About Last Night: Rays Stomp Yanks, 9-1

By Andy Singer

July 21st, 2024

The Big Story

One day after the Yankees looked rejuvenated coming out of the All-Star break, the team got absolutely dominated by the Rays. Nestor Cortes just didn't have enough in his arsenal to put hitters away, achieving just 5 swings and misses on 92 pitches. While his stuff looked good in the first two innings to the naked eye, batters' reactions to his pitches said otherwise. It all fell apart in innings 3-5, as Nestor Cortes allowed 6 runs on 3 homers, all on cutters or sweepers to his arm side. The Rays' hitters appeared to just sit on those pitches when they could get their arms extended. There's not much good to say about Nestor's outing.

If there's not much good to say about Nestor's outing, there's even less to say about the Yankee offense. Ben Rice led off the game with hard double off of a 96 MPH fastball that didn't get elevated enough. Soto moved Rice over to third with a groundout to the right side of the infield, but that was the last of the offense in the 1st inning; Judge and Wells followed with swinging strikeouts to end the threat.

That was the last real offense that the Yankees would produce until the 8th inning. Credit needs to be given to Taj Bradley, who was excellent for 7 innings. He's having an outstanding year, and his stuff looked really nasty yesterday. The Yanks didn't get their second hit until Volpe's double in the 8th inning off of the Rays' bullpen, but the Rays had the game well in-hand by that point. The Yanks added a meaningless run in the 9th inning, as Soto led off with a triple and Jahmai Jones grounded out to bring Soto home.

Overall, it was just one of those games.

Notable Performances

Rice: 1-4, 2B

Soto: 1-4, 3B, 1 R

Volpe: 1-3, 2B

Better To Forget

Everything?

Nestor: 4.1 IP, 6 ER, 8 H, 2 BB, 2 K, 3 HR

The Offense: 5-30, 2 BB, 7 K, 0-7 RISP

My Take

This was one of those games that every team has throughout a season. The problem for the Yankees is that they've had a lot of "those games" in recent weeks. Taj Bradley really was good, and the team did put some offense together the second he left the game, but it was too little, too late.

I have been surprised all season by Nestor's road and home splits. He lives and dies by fly balls, so it makes more sense that Yankee Stadium would hurt him on days when he doesn't have great stuff, but it's largely been the road that's gotten to him this season. Well, the law of averages caught up to Nestor, and he got burned by multiple "Yankee Stadium homers." That's not the whole story, though. Nestor's fastball velocity was down by almost a full MPH, and it looked like all of his stuff played down off of his diminished fastball. Of particular concern, Nestor looked like he ran out of gas in the 5th inning, as his fastball struggled to break 90 MPH in that inning. I still think Nestor can be a key member of a championship rotation, but I can't help but wonder if his first half workload is getting to him.

Ben Rice continues to look like he belongs. I've reached the point where I'm firmly in the camp that feels like we don't need a 1B-type bat at the Trade Deadline.

It didn't work on Saturday, but I liked Boone's decision to put Wells in the cleanup spot. Wells has been the best hitter in the lineup not named Judge or Soto for the last few weeks, and he deserves the shot. Boone gave Verdugo far too much time batting behind Judge and Soto.

DJ LeMahieu looks beyond cooked. It's sad, but the team also needs to be realistic and relegate him to the bench. I don't think he's coming out of this slump.

Looking To Tomorrow

Marcus Stroman will look to give the Yanks a series win today at 1:35 PM at Yankee Stadium. I believe this will be 3 straight games on the YES Network. They call that a streak; it has happened before.