Rays flex muscle in beating Yankees, winning for third time in 4 games

NEW YORK — It’s too early to say the Rays are out of their extended offensive slump and overall month-long funk, but they are at least making it a point of discussion.

The Rays beat the Yankees 5-1 on Monday, making it two straight wins (for just the third time in July) and three out of four after a 5-15 start to the month.

“Good win,” manager Kevin Cash said. “Big win. Something to build off, to be able to get out of Houston the way we did (winning two of three) and then come in here and play really, really well, clean baseball for the most part.”

And, more importantly, in hitting four home runs in a game for the first time since April, they seemed more like their early-season selves.

“Definitely, it did feel that way," Cash said. “And (we) want it to continue to feel that way."

Brandon Lowe, officially on one of his hot streaks, got the Rays started with a two-run blast in the first, his fifth homer in 16 games since the All-Star break and 14th overall.

Wander Franco, coming off a hot weekend series, went deep in the third, his 13th of the season.

And Isaac Paredes and Josh Lowe hit back-to-back homers in the fourth. For Paredes, it was his team-leading 21st. For Josh Lowe, his first since July 1 and 14th overall.

The power show was paired with another strong start by Tyler Glasnow, who worked seven innings, allowing a solo home run to ex-Ray Jake Bauers and just two other hits while walking two and striking out eight.

The Rays improved to 65-44 overall, and kept within 1 ½ games of the American League East-leading Orioles. The last-place Yankees dropped to 55-51.

“Little by little, I think we’re getting back to getting that confidence that we (had) in the beginning of the year," Paredes said via team interpreter Manny Navarro. “And I think playing in a series like this one, it’s going to be very important."

Josh Lowe said it’s also important for the Rays to play with more energy.

“That’s kind of helping things out,” he said. “When we play with a lot of energy, we play with that swag, I think a lot of guys have that confidence as well. Whether it’s fake or not, you know, it’s something that guys can push into and build off of that.”

He has a point, as the energy, emotion and enthusiasm did seem lagging much of July.

“It’s a 162-game season," Josh Lowe said. “Guys get tired. And with a group like this, we all kind of just got tired at the same time. But it’s time to pick it up again, and I think we all realized that we’re getting down to the wire here a little bit and it’s time to put it into gear and get to playing some good baseball."

As on Sunday in Houston, getting off to a good start helped.

Monday, Yandy Diaz led off with a single and with one out, Brandon Lowe handed them a 2-0 lead. They were up 5-1 by the fourth and with the way Glasnow was pitching, cruised from there. Around an ugly 17-4 loss on Saturday, the Rays have won 4-3, 8-2 and 5-1.

Glasnow said he expected them to get hot again.

“It was just only a matter of time,” he said. “To do that consistently 162 games is, like, crazy. So there’s always going to be times when we’re up and down, but we’ve been swinging it way better lately.”

He has also been pitching extremely well lately, working seven innings for the third straight start, allowing one or fewer runs for the sixth time, striking out six or more for the 12th straight time, and improving to 3-2, 2.08 over his last seven starts.

“He’s super efficient and pretty dominant,” Cash said. “When you go through a whole outing and there’s only one pitch you want back, and I think it was probably the breaking ball to Bauers, you’ve got to be really pleased with yourself.”

Glasnow, who missed the first two months with an oblique strain, said he feels more comfortable in terms of routine and mechanics.

“The last few starts I’ve definitely been able to set dudes up better and pitch, not just, like, try to throw super hard, I guess. I don’t know,” he said. “The timing feels a lot better. I just feel like a lot more rhythmic, and I think just, like, accumulating more starts has gotten me back into every fifth day (and) I can kind of just get into that routine.”

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