Nestor Cortes comes through again as Yankees top Rays

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. – The Yankees walked into Tropicana Field on Thursday for their first meeting of the season with the Rays knowing they were going to be a few men down.

With all their recent injuries and illnesses, the Yankees started a lineup with Aaron Judge leading off for the second time in his career, recent callup Miguel Andujar batting cleanup, and former St. Louis Cardinals All-Star Matt Carpenter hitting eighth as the designated hitter.

When did the Yankees sign Carpenter? Thursday afternoon. He landed in Tampa from Dallas at 3:20 p.m. and arrived at the ballpark about two hours before first pitch.

But the Yankees didn’t let any of that stop them. No-hit for the first five innings by lefthander Ryan Yarbrough, Carpenter started a three-run rally in the sixth by getting hit by a pitch. Marwin Gonzalez got their first hit, Judge drove in the first run, and the Yankees went on to a 7-2 victory before 14,610.

Here’s what the Yankees did have going for them: Nestor Cortes, who fired off another gem.  

Cortes (4-1, 1.70 ERA) threw eight shutout innings and was allowed to start the ninth at 105 pitches, which was already his career high by one. Cortes allowed a single to Wander Franco on pitch No. 109 and then was removed by manager Aaron Boone.

That run came around to score, so Cortes’ final line was eight innings-plus, four hits, one walk and five strikeouts.  

The Yankees also had the vast majority of the Tropicana Field crowd behind them. From the “Let’s Go Yankees” chants to “MVP” chants for Judge to multiple standing ovations for Cortes, Yankees fans outnumbered the home rooters by a large margin.

“Once the adrenaline’s running, you feel like you’re invincible,” said Cortes, who had about 20 family and friends from Miami in the stands. “I went out there for the ninth and all those fans were cheering. I had goosebumps going out to the mound.”

The Yankees won their third straight and improved to an MLB-best 32-13.

“We’ve got a resilient team,” Judge said. “Guys that — if you have somebody go out five minutes before the game – will be ready.”

Carpenter, who was signed after opting out of a contract with Texas’ Triple-A team, was that guy. He was added to the lineup when Aaron Hicks was a late scratch with right hamstring tightness. Carpenter led off the sixth inning of a scoreless game by getting plunked on the arm by a 3-and-2 pitch.

After Gonzalez singled to center for the Yankees’ first hit, Judge grounded a single to center to make it 1-0.

Anthony Rizzo hit a fly ball to right to send Gonzalez to third. Righthander Ryan Thompson came in and, after Judge stole second, got Gleyber Torres to pop to short for the second out.

Gonzalez tagging up and Judge stealing were significant because Andujar grounded one to the right of shortstop Taylor Walls, who slipped after fielding it and then fired a one-hopper that skipped past Harold Ramirez, an outfielder playing his eighth career game at first. Two runs scored on what was scored a hit and an error.

“Just up and down the lineup: little contributions,” Boone said. “Some baserunning plays . . . It’s not like we were banging it all over the yard. But we just kind of grinded, battled and did a lot of little things to allow us to put a pretty big number up there.”

Isiah Kiner-Falefa scored with two outs in the seventh on a wild pitch by Ralph Garza Jr.

Judge hit a sacrifice fly in the ninth to make it 5-0. Rizzo added an RBI double and another run scored on an error when rightfielder Vidal Brujan tried to get Rizzo at second and the throw bounced away.