TAMPA, Fla. — Did you think this was going to be easy? Nothing but sweeps and shirtless goofballs?
Three wins in a row against the Yankees at Tropicana Field back in April. Three more against the Blue Jays, followed by three against the Orioles and — Why not? — three against the Red Sox, too. The Rays were 12-0 at home against American League East rivals and sitting in first place in July for the first time since 2023.
So why wouldn’t you expect another happy night at the Trop on Monday?
Well, maybe because the Yankees are too good to go down quietly.
In the opener of a four-game series against New York in front of an announced crowd of 18,129, the Rays were shut down 5-1 by the Yankees and saw their AL East lead shrink to three games.
Former Rays utility man Jose Caballero continued his tour of retribution against Tampa Bay with a pair of home runs, not to mention a couple of epic bat flips. And just in case that does not emphasize how big Caballero’s role was in the game, his home runs were the only two hits the Yankees had through the first eight innings. Ben Rice had a ninth-inning homer, which means all three of New York’s hits left the ballyard.
Caballero now has two multi-homer games in his major-league career and both have come against the Rays in the past 11 months. Caballero is hitting .308 with four homers, 10 RBI and an .808 slugging percentage against Tampa Bay since being traded to New York for the since-departed Everson Pereira last July 31.
While Caballero was having a ball, the Rays were mostly silent at the plate for the second game in a row. After being shut out by Houston on Sunday, the Rays managed only four singles, and none of them had an exit velocity of more than 75 mph.
Rays starter Griffin Jax retired the first 13 hitters he faced Monday night and had matched his career high with 10 strikeouts by the end of the fifth inning.
Unfortunately, the only baserunners he allowed came in succession in the fifth. Jasson Dominguez and Jazz Chisholm drew one-out walks, and Caballero followed with the first of his home runs.
New York did not leave a runner stranded on base the entire night. It was only the third time in the last 15 years that the Yankees have won a game with zero runners left on base. The other two times were in 2016 and 2022 … both against the Rays.