The Yankees nearly made it through an unexpected bullpen game.
Ryan Yarbrough, Ian Hamilton and Fernando Cruz had given them seven strong innings against the Tampa Bay Rays after Clarke Schmidt was scratched from his start with soreness on his left side.
But everything unraveled in the eighth.
A two-run Rays rally — during which shortstop Anthony Volpe endured an injury scare and committed an error — dealt the Yankees a 3-2 loss in the Bronx.
“We just couldn’t quite get to the finish line today,” manager Aaron Boone said.
The Yankees led, 2-1, when the Rays’ Christopher Morel led off the top of the eighth with a single against Mark Leiter Jr. Volpe dove for the ball and immediately grabbed his left shoulder, saying afterward that he felt a “pop.”
After undergoing a series of on-field strength tests, Volpe stayed in the game.
Pincher-runner Chandler Simpson stole second base, and after a walk to Brandon Lowe, that duo pulled off a double steal to put runners in scoring position with no outs.
Leiter struck out Junior Caminero, but with the infield in, Curtis Mead poked an RBI single into left field that tied the game, 2-2, and put runners on the corners.
Rays speedster José Caballero then hit a grounder up the middle, and as shortstop Volpe attempted to turn an unassisted double play, he booted the ball. Lowe scored from third base to give the Rays a 3-2 lead.
“I was trying to make the play, turn two before I secured the ball,” said Volpe, who said a postgame X-ray on his shoulder came back clean.
The three stolen bases in the eighth inning were part of a six-steal day for the Rays.
“They got some first moves off us,” Boone said. “Obviously a double steal there, that adds up. That’s who they are.”
The Yankees had a chance to answer in the bottom of the eighth, but with runners on the corners, Aaron Judge grounded out to shortstop against hard-throwing Rays closer Pete Fairbanks to end the inning.
Judge had homered in the first inning — his 11th of the season — against Rays starter Zack Littell as part of a 2-for-4 day, improving his MLB-best average to .432.
“He’s truly special, and obviously you can’t get the job done every single time,” Cody Bellinger said of Judge’s eighth-inning at-bat. “He wants to get the job done there for the boys, and ultimately he hit the ball hard, just right at him.”
The Yankees also got a fifth-inning solo home run from Austin Wells against Littell, which gave them a 2-1 lead. That came on an afternoon when Wells, who reviews breakfast burritos on Instagram, debuted a signature burrito at select Yankee Stadium concession stands.
Boone decided on Friday night to push Schmidt’s next start to Tuesday after the right-hander experienced side soreness. An MRI came back clean.
Yarbrough, a left-handed long reliever, started in Schmidt’s place and held the Rays to one run over four innings.
He limited Tampa to one hit but issued three walks, including a pair in the second inning. One of those walks — to Mead — turned into a run when Taylor Walls lifted a one-out sacrifice fly to center field with the bases loaded.
But Yarbrough escaped further damage when he fielded a broken-bat comebacker by Yandy Diaz — and dodged the hurtling barrel — for the final out of the inning.
Hamilton pitched a scoreless fifth and Cruz fired two shutout frames, but the Rays got to Leiter, who took the loss after surrendering two runs in one-third of an inning.
“I thought he threw the ball alright,” Boone said of Leiter. “Just a couple of balls that had eyes.”
The Yankees won Friday night’s series opener, 3-0, behind seven shutout innings from Max Fried. They will go for a series victory on Sunday afternoon, with Will Warren (1-1, 5.63 ERA) scheduled to match up against the Rays’ Taj Bradley (2-2, 4.58 ERA).
Originally Published: May 3, 2025 at 4:03 PM EDT
