After relishing in a pregame ceremony Friday, throughout which it bestowed lavish cheers and love on Derek Jeter, a boisterous Yankee Stadium crowd spent a lot of the subsequent few hours voicing its frustrations with the present Yankees.
The loudest boos had been reserved for Aaron Hicks, who was pulled mid-game after a pair of defensive miscues in left area, although the remainder of the Yankees weren't immune from the grumblings as they fell to the Rays 4-2 on Friday night time in entrance of a sellout crowd of 46,160.
After a tough begin to a essential collection, the Yankees (83-56) now lead the Rays (78-58) by simply 3 ½ video games within the AL East — the smallest their division lead has been since Could 9.
“I acquired benched throughout the sport. That’s tough,” Hicks mentioned. “Particularly when all you need to do is produce in your staff and your first two at-bats are strikeouts. It's what it's. I simply gotta put together for tomorrow.”
One other stripped-down Yankees lineup couldn't mount any offense towards Rays right-hander Drew Rasmussen, who struck out 10 over six shutout innings. The Yankees then pushed a pair of runs throughout towards the Rays bullpen, however it wasn’t sufficient.
The Rays, in the meantime, acquired to Frankie Montas for 4 runs throughout 5 ²/₃ innings. Three of these runs scored on a pair of robust performs by Hicks in left area within the fourth, which led to him being pulled after the inning.
Hicks’ first mishap got here with two outs and runners on first and second. Rays star Wander Franco, who went 3-for-5 in his return from an prolonged keep on the injured checklist, hit a fly ball to left area. Hicks ran to trace it down, however dropped the ball simply earlier than he stepped throughout the foul line. He then took a number of seconds to select it up, seemingly pondering it was foul. Within the course of, each runners scored and Franco reached second for a double and a 3-0 lead.
“I don’t understand how I missed it,” Hicks mentioned. “It was in my glove and abruptly it’s out of my glove. Subsequent factor you already know, runners are operating throughout and scoring. It’s a play that you just gotta make.”
After Hicks was showered with loud boos and a short “Joey Gallo” chant, Randy Arozarena got here up and ripped a line drive to left area. The ball acquired over Hicks’ head and dropped for a double that put the Rays up 4-0.
“Simply acquired beat on the [second] one,” Hicks mentioned. “That ball was hit onerous, proper over my head. But when I make the primary one, we’re out of the inning.”
Supervisor Aaron Boone then known as on Estevan Florial to interchange Hicks in left area to start the fifth inning, a transfer that drew cheers from the exasperated crowd.
“I simply felt like I wanted to get him out of there at that time,” mentioned Boone, who made clear it was not a punitive transfer.
Hicks had misplaced his on a regular basis job final month after the arrival of Andrew Benintendi. Rrecent accidents to Benintendi and a slew of different Yankees, nevertheless, led to Hicks getting again within the lineup extra recurrently — because the No. 3 hitter, no much less, on Friday night time. He went 0-for-2 with a pair of strikeouts.
A reprieve from the boos got here within the seventh inning, when Aaron Choose roped an RBI single off lefty reliever Jalen Beeks that scored Oswald Peraza — who ducked underneath the tag at dwelling and was dominated protected upon replay evaluate — to get the Yankees inside 4-1.
One other got here within the ninth, when Kyle Higashioka crushed a solo homer to make it 4-2. After Marwin Gonzalez flew out to the warning observe, Choose drew a stroll to deliver up Gleyber Torres, who additionally flew out to the warning observe to finish it.
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