It was by no means pretty, but the Yankees are not competing in a beauty pageant.
Given how ugly it’s been for them lately, they will take a win any way they can get it, style points be damned.
On Wednesday night, that meant leaning on their bullpen to tough out a 2-1 nail-biter over the Rays at Tropicana Field that marked only their seventh win in their last 24 games.
Gleyber Torres scores on Trent Grisham’s sac fly in the fourth inning of the Yankees’ 2-1 win over the Rays.
After a pair of RBIs from Trent Grisham staked them out to a 2-0 lead in the fourth inning, the Yankees (56-38) hung on for dear life from there to give themselves a chance Thursday to win their first series since mid-June.
“I think it’s big to win a game like that,” said Grisham, who added a nice running catch into the gap to strand two runners in the eighth inning. “Really nitty-gritty and just well-fought the whole way, close the whole way. For our pitchers to come up big in all those situations, I think it’s going to do a lot for us going forward.”
In relief of Marcus Stroman, who went only 4 ¹/₃ innings while giving up one run, the Yankees’ bullpen quartet of Tim Hill, Luke Weaver, Tommy Kahnle and Clay Holmes did some high-wire work to keep the one-run lead intact.
The four relievers — part of a bullpen that has been battered for the better part of two months — combined to toss 5 ²/₃ scoreless innings and strand 12 runners.
“That was the ultimate bend-but-don’t-break, playing the nickel defense on them there,” manager Aaron Boone said. “Just a great job, a lot of big moments in that game. Especially with what we’re going through, guys just coming through over and over again. … Big day for Grish on both sides of the ball. That one feels really good.”
Overall, the Yankees held the Rays (45-47) to 0-for-10 with runners in scoring position, negating a 10-6 hit differential that favored Tampa Bay.
While Boone shook up the top of the lineup, flipping Alex Verdugo into the leadoff spot with Ben Rice taking over the cleanup spot, it was the middle to bottom of the order — namely Grisham, batting seventh — that was responsible for the Yankees taking a 2-0 lead off Rays right-hander Zach Eflin.
The Rays scraped one run across on Stroman in the fifth inning and then loaded the bases with one out, at which point Boone called on Hill.
Trent Grisham, seen here making a catch in the second inning, drove in both of the Yankees’ runs in their Wednesday win over the Rays.
The lefty sidearmer delivered by striking out Josh Lowe on three pitches and then getting Randy Arozarena to line out to right field.
The typically reserved veteran was fired up, yelling and slapping his glove as he walked off the mound with two big outs.
“It was huge,” Stroman said. “That’s one of those moments in the game where it could go either way. For him to come in and get the [strikeout] and the out, that’s incredible.”
In the sixth, Hill put a pair of runners on, which Weaver cleaned up by getting an inning-ending double play on the first pitch he threw.
Then, after Weaver walked two batters in the seventh and stranded them both, Kahnle came on for the eighth and allowed the Rays’ Nos. 8 and 9 hitters to reach with two outs.
That forced Holmes into the game early for a four-out save, which began with Grisham’s running catch on Yandy Diaz’s fly ball to the gap in right-center field.
Marcus Stroman pitches against the Rays on Wednesday
Holmes then recorded only the Yankees’ second 1-2-3 inning in the ninth to pick up his first save since June 9.
He had blown two saves in between and given up runs in five of his seven outings since recording his last save.
While the night did not provide much room for breathing, the Yankees were able to exhale at the end of it.
Now they are tasked with doing it again Thursday, trying to win consecutive games for the first time since June 9-12 to fully snap out of their funk.
“It’s definitely been a rough stretch,” Stroman said. “I think we’re all aware of that. But the work ethic from every guy, the confidence hasn’t changed one bit. It’s just one of those spurts. It’s a long season. We play 162 games, so we’re going to go on skids like this. But definitely glad to get the win. It was a full-team effort tonight. The bullpen was incredible.”
