Patience gave way to aggressiveness, walks became runs and a tie game turned into a series-clinching win.
A day after their offense went missing in a shutout loss, the Yankees made sure another starter’s strong outing did not go to waste, pouncing for a four-run fifth inning that proved to be just enough for a 5-4 win over the Rays on Sunday afternoon in The Bronx.
The offensive attack supported Luis Gil, who put together his best start of the season while striking out a career-high nine across 5 ²/₃ innings. The right-hander allowed just two hits, one (unearned) run and three walks.
A shorthanded Yankees bullpen made things interesting late when Dennis Santana gave up three runs in the eighth inning to pull the Rays within 5-4. But with Clay Holmes down after pitching on back-to-back days, Victor Gonzalez secured his second save of the season to lift the Yankees (15-7) to a sixth series victory in seven tries.
In the end, the Yankees’ one big inning was enough to decide the game.
After Rays right-hander Aaron Civale got two quick outs in the fifth, he issued a four-pitch walk to Giancarlo Stanton.
Anthony Rizzo and Gleyber Torres then battled for full-count walks that forced Civale to throw a combined 14 pitches between the two at-bats.
What came next was an ambush.
Alex Verdugo, Jose Trevino and Oswaldo Cabrera came to the plate and each jumped on the first pitch they saw, all resulting in singles that turned a 1-1 game into a 5-1 Yankees lead.
Verdugo’s clutch two-run single, which put the Yankees ahead for good, was part of a three-hit day in which he also turned in a sliding catch in the left-center field gap.
Coming off a seven-walk effort against the Blue Jays on Monday, Gil spent the time in between starts trying to fine-tune his mechanics to improve his command, which paid dividends on Sunday.
He had walked just one entering the sixth inning before getting two quick outs and then walking a pair to end his outing.
Gil also avoided letting his emotions boil over after a third inning in which he balked in a run from third base (after the runner, Jose Caballero, advanced to third on an errant pickoff attempt at second by Gil).
After getting a strikeout on his next pitch to end the inning, Gil appeared to glare at home plate umpire John Libka (who called the balk) as he walked off the mound, with Aaron Boone quickly jumping out of the dugout to redirect him.
The Yankees’ first run of the day also came from patient at-bats. Juan Soto and Stanton drew walks in the first inning before Rizzo lined a single to put the Yankees ahead 1-0.