Jonathan Aranda homered, drove in three runs and reached base five times as the Tampa Bay Rays continued their strong play on the road by holding on in the late innings for a 7-5 victory over the New York Yankees on Sunday afternoon.
After a 30-minute rain delay before first pitch, Aranda helped the Rays improve to 7-1 in their past eight road games, a stretch that includes last weekend’s three-game sweep over the San Diego Padres. They handed the Yankees their fourth loss in six games.
Aranda homered in the third as the Rays raced out to a 5-0 lead through four innings against New York’s Will Warren (1-2). He added a two-run single in the seventh for a 7-2 lead. Aranda finished with his fourth career three-hit game and drew a pair of walks after entering on a 3-for-16 slide over his previous five games.
Taj Bradley (3-2) took a shutout into the sixth before Cody Bellinger hit a two-run home run.
Brandon Lowe hit a two-run single in the fourth when the Yankees loaded the bases on two singles and catcher’s interference. Yandy Diaz, who also had three hits, added an RBI single that scored speedster Chandler Simpson from second.
Taylor Walls had four hits as the Rays tied a season high with 16 hits, including 14 singles. The Rays missed plenty of other chances to score by stranding 16 runners.
Simpson also stole a base as the Rays went 8-for-8 on stolen bases in the final two games of the series after getting one-hit by Max Fried and two relievers Friday.
Other than Bellinger’s 200th career homer, the Yankees mounted little offensively until the eighth.
Aaron Judge doubled in the eighth to extend his on-base streak to 30 and his hitting streak to 14 before scoring on an RBI double by Paul Goldschmidt off Mason Englert.
The Yankees stranded two in the eighth after a two-run single by Jorbit Vivas sliced their deficit to 7-5. Pete Fairbanks struck out the side in the ninth, including Judge for the second out, for his eighth save.
Warren allowed five runs (three earned) on seven hits in 4 2/3 innings. He struck out eight and walked three but labored through 102 pitches as the Yankees tried to avoid taxing their bullpen. Carlos Carrasco, normally a starter, pitched the final three innings.
