Isaac Paredes hit three home runs to power up the Tampa Bay Rays’ slumping offense and help them break a four-game losing streak against the New York Yankees, beating the top team in the majors 5-4 Tuesday night in St. Petersburg, Fla.
Paredes, who broke up Gerrit Cole’s no-hit bid Monday with an eighth-inning leadoff single, took starter Nestor Cortes (6-3) deep in the first and third. He added a third shot against Clarke Schmidt in the fifth.
It was the seventh time in Rays history that a player slugged three long balls, and the first since Brandon Lowe ripped three on Oct. 2 against the Yankees.
Paredes, who was 3-for-3 with four RBIs and was hit by a pitch, had recorded his first career multi-homer game on May 18, with two against the Detroit Tigers.
Harold Ramirez added a homer and a double as the Rays won for only the third time in the past 10 games against the Yankees.
Opener Jalen Beeks recorded five outs, allowing two runs, two hits and two walks to go with two strikeouts. The runs scored on DJ LeMahieu’s single off reliever Shawn Armstrong (1-1).
After surrendering four runs on six hits in 4 1/3 innings, with three strikeouts, Cortes took the loss for the second time in his past three decisions.
In the home half of the first, Paredes launched the longer of two blasts, lashing Cortes’ 1-1 cutter deep down the left-field line for a 1-0 lead. Ramirez followed three pitches later by also jumping on a cutter, just getting his third homer out over the short wall in left.
Tied at 2 after LeMahieu’s two-run single, Paredes put the Rays back up when he got to Cortes for the second time, a 402-foot shot.
Two inning later, the first baseman produced his team-leading eighth homer with a towering two-run blow, for a 5-2 edge.
Shortstop Taylor Walls’ sliding grab of Giancarlo Stanton’s hit in the eighth with two on resulted in an inning-ending double play that held the lead at three.
Colin Poche pitched the ninth and allowed a two-out, two-run homer to Marwin Gonzalez (2-for-4, double) to reduce the advantage to one.
However, the left-hander ended the game by retiring pinch hitter Aaron Judge on a deep fly to the left-field warning track — his fifth save in six opportunities.
LeMahieu went 2-for-3 with a walk to go with his two RBIs.
–Field Level Media
