Yankees continue to fall out of the race, lose 4-3 to Rays in opener

Source: FanGraphs

So it seems the Yankees will fall out of the wildcard race without much of a fight. They lost Tuesday night’s series opener to the Rays by the score of 4-3. It was their eighth loss in the last 13 games, in the middle of the most important stretch of their season. The team’s chances of claiming he second wildcard spot are all but kaput at this point.

I was out with my brother for his birthday, so I only caught bits and pieces of the game on the radio. I can’t say I’m disappointed I missed it. The Yankees were down 4-0 before they even had their first base-runner against Chris Archer, which was Jacoby Ellsbury’s leadoff homer in the fourth. A hit batsman (Chase Headley) and four straight singles (Ichiro Suzuki, Stephen Drew, Chris Young, Ellsbury) created two more runs in the fifth, but Drew was thrown out at the plate on a terrible send by third base coach Robbie Thomson, stifling the rally.

Hiroki Kuroda opened the game by striking out the side in the first before allowing hits to nine of the next 16 men he faced. That resulted in four runs and the end of his day with one out in the fourth inning. Kuroda’s been really good of late. This was just a bad night against a team he can’t seem to beat. The bullpen was pretty great — Joe Girardi went a little bonkers with the matchups — as seven relievers combined for 5.2 scoreless innings. They allowed only two hits and two walks. Not Kuroda’s best game but four runs in nine innings overall should be a winnable game.

MLB.com has the box score and video highlights, FanGraphs has some other stats, and ESPN has the updated standings. The Orioles and Blue Jays both won, so the Yankees are now in third place in the AL East, one game back of Toronto and eleven back of Baltimore. Depending on the outcome of the late game, they’ll be either five games (Mariners lose) or six games (Mariners win) back of the second wildcard spot with 20 games to play. FanGraphs has their postseason odds at 1.0%. Their elimination number is nine games for the division and 14 games for the wildcard. Chris Capuano and Jake Odorizzi will be Wednesday’s pitching matchup.