Yankees 4, Rays 1: Away game, home runs.

Not great.

Today wasn’t great.

It wasn’t the WORST, mind you. The Rays managed to avoid another shut out, but they are still winless against the Yankees for the whole season, which, at the risk of repeating myself, isn’t great.

There was sloppy outfield play, a pitcher who couldn’t quite make his stuff work, and a Yankees offense who took advantage of absolutely every single opportunity they were given. There were home runs by Stanton and Sanchez, because it’s New York, so of course. The other two runs for the Yanks came in the second off a Torres double, and in the third on a Gregorious single.

The Rays were barely able to muster any hits against Yankees pitcher Luis Severino until late. A Duffy home run in the top of the ninth, followed by a Jake Bauers triple breathed enough life into the end of the game to make the Yankees reach for Aroldis Chapman, but the Rays failed to make anything out of the opportunity and had to make do with the single Duffy run.

Here are the brass tacks:

Ryne Stanek continues to prove he’s got this opener thing down, tossing 1.1 innings and giving up only a single hit and no runs. He was replaced in the second by Ryan Yarbrough, who just didn’t seem able to get things running right. A 41 pitch third inning (woof) definitely put a damper on things, and he ended the day with 3.2 IP, 6 H, 4 R, 4ER, 3 BB, 4 K, 2 HR on 97 pitches.

Austin Pruitt held things from getting any worse for the remainder of the game, giving up a single hit in three innings work.

Some messy outfield work, including a collision between Johnny Field and Mallex Smith (Smith still made the catch) proved that this young team still has a long way to go before they are as clean and cohesive together as we’d like to see. Also, hurry up on rehab, Kevin Kiermaier.

It was a beautiful sunny day in New York that would have been ideal weather to watch the Yankees lose, but today was not the day for the Rays.