booser, Jazz Chisholm had a sacrifice fly to score Bellinger. Caballero had his steal in the third inning. The Yankees scored six runs in the third inning. The Yankees had scored just 10 runs in their last four games.

Against Booser in the fourth inning, after McMahon struck out, Austin Wells had a solo homer to right. He had gone 23 consecutive games without hitting a home run. Wells went 1–4 in this game after going 3–49 in his previous 19 games played.

In the sixth inning against Casey Legumina, who was an eighth round pick in 2019 out of Gonzaga, Rice had a 422 foot three-run homer to score Wells and Grisham to make the score 10–3. Legumina then got the next three batters out to end the sixth inning.

Craig Kimbrel has 440 saves, which is fifth most all time. He pitched in seventh inning with Yankees having a 10–4 lead. He allowed an RBI stand up double to the wall in right field to McMahon to make the score 11–4. Grisham flied out to shallow center off of Kimbrel to end the 7th inning. McMahon has gone 3–6 in his last two games after going 4–30 in his previous 12 games.

In the eighth inning, off of Chris Roycroft, who has a 12.96 ERA in nine games this season, Bellinger had an RBI single to center to score Rice to give the Yankees a 12–4 lead. Bellinger went 2–5 in this game after going 4–52 with 16 strikeouts in his previous 12 games.

It was a bullpen game for the Yankees with relief pitcher Paul Blackburn throwing the first two innings. Blackburn allowed a solo homer to Junior Caminero in the first inning. He allowed one run in two innings after allowing two runs in his previous 14 games in a span of 20.1 innings.

In the third inning, Bellinger was not able to catch a fly ball at the wall in left, which led to the bases being loaded with no outs with Jake Bird pitching. Bellinger’s route was off on that play and the runners only advanced one base since he almost made the catch. Bird made a good pitch to get Caminero to ground into a run scoring double play to Caballero to put a runner on third with two outs. Victor Mesa Jr then had ground rule double over short wall next to foul pole in left to score a run to make the score 6–3 Yankees.

Dominguez did not catch a fly ball in the 6th inning that was hit by catcher Nick Fortes. Dominguez appeared to lose sight of the ball while looking up a the white roof. Brent Headrick got Diaz to fly out to Grisham in center to end the sixth. Earlier in the sixth inning, Ben Williamson had an RBI single off of Headrick to score the speedy Simpson, who had tripled. Headrick allowed one earned run in 1.2 innings in this game after allowing just one earned run in his previous 22 games in a span of 21.1 innings.

Angel Chivilli had three consecutive scoreless games coming into today. He got Caminero to fly out on a changeup for the first out of 7th. He then struck out Jonny DeLuca on a slider. He threw a 98 mph fastball to former second round pick Ryan Vilade. He got Vilade to fly out on a slider to Grisham to end the inning.

This season, 42 percent of Chivilli’s pitches have been changeups and 35 percent of his pitches have been sliders. He has a 37 percent whiff rate on his changeup. Chivilli threw two perfect innings with three strikeouts and now has a dominant 1.35 ERA in his five games with the Yankees this season in a span of 6.2 innings. He had a 7.06 ERA in 48 games with the Colorado Rockies last season.

Sidearmer Tim Hill pitched in the ninth inning. Just two of 23 inherited runners have scored against Tim Hill this season, which proves how well Hill has been pitching and executing this season. He has stepped up in clutch situations and has not allowed the pitcher he has come into the game to have the ERA to go up all but two times. Richie Palacios pinch hit for leadoff hitter Yandy Diaz in the ninth to give him a break with Yankees having a big lead. Palacios had a routine ground out to Chisholm at second. Schuemann bare handed Jonathan Aranda’s hit off of the wall to hold him to a two out single. Wells lost his ABS challenge with Caminero at the plate in the ninth. Caminero grounded out to shortstop to end the game.

Pitchers pitched well in this game for the Yankees in this bullpen game. The seven Yankees pitchers in this game combined for nine strikeouts while allowing just two walks. Camilo Doval did not allow a baserunner in his 0.2 innings in this game. In Doval’s last three games, he has not allowed an earned run but he has allowed six unearned runs. Doval has allowed just two earned runs in his last eight games in a span of 7.0 innings to lower his ERA from 5.08 to 4.58.

The Yankees will wrap up the first half of the season with a three game series against the Washington Nationals in Washington D.C. The Nationals are in fourth place in the NL East, but their 48–46 record gives them a better record than any other fourth place team in MLB. The NL East and NL Central are the only divisions in MLB this season with four teams who are .500 or better.