NEW YORK (AP) — Taj Bradley pitched one-hit ball over seven innings to remain unbeaten in eight straight starts, Randy Arozarena hit two of Tampa Bay’s four home runs and the Rays routed the New York Yankees 9-1 on Saturday.
“He’s just on a dominant run right now,” Rays manager Kevin Cash said.
Alex Jackson, Isaac Paredes and Arozarena homered off Nestor Cortes, and Arozarena added another against Josh Maciejewski for his seventh multihomer game. Arozarena tied a career high with four hits and Curtis Mead, back in the majors for the first time since May 3, had three hits including a go-ahead double in the third.
Bradley (5-4) allowed his only hit when Ben Rice singled leading off the first, and the 23-year-old right-hander improved to 4-0 with a 0.92 ERA in his last eight starts. He leads the major leagues in ERA since June 8 among pitchers with at least 30 innings, bettering the 1.14 of Pittsburgh’s Paul Skenes. Bradley has held hitters to a .129 average (13 for 101) over that span.
“It looked like the cutter shape kind of changed all day,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said. “He mixed in some bigger, slower ones, had a good split going. So he kind of had a little bit of everything going and kind of a different look all day long for us and just kept us at bay and stayed off the barrel.”
Since allowing nine runs at Baltimore on June 1, Bradley has lowered his season ERA from 5.81 to 2.63. With his fastball reaching 100.1 mph, Bradley pitched shutout ball for the third time in four outings, striking out five and walking two in his Yankee Stadium debut.
“I was excited. Even in the bullpen, you’re getting heckled,” he said.
Juan Soto tripled and scored on Jahmai Jones’ ninth-inning grounder as the Yankees dropped to 9-19 after a 50-22 start.
Cortes (4-9) fell to 0-4 in his last five starts, allowing six runs, eight hits and two walks in 4 1/3 innings. He is 4-4 with a 2.48 ERA at home and 0-5 with a 6.04 ERA on the road.
“It’s tough to pitch in the big leagues when you don’t have your best stuff,” Cortes said. “We got to be better, starting with myself.”
Tampa Bay had nine right-handed batters in its lineup and improved to 17-8 against left-handed starters.
Jackson entered 2 for 32 against left-handers and 7 for 85 overall. He walked in the third and scored when Mead hit a two-out double off the left-field wall.
Cortes allowed a single in the fourth to Jose Siri, then walked Taylor Walls, who entered hitting .158. Jackson drove a full-count cutter to right-center for his second homer this season and first since June 10, putting the Rays ahead 4-0.
Paredes and Arozarena hit solo homers in the fifth off Cortes, who has allowed a season-high three homers and has given up 19 in 21 starts this season. Paredes, who had been in a 3-for-34 slide, has 16 homers this season and 69 in his big league career, all pulled to left field.
New York grounded into three double plays and leads the major leagues with 92.
DJ LaMahieu went 0 for 3 with two strikeouts and is hitless in 17 at-bats, cutting his average to .177. The two-time batting champion has been booed of late by frustrated fans.
Alex Verdugo, dropped from cleanup to sixth, went 0 for 3 and is hitting .148 (16 for 108) with five RBIs from June 15 on.
Carlos Narváez, a 25-year-old Yankees catcher who had been in the minor leagues since 2016, made his major league debut as a defensive replacement in the ninth and had an opposite-field single.
“Goosebumps. Of course my dream was a debut here but winning,” Narváez said. “It’s been a long journey.”
TRAINER’S ROOM
Rays: RHP Jeffrey Springs (Tommy John surgery in May 2023) was to start for Triple-A Durham on Saturday in his 11th minor league rehab appearance.
Yankees: DH Giancarlo Stanton (strained left hamstring) likely will be ready for game action late next week, though the team hasn’t determined whether he will go on a rehab assignment. … RHP Clarke Schmidt (strained right lat) threw his first bullpen session Saturday since getting hurt. … RHP JT Brubaker (strained oblique) won’t throw for three or four more weeks.
UP NEXT
RHP Marcus Stroman (7-4, 3.51) starts Sunday for the Yankees and RHP Shane Baz (0-1, 5.23) for the Rays.
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