The New York Yankees leaned heavily on the bullpen en route to a 2-1 win over the Tampa Bay Rays at Tropicana Field on Wednesday night.
After dropping the first game of the series, 5-3, on Tuesday night, the Yankees were able to bounce back to avoid starting another losing streak.
Hitting from the seven-hole, centerfielder Trent Grisham provided the offense with two RBI. His RBI double in the second inning scored Anthony Volpe from first base to give the Yankees a 1-0 lead.
Grisham then lifted a sacrifice fly to left field, scoring Gleyber Torres in the top of the fourth inning.
Grisham hits one off the very top of the wall! Volpe scores and it's 1-0! pic.twitter.com/HdkEu4UyXB
— Talkin' Yanks (@TalkinYanks) July 10, 2024
The Yankees managed just six hits, two of which belonged to Juan Soto. They struck out eight times and drew just one walk against Zach Eflin, who tossed 7.0 innings.
Marcus Stroman labored through his outing, reaching 84 pitches in 4.1 innings. He only allowed one run but gave up seven hits and two walks while only striking out two batters.
The combination of Tim Hill, Luke Weaver, Tommy Kahnle and Clay Holmes averted disaster by holding off the Rays lineup. They combined to throw 4.2 innings allowing three hits, no runs and three walks while striking out six.
Holmes ended a jam in the bottom of the eighth inning thanks to a stellar play from Grisham to track down what would have been a go-ahead extra-base hit in the gap with two outs.
TRENT IS DOING IT ALL TONIGHT pic.twitter.com/rBjtzTgIEn
— Talkin' Yanks (@TalkinYanks) July 11, 2024
Holmes completed the four-out save with a groundout and two strikeouts to end the game in the ninth inning.
The Yankees and Rays conclude this series with a matchup Thursday night at 6:50 p.m. ET.
