TAMPA — A Yankees bullpen that had been asked to work overtime on the weekend had delivered in a big way up until the ninth inning Saturday.
That is when a four-run lead became a tie game at the hands of Devin Williams and gave way to a gut punch of a loss in 10 innings.
After the Yankees wasted runners on the corners and no outs in the top of the 10th, the Rays walked it off in the bottom of the inning when Jonathan Aranda clubbed a two-run shot off Yoendrys Gómez for a 10-8 comeback win at Steinbrenner Field.
The crushing loss snapped the Yankees’ five-game winning streak and spoiled what had been an otherwise strong weekend for the bullpen.
The ninth-inning Rays rally started with one out, when José Caballero reached on an infield single to third base and took second on Oswaldo Cabrera’s high throw to first.
Williams then hurt himself by walking No. 9 hitter Ben Rortvedt on five pitches, turning the order over to Chandler Simpson, who in his MLB debut poked a ground-rule double down the left field line to score one run.
Yandy Díaz came up next and hit a soft chopper to shortstop for another infield single that made it 8-6.
After Díaz stole second on the first pitch to Brandon Lowe, Lowe delivered a bloop single to center that scored two runs to tie the game at eight.
Williams, who converted an easy save on Thursday night here, has given up nine runs (eight earned) in his first nine appearances (eight innings) with the Yankees.
After Carlos Carrasco lasted just four-plus innings, Ian Hamilton (two innings), Mark Leiter Jr. and Luke Weaver combined to toss four shutout innings to preserve a 6-4 lead.
Aaron Judge and Paul Goldschmidt then added RBI singles in the top of the ninth to make it 8-4, which proved to be critical in the bottom of the frame.
Judge’s capped off a 3-for-5, three-RBI effort as he remained on fire, now hitting .397 with a 1.236 OPS through 21 games.
With Will Warren also making a short start on Thursday, the Yankees bullpen has had to cover 15 ¹/₃ innings through the first three games of the series.
It had allowed just two runs during that stretch before getting to Williams in the ninth.
Before the ninth inning Saturday, aside from the Rays (9-12) turning a 6-1 game into 6-4 off Carrasco, the Yankees’ biggest worry on Saturday was Ben Rice’s health.
The hot-hitting DH was hit by a pitch on the left elbow in the fourth inning and went to a local hospital for X-rays and a CT scan, which both came back negative. For now, the team is calling it a left elbow contusion.
The Yankees knocked Shane Baz out of the game after just 3 ¹/₃ innings, forcing him to throw 83 pitches to get through 18 hitters while pushing five runs across against him.
The offensive attack started from the get-go as the Yankees loaded the bases with no outs in the first inning and turned it into two runs.
Goldschmidt drove in one, grounding into a circus double play on which shortstop Caballero made a sliding stop to knock the ball down and hiked it to second through his legs.
Jazz Chisholm Jr., who entered the game in a 4-for-42 skid (with a looming suspension that he is appealing for posting on social media after his ejection Thursday), came up next and singled up the middle to make it 2-0.
Trent Grisham extended the lead to 3-0 in the second inning when he led off with his fifth home run of the season. Known more for his defense, Grisham’s bat has forced Boone to get him in the lineup more often early this season and the lefty hitter has continued to deliver.
The Rays snapped their 17-inning scoreless streak in the series when Díaz hit an RBI single to left with two outs in the third inning to make it 3-1.
But the Yankees tacked on three more runs in the top of the fourth.
Jasson Domínguez and Cabrera drew one-out walks off Baz before reliever Manuel Rodríguez hit Rice to load the bases.
Judge came up next and delivered a bloop two-run single before Austin Wells hit a sacrifice fly to stretch the lead to 6-1.
