TAMPA BAY — Left-hander Ian Seymour struck out a career-high 12 batters over 5 1/3 innings and the Rays cracked three home runs to beat the New York Yankees, snapping out of a power drought and making franchise history on the mound in the process.
The Rays became the fourth team in baseball’s Modern Era to pitch consecutive games with at least 17 strikeouts, joining Cleveland, Houston and Washington, who all accomplished the feat in 2016. The night before, reliever Griffin Jax had tied his career best with 10 strikeouts.
“It’s been a pretty impressive stretch that we’ve been on,” manager Kevin Cash said. “We’ve got guys that have good stuff, and when you’re getting ahead of guys … hitters are probably going to expand when they’re in those 0-2, 1-2 [count] situations.”
Seymour surrendered a three-run homer to Ben Rice in the third inning but was otherwise dominant, forcing New York’s hitters to whiff on 17 of their 45 swings. He piled up strikeouts with his changeup (five), fastball (four) and sweeper (three), using a nearly even distribution of his three-pitch mix. Over his last three starts, Seymour has posted a 1.33 ERA with 27 strikeouts and only two walks.
“The theme that I’ve been going over time and time again is getting ahead of guys,” Seymour said. “Once you have the leverage of count control, it just gives you more opportunity to change speeds and gives you a couple more opportunities to chase a whiff.”
Yandy Díaz entered the game in a rare 1-for-20 skid but delivered two hits against Yankees starter Will Warren — an RBI single to left field in the second inning and a solo homer to right in the fourth, his 13th of the season. Díaz is now fifth on the franchise’s all-time RBI list with 451. “Best hitter in the league,” outfielder Victor Mesa Jr. said. “He’s been not that good lately, but after today, life is back to normal.”
Cash echoed the sentiment. “He’s as important as anybody in our offense, and [we] need to get him going,” Cash said. “It was just probably a matter of time, a matter of one at-bat to get him going.”
The Rays hit three homers off Warren — a second-inning solo shot by Mesa, his fourth of the season, followed by back-to-back blasts from Hunter Feduccia and Díaz in the fourth. Tampa Bay improved to 40-12 this season when hitting at least one homer and 20-4 when going deep twice or more.
The bottom of the order fueled both rallies. In the second, Richie Palacios singled with two outs, Feduccia kept the inning alive with a walk and Díaz drove in Palacios. The four-run fourth started with Taylor Walls hitting a one-out single to right, Palacios smacking an RBI double and Feduccia delivering what proved to be the biggest hit of the night.
“Top of the lineup’s been picking this up all year, so it’s good to yin and yang it,” Feduccia said. “That’s what it’s gonna take to get far.”
The Rays continue their series against the Yankees at Tropicana Field, with the trade deadline approaching and Tampa Bay’s front office weighing reinforcements for a lineup that has leaned heavily on Díaz, Jonathan Aranda and Junior Caminero.