Mariano Rivera rocked by Rays as Yankees lose ugly one at Stadium
Waiting the extra day for the anticipated pitching duel between Tampa phenom David Price and established ace CC Sabathia only temporarily seemed worth the delay.
And while the Yankees have made waiting until the latter stages of games worth their fans’ while for several weeks, Saturday turned out to be the exception in that regard, too.
The Yanks appeared primed for another cream-pie comeback by scoring twice to tie in the eighth inning, but Mariano Rivera coughed up four runs on three hits – and was pulled from the game in the ninth – in an ugly 9-7 loss to the Rays at the Stadium.
For good measure, the Yanks then fell short of another cardiac bid in the bottom half. They scored twice against reliever Dan Wheeler on Mark Teixeira’s two-run double – and had three cracks with the tying run at the plate – before the rally stalled with lefty Yankee castoff Randy Choate retiring Robinson Cano for the final out.
Sabathia lasted at least eight innings for the fifth time in eight starts, but homers in the middle innings by Ben Zobrist and Willy Aybar had Tampa ahead, 5-3, entering the home eighth. But Teixeira belted a leadoff homer off reliever Grant Balfour, his 17th, to tie Tampa’s Carlos Pena for the AL lead. The Yanks proceeded to load the bases on two walks sandwiched around Cano’s single, before late-inning hero Melky Cabrera barely legged out a potential double-play ball for a 5-5 tie.
But Rivera (0-2, 3.47) was immediately tagged for a leadoff triple by Zobrist and RBI singles by Joe Dillon and B.J. Upton – before Joe Girardi replaced him with Phil Coke – as the Yanks (32-23) suffered just their sixth loss in 23 games. Coke allowed another run-scoring single by Carl Crawford and Alex Rodriguez booted Aybar’s grounder for an error for a 9-5 Tampa lead.
Price, the No. 1 overall pick in the 2007 entry draft out of Vanderbilt, was charged with three runs (one earned) on just two hits and five walks over 5 2/3 innings.
He had made his anticipated big-league debut Sept. 14 of last season with 5 1/3 strong innings of relief against at the old Yankee Stadium. The 6-foot-6 lefty then emerged as a rising star out of the bullpen during the 2008 postseason, closing out Boston in Game 7 of the ALCS and then the Phillies in Game 2 of the World Series.
Still, the Rays stashed Price in the minors to start this season, limiting him to no more than five innings in any of his eight starts for Triple-A Durham. He was recalled on May 25 and posted his first regular-season win last Saturday with 11 strikeouts in 5 2/3 innings against the Twins.
Mariano Rivera rocked by Rays as Yankees lose ugly one at Stadium