Giancarlo Stanton hit a pinch-hit two-run homer in the 10th inning as the visiting New York Yankees completed a perfect five-game road trip Wednesday night with a 6-4 win over the Tampa Bay Rays.
Stanton, who homered twice Tuesday, ripped the winning drive to left off closer Pete Fairbanks (4-4) after the home side scored twice in the ninth with two outs to force extras. Austin Wells followed Stanton’s homer with his second deep ball of the game.
Yankees starter Cam Schlittler flirted with perfection by retiring the first 18 batters. Schlittler struck out eight and walked two in 6 2/3 innings, yielding just one hit.
In his seventh career start, the 24-year-old Schlittler used a high-90s fastball to overpower the Rays’ lineup until Chandler Simpson stroked a sharp grounder through the middle leading off the seventh.
Trent Grisham went 3-for-5 with two home runs and two RBIs as the Yankees improved to 9-4 against their American League East foe by blasting 14 home runs over two nights.
Tampa Bay’s Bob Seymour (2-for-4, two RBIs) clubbed his first career homer, and Simpson swiped two bases. Hunter Feduccia doubled in two runs.
In six innings, Drew Rasmussen allowed five hits while striking out six and walking two.
A night after the Yankees slugged three deep shots in the first inning in a nine-homer series opener, the Rays must have felt like it was dejà vu all over again as Grisham led off by homering to right.
Wells also homered off Rasmussen in the fifth, but all of the attention was on Schlittler’s perfect game after six spotless frames.
After Simpson’s seventh-inning single, which was followed by two walks, Luke Weaver replaced Schlittler and whiffed Feduccia on three fastballs.
Grisham’s second homer was a 46-degree, towering launch for a 3-0 lead in the eighth, but Seymour bashed his first in the bottom half.
David Bednar (4-5) blew his third save by allowing a two-run double off the center field wall by Feduccia in the ninth but was credited with the win.
Devin Williams gave up an RBI single to Seymour in the 10th, but he fanned Simpson, Yandy Diaz and Brandon Lowe with two men on for his 18th save.
–Field Level Media
