The New York Yankees were victorious over the Tampa Bay Rays with a score of 6-1 on Friday night, thereby maintaining their position in the American League West. With a record of 59-40, they are currently trailing the Baltimore Orioles by 1.0 game for the division lead.
Following the defeat, the Rays’ current record stands at 48-49 for the year. They now hold the fourth position in the league, having achieved a total of 99 victories in the previous season.
The Yankees achieved victory with a remarkable performance by Juan Soto, who had a perfect batting record of 4 hits out of 4 attempts, and Aaron Judge, who had 2 hits out of 4 attempts. In addition, catcher Austin Wells stuffed the stat sheet in historic form.
According to Yankees Insider Katie Sharp on social media:
Austin Wells: An Interesting Fact
Wells is the only player from the New York Yankees to achieve 3 or more walks, 1 or more runs, and 0 at-bats in a game since Derek Jeter accomplished this on September 12, 2006.
Indeed, Wells did not have an official plate appearance documented in the victory. He has a batting average of .216 for the season with six homers and 20 RBI. A first-round pick of the Yankees back in 2020, he made his major league debut a season ago.
The Yankees and Rays will play again on Saturday afternoon at Yankee Stadium with first pitch coming at 1:05 p.m. ET. The Rays will send teenager Taj Bradley to the mound while the Yankees will send Nestor Cortes to the bump.
Bradley is 4-4 on the year with a 2.90 ERA while Cortes is 4-8 with a 3.67.
These games have extra meaning for the Rays, who could be sellers at the trade deadline if they don’t get back into the race in the next week for so.
They are 5.5 games back in the wild card chase.
