J.A. Happ pitched well yet again in the Yankees 4–1 win over the Rays on Tuesday

The Yankees beat the Tampa Bay Rays 4–1 in the opener of the series at Yankee Stadium on Tuesday. J.A. Happ pitched a shutout through seven innings for his third consecutive quality start since joining the Yankees.

Happ only allowed one hit, struck out four and also walked four. Happ had some unusual control issues as his four walks were one more than in his previous four starts combined, but he was able to successfully prevent those four base runners from scoring.

Happ, who the Yankees acquired from the Blue Jays before the trade deadline, has now allowed only four earned runs in his 19.0 innings pitched in his three starts with the Yankees (1.89 ERA). He has 15 strikeouts and has allowed only eight hits in that span. The 35-year-old lefty veteran was an All-Star this season for the first time in his 12-year career and has lowered his ERA from 4.18 to 3.86 while being with the Yankees.

According to Brooks Baseball, in 2018, he has relied primarily on his fourseam fastball (93mph), while also mixing in a sinker (91mph), slider (86mph) and change (87mph). He has also rarely thrown his curve ball (76mph). He has used his vast assortment of pitches to limit runs from scoring while on the Yankees.

The Yankees got on the scoreboard in the first inning when Aaron Hicks hit a single to center that scored Giancarlo Stanton. With one out, Stanton doubled to to deep right center on yet another very hard hit ball by the slugger who has been hitting very well recently as he is 11-38 (.289) with five homers, 10 runs scored and 10 RBI in his last 10 games.

The Rays were bullpening yet again in this game as the Yankees run in the first inning came off of Hunter Wood, who has a 4.10 ERA and 1.67 WHIP in 16 games (26.1 innings) and has not pitched more than 3.0 innings in a game this season.

In the fifth inning, Austin Romine, who has been the starting catcher with Gary Sanchez on the disabled list, hit a homer that just cleared the wall and went just inside the foul pole in right field to score Neil Walker to give the Yankees all the runs they would need to win the game.

Jalen Beeks allowed that two-run homer to Romine. Beeks pitched five innings in relief and after allowing two runs his ERA actually went down from 9.15 to 8.03. His ERA is so high because he gave up eight earned runs in 3.1 innings on July 28 in his first appearance with the Rays.

Dellin Betances pitched the eighth inning for the Yankees and Rays shortstop Willy Adames, who leadoff the inning, hit a homer to left on a 98 mph four-seam fastball on Betances’s first pitch of the at-bat. He then got the next two batters to fly out and ground out to end the inning and was able to rebound well from Adames’s home run.

Betances threw 10 of his 15 pitches for strikes and has now allowed only one run in his last 11 games (11.0 innings). He has 19 strikeouts and has only given up four hits in that span. After pitching exceptionally well since May 27, (29.1 innings) as he has only allowed two earned runs in that span (29.1 innings), he now has an impressive 2.32 ERA with 88 strikeouts and a 0.93 WHIP.

In the bottom of the 8th inning, Greg Bird gave the Yankees an insurance run with his double to deep center that went close to the wall to score pinch runner Shane Robinson. Robinson had pinch run for Miguel Andujar, who was the only Yankee with a a multi-hit game (2).

Bird is now on a three-game hitting streak after having only one hit in his previous eight games. He has three extra base hits in his three-game hitting streak and before these three games he had not had an extra base hit since July 28 when he hit a home run (12 games without an extra base hit). This could be a sign that Bird is breaking out of his slump.

Aroldis Chapman picked up his 31st save while only allowing one hit and the three Yankees pitchers were able to limit the Rays to only three hits in a game that was delayed about 20 minutes due to thunderstorms in the afternoon and the tarp being on the field until about 6:55.

Chapman needed only nine pitches to get through the top of the ninth inning and even though he has had control issues with 11 walks in his last 10 games, he has held the opposition scoreless in eight of the last 10 games.

The Yankees have now won seven of the nine games they have played since being swept by the Red Sox in the four-game series. The Yankees haven’t gained ground in the standings in the AL East since the Red Sox have gone 7–1 since their series against the Red Sox.

The Yankees have the second best record in baseball (75–44, .630 winning percentage) but are 10 games behind the Red Sox in the AL East. They have a 3.5 game lead over the Athletics for the first wild card spot.