New York Yankees woes continue at Tropicana Field, lose to Tampa Bay Rays 4-7 – MLB Update
New York Yankees woes continued at Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, Florida as they lost to Tampa Bay Rays 4-7 on Tuesday, July 3 in the second game of their three match series of the 2012 Major League Baseball regular season.
Ivan Nova, who had looked unbeatable on his five previous starts, had a rough outing as he gave up six runs on seven hits in just over six innings. Rays’ offence took complete advantage of his errors on the mound and Sean Rodriguez hit a two run home-run
in the fourth inning to help his side comeback from behind to take a decisive 5-4 lead.
Curtis Granderson provided the Yankees with an excellent start as he doubled to deep-right and Derek Jeter scored to make the score 1-0. Robinson Cano also made a useful contribution with the bat with an RBI single to right in the first.
Dewayne Wise homered to right in the third to extend the lead to 3-0 but the bullpen was unable to preserve Yankees’ advantage. For the Rays’ B.J. Upton, Ben Zobrist and Desmond Jennings made significant contributions and starting pitcher James Shield picked
up his eighth win of the season.
"We've got to find a way to win a game," New York manager Joe Girardi said. "We haven't played well and we've had a lead the last couple of nights, but given it up. We've got to find a way to hold the lead. Tonight wasn't a good game for us. We have to put
up a good game tomorrow to win."
"It's a bad one for me," Yankees’ catcher Russell Martin said. "Offensively I've been pretty bad all year, but defensively, normally, is kind of a salvage, but today was just a bad one overall."
It was Yankees’ ninth straight defeat at Tropicana Field and it is hard to tell why they have always struggled to win road games against the Tampa Bay Rays. It will be interesting to see if Joe Girardi and company can come up with better tactics in the finale
to snap Tampa Bay’s impressive winning streak.
Tags: