Gerrit Cole, Yankees blow 6-0 lead and fall to Rays in 10 innings

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — The Yankees arrived at just about every big-leaguer’s least favorite ballpark Friday as a beaten-up and beaten-down unit, a scuffling team with seemingly no light at the end of the tunnel.

There appeared to be at least some brightness in the distance Sunday afternoon when the Yankees spotted ace Gerrit Cole a six-run lead. A series victory over baseball’s top team looked like a certainty.

But instead of light, the Yankees head back to the Bronx looking only at more tunnel after taking one of those “gut- punch” defeats, in Aaron Boone’s words, an 8-7, 10-inning loss to the Rays at Tropicana Field.

Cole, who did not allow a homer in 46 2⁄3 innings in his first seven starts after giving up an American League-high 33 in 2022, allowed two — including a three-run shot by Christian Bethancourt that tied the score at 6-6 in the sixth inning.

“I thought that the guys picked me up so huge [Sunday],” said Cole, who saw his ERA jump from 1.35 to 2.09 after allowing a season-high six runs (five earned) and eight hits in a season-low five innings-plus. “We did a fantastic job offensively . . . I thought we progressed as a group throughout the series and I just let them down [Sunday] by coughing up the lead.”

The Rays improved to an MLB-best 28-7 when Isaac Paredes delivered a one-out RBI single off Albert Abreu in the bottom of the 10th inning. Abreu replaced Michael King (24 pitches), who allowed a hit but struck out three in a dominant ninth.

The Yankees (18-17), though far from steamrolled in what was a highly tense and entertaining series — all three games were decided by one run — fell 10 games behind the first-place Rays in the loaded AL East.

“It’s a tough one, but I think overall in the series, we showed up to play and were right there with them,” said Anthony Rizzo, whose third-inning homer made it 1-0. “Feel like we could have walked away with three of these games, and they probably feel the same way.”

Aaron Hicks, who started the top of the 10th at second base, went to third on Anthony Volpe’s flyout to rightfield against lefthander Garrett Cleavinger.

With the infield in, Gleyber Torres grounded to shortstop Wander Franco. After taking off on contact, Hicks eventually was tagged out to end a bizarre 6-2-5-1-2-5 rundown, one in which Cleavinger suffered a knee injury when he fell over Hicks — who hit the ground in an attempt to foil the rundown — and had to leave the game.

“You’re going there [on contact],” Boone said. “I thought he did a good job of staying in the rundown [so Torres could get to third base].”

Jalen Beeks came in to face Rizzo, who got ahead 3-and-1 in the count before striking out.

Harrison Bader went 3-for-5 with a home run, a triple, three runs and two RBIs. His two-run homer in the third made it 3-0, and he tripled and scored on Oswaldo Cabrera’s sacrifice fly in the fifth to make it 6-0.

Jose Siri homered with one out in the fifth, and Cole’s afternoon quickly disintegrated. The Rays scored a second run in the inning — Yandy Diaz singled and scored on a throwing error by Torres — to make it 6-2.

The Rays then scored five runs in the sixth to take a 7-6 lead, with the big blow Bethancourt’s tying three-run homer on a first-pitch slider.

“In hindsight, I probably should have gotten him,” Boone said of yanking Cole before he faced Bethancourt. “But he’s our ace and he’s been so good.”

Jimmy Cordero replaced Cole and walked Siri, who went to second on a wild pitch. Siri then took off for third and never slowed down when Diaz chopped one back to Cordero. He never glanced at Siri before throwing to first, allowing the speedy centerfielder to score easily from second for a 7-6 lead.

“That’s, obviously, you have to be more aware in that situation,” Boone said of Cordero.

The Yankees tied it in the seventh when Bader singled and scored on Jose Trevino’s groundout to third.

Overall, however, the afternoon was about Cole, so dominant in 2023, having his worst outing against a team that has been close to flawless early on this season.

“The command of it wasn’t good,” Cole said of his breaking stuff. “Those pitches were over the heart of the plate. The lack of command really burned us.”