The Tampa Bay Rays enjoyed a somewhat raucous celebration Tuesday night and are setting their sights on the best record in baseball among other possible achievements.
After securing their fifth American League East title, the Rays will attempt to earn another win when they visit the New York Yankees on Wednesday night for the third game of a four-game series.
Tampa Bay (96-61) trails the Milwaukee Brewers (98-59) and Los Angeles Dodgers (97-60) in the race for the best record in the majors and has 20 victories in its past 28 games. The Rays secured their first division title since winning a club-record 100 games in 2021 by getting a 6-1 victory in the nightcap of Tuesday’s doubleheader vs. the Yankees.
Yandy Diaz, whose 175 hits are one ahead of teammate Chandler Simpson for the AL lead, hit a two-run single in Tampa Bay’s three-run seventh inning in the clincher and added a two-run single in the ninth.
Diaz is hitting .373 with runners in scoring position this season and .349 overall in 11 games against the Yankees this year.
“This is just the beginning, but in our minds the biggest and most important celebrations is the World Series one,” Diaz said through a translator. “We’ll enjoy today, but we’ll look forward to the ones that we’re hopefully going to achieve soon.”
The Yankees (90-67) will host the Red Sox in an AL wild-card series next week for the second straight season. New York has won nine of its past 14 games after getting held to three hits and falling six games behind in the AL East to the Rays, who lead the season series 7-4.
New York’s Heliot Ramos had a double that ended a no-hit effort by Drew Rasmussen to start the seventh and likely will see the bulk of time in right field until Aaron Judge can return from a calf strain. Judge has appeared in only 66 games this season due to injuries, and the slugger likely will miss next week’s wild-card series against the Red Sox.
Of the Rays, Yankees manager Aaron Boone said: “Credit to them; they beat us today. They put together a fantastic regular season to earn that, so that’s theirs that they earned. So hopefully we get another crack at them in the next couple of weeks, but they’ve certainly earned the division.”
Gerrit Cole (9-9, 3.63 ERA) will attempt to reach double-digit victories for the 10th time in his career when he starts for the Yankees on Wednesday. The right-hander has allowed eight of his 21 homers during his past three starts but avoided a third straight loss Friday when he allowed two runs on four hits in six innings during a 9-2 win at Arizona.
Cole made his return from Tommy John elbow surgery by allowing two hits in six scoreless innings May 22 against Tampa Bay. He also allowed three runs on seven hits in 6 1/3 innings in New York’s 2-0 loss at Tampa Bay on July 8.
Cole is 5-8 with a 3.33 ERA in 22 career regular-season starts against the Rays.
Ian Seymour (9-7, 4.38 ERA) will attempt to become Tampa Bay’s fourth double-digit winner when he starts Wednesday. The left-hander is 0-1 with a 5.79 ERA in three starts this month, including a 4-2 loss to Boston on Friday, when he allowed four runs on seven hits in five innings.
–Field Level Media
