Yankees 2, Rays 3: Repeat of yesterday's game ends the same way

Yesterday's game was not fun. To have to watch basically the same game again today was less fun. For the second straight day, the Yankees' offense scored two early runs and then packed it in for the day. And for the second straight day, they couldn't hold on to their slim lead despite a decent performance from their starting pitcher. Adam Warren pitched seven solid innings. It's just that he allowed three runs when the Yankees scored less than that. Math-wise that's not a good thing, and it added up to a 3-2 loss to the Rays.

The Yankees struck pretty quickly in the first inning. Nate Karns started the game for the Rays by walking Jacoby Ellsbury and Brett Gardner on eight straight pitches. After throwing a ninth straight ball to Alex Rodriguez, he finally got the tenth pitch in there for a strike. A-Rod wound up popping one up for the first out, bringing Mark Teixeira to the plate. Teixiera singled, scoring Ellsbury. Brian McCann followed that with another single, this one scoring Gardner. That made it 2-0 Yankees.

The Rays got one of those runs back in the second inning. After getting the first out of the inning, Warren allowed a home run to Stephen Souza. That cut the Yankees' lead to one run.

An inning later, the Rays would take the lead. Logan Forsythe led off the second with a double to center. After David DeJesus flied out, Asdrubal Cabrera added another double. That scored Forsythe and made it 2-2. Next up was Joey Butler, who managed to get a single to drop into shallow left field. Cabrera came all the way around to score, giving the Rays the lead.

The Yankees came extremely close to tying the game in the top of the fifth inning. With two outs in the inning, Teixeira kept the inning alive with an infield single. (No, seriously, he did.) McCann then added a shift-beating single, moving Teixeira to second. Carlos Beltran then added a third straight single. Teixeira was sent home, but a great throw by Kevin Kiermaier beat Texiera home and he was tagged out to end the inning.

Warren was pretty solid for the Yankees for much of the game. Warren went seven innings, allowing three runs on seven hits and one walk. After he exited, Andrew Miller came in and struck out the side in the eighth. The pitching was there all game, but the offense was not.

The Yankees had one last chance in the ninth inning with the top of the order due up. That wouldn't amount to much. Ellsbury, Gardner and Rodriguez went down in order and the Rays came away with a 3-2 win.

The Yankees and Rays will finish up their series in the Trop tomorrow at 7:10 eastern. Chase Whitley will get the start for the Yankees, while Erasmo Ramirez will go for Tampa Bay.

Box score.