Rays 6, Yankees 4: Whatever.

The Good

• Uh...no one got injured? Should probably wait until the clubhouse reports come out to verify, but it doesn't look like anyone got hurt.
• Alex Rodriguez walked and hit a home run that went a long way. It's hard to quantify how much the offense missed him playing every day, but a lot. He was missed a lot. That's as close as we're going to get.
• Derek Jeter had two hits and passed Willie Mays for tenth on the all-time hits list. Can't do it all himself, but I appreciate the effort.
• David Price. This is supposed to be good things about what the Yankees did, but there isn't enough content for that. Price was in trouble a couple times and was able to escape with just two earned runs to his name over seven. It's a shame he had to pitch against the Yankees tonight, because he's a lot of fun to watch.

The Bad

• Jeter passed Willie Mays on the hit lists. Not bad because he did it, but bad because of how it's covered mid-game. His hit, which was teetering on an error, came when the Yankees were trailing in an important game. Nick Swisher and Alex Rodriguez didn't drive in the runs and the rally was killed. But Jeter had a hit! It's an important milestone, it's a big moment, but the time for retrospectives can wait a few minutes. This is nitpicky and sort of petty to rip on the announcers, but I don't care. The Yankees are, were and continued to lose after that moment and it was largely glossed over. The now isn't looking real good, so history can wait.
• The starting battery of CC Sabathia and Russell Martin didn't get the job done. Sabathia wasn't terrible, giving up four earned in six-and-two-third innings but he certainly hasn't been as sharp as we're used to lately. Martin didn't help the cause, letting three pitches get away and allowing the Rays to run all over him. Adjust the blame scale however you want, but that wasn't good.
• Andruw Jones, Steve Pearce, Ichiro and Raul Ibanez played. Copy-paste for future use. Pearce had an RBI single and Ibanez walked, but that was it. There isn't much to be done to get those guys out of the lineup, so Control+C to Control+V may be valuable for continued discussion of why the offense isn't producing much.
• With Cory Wade in the bullpen, there is no reason for Cody Eppley to be used as much as he is. Eppley's home run allowed to B.J. Upton is one more than Wade has allowed since being recalled. The bullpen has the extra ammo, but the same guns are being dry-fired over and over again.
• We got spoiled with more than one good defensive plays by Eduardo Nunez, so naturally he made an egregious error at the worst possible time. He is Sisyphus, with the giant rock rolling through his legs just when you think something will be different.

The Game

The Yankees lost, they continued to fail with runners in scoring position, the pitching and defense left way too much to be desired and now they're at risk of falling into outright second in the AL East. Whatever. Play better. They're better than this, but time is almost up to prove it.

Box Score. Math Class.

Play of the Game: A-Rod's two-run homer in the eighth (+15.9%)

Ivan Nova is back to the rotation tomorrow to take on James Shields. Win.