ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — Before Saturday’s game, while discussing Gleyber Torres’ early-season struggles, Aaron Boone made note of how a few good hitters on the Rays were off to similarly slow starts.
The two most notable bats, Yandy Diaz and Randy Arozarena, spent the next few hours ganging up on the Yankees.
Diaz and Arozarena both homered off Nestor Cortes and then kept piling on the rest of the game to lift the Rays to a 7-2 win over the Yankees at Tropicana Field.
Diaz, who won last year’s AL batting title, entered Saturday hitting just .237 with a .595 OPS. Arozarena had been even colder, coming into the game batting .143 with a .555 OPS.
But on Saturday, the top two hitters in the Rays lineup combined to go 5-for-7 with three doubles, two home runs, five runs and six RBIs to even the series ahead of Sunday’s rubber game.
The Yankees (26-15) got a three-hit day from Anthony Volpe, but only two other hits from the rest of the lineup.
With the Yankees trailing 4-2 in the seventh inning, Juan Soto looked like he might put them ahead with a three-run home run, but his deep fly ball came up just short of the center-field wall.
The Rays (20-20) then broke the game open in the bottom of the inning against reliever Dennis Santana, with Diaz and Arozarena right in the middle of it.
For Cortes, Diaz’s big day was all too familiar.
The first baseman entered the game batting .370 with a 1.097 OPS against the Yankees’ left-hander, a trend that continued on Saturday as Diaz crushed his first pitch of the game for a home run.
Cortes then issued a pair of walks through the first two innings that did not lead to further trouble, but the third one did.
Cortes walked No. 9 hitter Jose Siri to lead off the third inning, which Diaz followed by ripping a double off the base of the left-field wall.
Arozarena came up next and jumped on a fastball down the middle for a three-run home run that put the Rays back up 4-2.
Faced with an early deficit, the Yankees had come back to take a lead in the second inning against tough right-hander Zack Littell.
Anthony Rizzo drew a four-pitch walk and Austin Wells shot a double to the gap before Trent Grisham loaded the bases with a two-out walk.
Volpe then lofted a single to left-center to give the Yankees a 2-1 lead, though the opportunity to add on was quickly erased when Grisham took a wide turn around second base and was eventually tagged out in a pickle.