The crowd shrieked. Aaron Judge, two outs, bottom of the ninth against Jason Adam, had lofted one high and far to left-center field, to the warning track, and maybe, just maybe, an 8-7 game could become 8-8.
“I thought he hit it out of the stadium,” Harrison Bader said.
He didn’t. It landed in center fielder Jose Siri’s glove.
“I hit it good, but off the bat just hit it too high, and especially how deep it is out there,” Judge said. “I was praying for a miracle once it got up there.”
No miracle.
This knockdown, drag-out series started with the Yankees eight games behind the Rays and ended with the Yankees eight games behind the Rays.
Split happens, as they say.
It will be a long, hot, fun summer filled with countless twists and turns and ebbs and flows in the AL East, especially once the Sore Four — Carlos Rondon, Luis Severino, Josh Donaldson and Giancarlo Stanton — return, but man, the Yankees sure wanted to win this four-game series to cut their deficit to six games because eight is enough.
Mama said there’d be days like this.
Maybe if Rondon or Severino — who could start next Sunday in Cincinnati — were healthy enough to start for Aaron Boone instead of Clarke Schmidt, Anthony Rizzo’s go-ahead two-run blast in the fourth might have been the difference.
Maybe if Schmidt had gotten a full-count call on a backdoor knuckle curve to Josh Lowe he would have survived the fifth inning and pitching coach Matt Blake wouldn’t have earned an ejection.
“It could go either way. It’s a borderline pitch,” Schmidt said.
Maybe if Boone hadn’t had an overtaxed bullpen, he could have summoned someone besides Albert Albreu in relief of Schmidt.
“We were just short back there,” Boone said.
Maybe if Abreu hadn’t tried a fourth consecutive changeup and surrendered a Taylor Walls grand slam in relief of Schmidt in the fifth, everybody would be talking about Bader’s extended diving catch of a Randy Arozarena drive in front of the 399-foot sign in left-center that saved two runs in that fateful five-run fifth.
“Unfortunately we missed location,” Abreu said
Following a pair of stirring comeback wins, and what began unfolding as a third, and the Yankees’ 10th of the season, this one ended with remorse — but only for opportunity lost.
“I think we’re in a good spot,” Judge said, “some battles back and forth. We don’t want to come in here and split the series. But they’re one of the best teams in baseball, and we battled back and forth.”
These last three games were heavyweight slugfests akin to George Foreman versus Ron Lyle, with one team scoring a knockdown, and the other getting up and scoring one of its own.
Anthony Volpe’s two-run HR in the eighth off Kevin Kelley made it Rays 8, Yankees 7 after Lowe’s grand slam had made it Rays 8, Yankees 4.
“We’re never out of any ballgame, no matter what the score is,” Judge said.
Judge’s RBI single meant that the rampaging Rizzo had represented the tying run at the plate in the seventh against Kelly, but Rizzo whiffed on a high outside four-seamer.
“Just how intense it’s been, it’s awesome,” Bader said. “It’s just a blast playing against those guys.”
The Rays won four of the seven games this past week.
“One play in either direction for either team really decides a lot of those games,” Bader said.
Oswaldo Cabrera homered first and the Yanks have now hit 46 HRs in 26 games at the Stadium. They needed that 47th.
“A couple of missed opportunities,” Judge said, “but we’ll see ’em down the road.”
A shame it’s not until July 31.
