Yankees Lose To Rays After Blowing Six-Run Lead

The Yankees experienced a sad three-plus hours game loss on Sunday afternoon to the Rays.

After taking a 6-0 lead and blowing it with Gerrit Cole on the mound, the Yankees came back to force extra innings before suffering a crushing loss.

The Rays walked it off for an 8-7 win in 10 innings in front of 32,142 in a playoff-like atmosphere at Tropicana Field.

Despite the teams being separated by nine games entering the series — with the Rays (28-7) atop the AL East and the Yankees (18-17) in last place, just as they finished the weekend — they played three one-run games. 

And yet dropping two of three, especially with how gut-wrenching Sunday’s finale was, felt like a brutal swing for the beaten-up Yankees.

“I feel like we could have walked away with three of these games and they probably feel the same way,” Anthony Rizzo said.

After the Yankees’ bullpen had already used Jimmy Cordero, Clay Holmes, Wandy Peralta and Michael King to get through the ninth inning — with Ian Hamilton and Ron Marinaccio unavailable — Albert Abreu came on for the bottom of the 10th and allowed a one-out single to Isaac Paredes to end it.