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ST. PETERSBURG, FL – The Yankees clung to two points ahead of their division rival, the Tampa Bay Rays, topping the ninth inning here Sunday afternoon when rookie international Thairo Estrada came in. 45 minutes later, Estrada crashed a home run solo that scored four goals.
The Estrada player facing Austin Pruitt, a Rays forward, lasted just three shots, but he was extended to the extreme thanks to a 43-minute gap between the first and second shots.
That is the life at Tropicana Field. Other stages can cope with rain delays. But at Tropicana Field, a 30-year-old dome-shaped terrain, considered one of the worst parks – if not the the worst – in the major leagues, they have delays of their kind – this time it was a power outage that took some time for the operations staff to correct.
Despite the unusual delay, the Yankees then knocked out Rays 7-1 by winning two of the three games in the series. The Yankees players, already exhausted, lacked a few extra rackets in the match and the remaining players have struck 12 times against Blake Snell, winner of the Cy Young Award of the American League, in 2018. But the Yankees shorthanded, like they have done it so many times this season, have won again.
"More and more players continue to progress," said Aaron Boone, Yankees coach, after his team found themselves within half a game of the Rays at the top of the overall A.L. East rankings. "I am really proud of this effort. It's not easy for us right now. We must grind and scratch for everything.
Masahiro Tanaka, the starter from the Yankees, had his best start in weeks. His trademark separator, one of the biggest culprits for his uneven pitching this season, improved a lot on Sunday. He pitched it for catch and used it to get three of his seven strikeouts.
While Snell racked up points – he fanned seven of the first nine Yankees – Tanaka, who improved his score to 3-3, kept the range of Rays more unbalanced. He allowed only one point in seven innings, while Snell gave up two runs in five and two-thirds.
"He's one of the best throwers in the league right now," Tanaka said through an interpreter. "So obviously you want to match it and I felt able to do a very good job in this area."
Tanaka's efforts were facilitated in the fifth inning when Austin Romine doubled Snell, Mike Tauchman narrowly missed the match for a two-point homeroom but opted for a brace, then DJ LeMahieu made it 2-0 with a single .
The Yankees, who already had 12 players on the injured list, remained strong without the help of receiver Gary Sanchez and short-shot Gleyber Torres, two-handed hitter who could have been useful against the southpaw Snell.
Although Sanchez said he felt good and had a concussion test on Saturday, he was treated to a day off after being hit on the receiver's headset by a backswing. Torres was hit in the right elbow by a shot from Friday's game and played Saturday, but was sidelined on Sunday when his throws in the previous match seemed a little affected by the lingering pain.
The help was returned. Private Aaron Hicks, absent since March 1 due to a back injury, was scheduled to return on Monday. And key relief player Chad Green, who spent about three weeks in the minor leagues repairing his mechanics, returned Sunday and canceled the attack in the ninth inning.
Even without Sanchez and Torres, the Yankees increased their lead to 3-1 in the eighth inning when first baseman Luke Voit scored on a wild throw from Ryne Stanek. After the Yankees' starter, Zack Britton, came out of the traffic jam late in the eighth inning, Estrada dominated the ninth.
Estrada blocked Pruitt's slider and then much of the stadium's lighting was extinguished. It was not quite black because the dashboard and other panels were still lit.
This led to an unusual scene throughout the stadium as officials worked to restore power. At one point, many fans turned on the lights on their phones. They then sang on Bon Jovi's "Livin 'On A Prayer" and Kanye West's "All Of The Lights", which played on the stadium speakers.
The Yankees' emergency pitchers sat cross-legged on the ground in the paddock. Some are even lying. Aroldis Chapman, who had warmed up in the ninth, stretched his legs. "We were bored a bit," he said.
"I'd like to be able to say that this is the first time I'm experiencing the delay here, but it's already happened," added Britton, who was on the Baltimore Orioles in 2014 when the game was suspended for 19 minutes because the lightning struck a transformer that powered Tropicana Field.
There are other cases too. With a low attendance and an old stadium, the Rays have been looking for a new home for years.
After the game, the spokes issued a statement apologizing for the delay. The team said the power cut was due to "the failure of a main switch in the building" and that officials have temporarily redirected the power supply so that the match can resume.
According to Yankees specialist Brett Gardner, the last blackout in a game he remembers is when he played football in high school nearly two decades ago. Boone said the team had just waited and waited, talking about baseball and telling funny stories in the meantime.
The lights flashed about 20 minutes after the start of the delay and then went out. Finally, after almost 40 minutes, the stream came back for good. The players quickly returned to the field and Estrada, who hit the batting cage in the meantime, quickly provided more power.
"I've never waited so long," he said. "But that's part of the game and things that can happen. You just have to be mentally ready. And luckily, I was positive and focused.
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