Yankees crush the Rays 13-3, tying the franchise record with nine home runs

Tampa—The Yankees made history tonight, dismantling the Rays 13-3 in game one of this two-game series. Carlos Rodon got the starting nod for the Yankees and faced off against Shane Baz. 

After an hour and 55 minutes rain delay, the game finally started, and it was well worth the wait. Aaron Judge wasted no time getting the scoring started, crushing his 40th home run of the season 429 feet away to dead center to give the Yankees a 1-0 lead.

The next batter, Cody Bellinger, hit his 23rd home run of the season to make it back-to-back bombs and a 2-0 game.

Giancarlo Stanton then joined the home run party, launching his 13th bomb of the year, to make it back-to-back-to-back and extend the Yankees' lead to 3-0. 

"I gotta do it again," Stanton said on his mindset after Judge and Belli went deep. "More like late and often, it's midnight right now at 12:30. So, it was awesome to see, I think, what we hit nine tonight. It was incredible across the board." 

In the bottom of the first inning, Rodon worked around a leadoff single and a walk to put together a scoreless frame. 

Jazz Chisholm Jr. led off the top of the second inning with a single to right field. A couple of batters later, José Caballero crushed his first home run as a Yankee against his former team, a two-run bomb to make it a 5-0 game.  

"Yeah, it's a special one," Caballero said on facing his former team. "Special to come to the place that I've been playing for half of the season and have this kind of performance. It's just really nice."

The Rays responded in the bottom of the second inning with an RBI single from Jake MaMangum to make it a 5-1 game. Chandler Simpson then made it a 5-2 game via an RBI fielder's choice. 

With one out in the top of the fourth inning, Jazz crushed his 22nd home run of the year and the Yankees' fifth of the night to make it a 6-2 game. 

In the top of the fourth inning, Judge worked a one-out walk, followed by a single to right from Belli, his third hit of the night. The next batter, Stanton, launched a three-run bomb, his 14th of the year, to make it a 9-2 ballgame.

The next batter, Ben Rice, made it back-to-back bombs to make it a 10-2 game, the Yankees' seventh home run of the night. 

Rodon worked a 1-2-3 bottom of the fourth inning and recorded two strikeouts to put his total up to three for the ballgame. 

Judge led off the top of the sixth with a single to left field. The next batter, Belli, launched his second home run of the night, a two-run home run for his fourth hit of the game, and eighth bomb of the night for the Yankees, to make it a 12-2 game. 

In the bottom of the sixth inning, Rodon worked around a two-out single and picked up a couple of strikeouts to put together a scoreless inning. 

Mark Leiter Jr. took over for Rodon in the bottom of the seventh inning and worked around a hit batman and an E5 to put together a scoreless frame. 

Carlos Rodon's final line: six innings pitched, five hits allowed, two earned runs, two walks, 12 swings and misses, and five strikeouts on 102 pitches. Rodon threw his fastball 44% of the time, the slider 26%, the sinker 15%, the changeup 8%, and the curveball 7% of the time. Rodon was really solid tonight outside of a grind of a second inning, but still put together a quality start, especially after the long delay. 

"It's just, you know, it's part of it, we got to get this game in and just part of the way we do things, just roll with the punches," Rodon said on staying focused after the rain delay. 

Yerry De Los Santos replaced Leiter in the bottom of the eighth inning and gave up an RBI infield single to Mangum to make it a 12-3 game. 

In the top of the ninth inning, Caballero launched his second home run of the night to tie the Yankees franchise record with nine home runs in a single game and make it 13-3 game. 

Tim Hill replaced De Los Santos in the bottom of the ninth inning and worked a scoreless frame to end a fun one. 

"Well, I think we're all ready to go at 7:30, and that didn't happen, so we had to take it out on them a little bit," Stanton said. "But just make sure we're focused and get a win tonight." 

The Yankees will go for the sweep tomorrow, with Cam Schlittler on the mound, facing off against Drew Rasmussen. The first pitch is scheduled for 7:35 p.m. ET on the YES Network. 

My thoughts on the game: If you went to sleep after the almost two-hour rain delay, I don’t blame you, but you missed a fun one. Rodon was solid, putting together six innings of two-run ball. But the story of tonight was obviously the offense, as the Yankees crushed nine home runs tonight. Two from Belli, two from Stanton, two from Caballero, one from Judge, one from Jazz, and one from Rice as the offense continues to be one of the best in baseball. The Yankees now hold the top Wild Card spot thanks to the Red Sox and the Mariners losing today; if the playoffs started today, they would be hosting in the Bronx. Not much more to say other than that, it was just a really fun, stress-free game to watch tonight. On to tomorrow, as the Yankees will hopefully complete the sweep. 

“Yeah, I mean, you know, we have a really good offense," Belli said. "I think, you know, eps and flows of the 162 game season, right. It's not always going to be pretty, but we all believe in each other, and the talent's there. And we're doing a good job of putting it all together. And it's been fun to be a part of."