Yankees Highlights: Travis Arnaud shocks New York with a threesome

For a brief moment, it appeared that the Yankees had ripped the victory to the throat of defeat. Yet, as fast as they seemed to have finished, a spectacular victory over their divisional rivals made the Rays reverse the script. James Paxton's strong debut and Edwin Encarnacion's late-game exploits were unsuccessful after Aroldis Chapman broke out and Arvis's superb three-round trader Arvad left the Yankees to break defeat at 5. 4 in the Bronx.

Winner of the game

It was Encarnacion's biggest match as a Yankee. He scored the team on the board with a solo shot on the fourth goal, and managed a huge circuit with two innings that seemed to want to win the game in the bottom of the eighth. It was a dramatic crash and triumphant in the stands on the left, which left little doubt about his destination since the moment he had met the bat of Encarnacion:

Elsewhere, Paxton continued its tendency to get hit in the first inning and then calm down. He allowed one Arnaud player to start the match, but from there, the only other problem on his line was another shot from Arnaud in third. He finished with six solid runs, scoring seven compared to two walks. Not his best, but Paxton seems to settle into a solid groove.

Loser of the game

Well, there does not seem to be much work to do here except write Chapman's name after giving three points to the ninth. In truth, the Yankees were a bit unlucky. Kevin Kiermaier's first single was badly hit, and according to Statcast, Arnaud's last game had only a 16% chance of winning a hit. That said, Chapman had chances to tidy up the match and he did not do the job. He bears his fair share of responsibility for this frustrating loss.

Graphic

Fangraphs