EditorsNote: 6th graf, take outs extra 'the'; adds Cash quotes
Randy Arozarena homered for the second consecutive night and three other Tampa Bay players went deep as the Rays defeated the New York Yankees 7-5 on Tuesday night at San Diego to even their American League Division Series at one game apiece.
Mike Zunino and Manuel Margot slugged two run-shots while Austin Meadows joined Arozarena in hitting a solo homer as Tampa Bay tied the franchise postseason record of four homers.
Giancarlo Stanton had two homers and four RBIs for New York, including a booming three-run shot that cleared the second-deck seating area in left-center field at Petco Park. Stanton has homered in four straight games this postseason, tying for the third-longest streak in a single postseason and trailing only Daniel Murphy (six in 2015 with New York Mets) and Carlos Beltran (five in 2004 with the Houston Astros).
Game 3 is Wednesday night.
Rays right-hander Tyler Glasnow (1-0) struck out a franchise postseason-record 10 in five-plus innings. He gave up four runs -- all on Stanton homers -- and three hits while walking three.
Tampa Bay reliever Diego Castillo got three outs, Nick Anderson struck out four in two innings of scoreless relief, and Peter Fairbanks worked out of trouble in the ninth to record his second career postseason save. Overall, the Rays combined for 18 strikeouts, a major league record for a nine-inning postseason game.
Fairbanks walked Gio Urshela and Gleyber Torres to start the ninth and was down 3-1 in the count before striking out Clint Frazier. He followed by fanning Gary Sanchez before DJ LeMahieu ripped a run-scoring single to center to pull the Yankees within two.
Rays manager Kevin Cash said of his bullpen, "We limited the damage. We caused a little bit of havoc there with the walks, but you take out Stanton's two big home runs and we pitched really well. We gotta do a better job moving forward on the walks.
"We needed a win today. ... We had to find a way to win, and we did. Those guys, pretty gutsy performances, certainly from Nick, Diego as well, and then Pete fell behind, wasn't pretty, wasn't clean. Still a young pitcher. Give him a lot of credit for finding a way to get through that inning."
Aaron Judge followed with a bouncer to third for the final out, ending his 0-for-5 night that featured three strikeouts.
Right-hander Deivi Garcia opened the game for New York -- allowing Arozarena's homer -- and departed after one inning. Left-hander J.A. Happ (0-1) replaced him and gave up four runs and five hits (including two homers) in 2 2/3 innings.
Arozarena's first-inning blast was followed by Stanton's leadoff homer in the second. The Rays took a 3-1 lead in the bottom of the inning on Zunino's two-run shot to left.
Tampa Bay increased the lead to 5-1 in the third on Margot's two-run homer.
Aaron Hicks singled and Luke Voit walked to start the New York fourth. Stanton followed by unleashing on a 1-1 fastball and sending the ball soaring beyond the seats and into an area of patio tables and stools known as Estrella Jalisco Landing.
Kevin Kiermaier delivered a run-scoring single in the fifth to give the Rays a 6-4 lead. Meadows added a leadoff homer in the sixth off right-hander Jonathan Loaisiga to make it a three-run margin.
The Yankees put their first two runners on in the seventh against Castillo, before Anderson entered and struck out the next three batters.
--Field Level Media
