Yankees 5, Rays 2: Bombs away in the Bronx

Luis Severino turned in another impressive start in his young MLB career and got some nice run support via the home run on the Yankees' way to taking the first game of their weekend set against the Rays in New York. Brett Gardner was the lone Yankee to record a hit that didn't sail over the outfield wall. With the Blue Jays trailing big against the Orioles north of the border it looks as though the Yankees will gain ground in the race for the AL East and trail Toronto by only half a game at the end of the night.

The Yankees' top prospect pitched into the seventh inning for the first time, allowing seven hits and one run while striking out five and walking three batters in 6.1 innings. One of the hits should have been an error on Stephen Drew to be perfectly honest, but it didn't matter much in the end. The lone run given up by Severino was a solo home run by Evan Longoria, who has the second most homers at Yankee Stadium III, trailing Jose Bautista by just one dinger. That's nothing to hang your head over. Severino certainly didn't have his best stuff tonight, but the Yankees will take him pitching like this when he isn't quite able to dominate every single time. Justin Wilson got the final two outs of the seventh inning without incident before Joe Girardi turned the game over to Adam Warren. Warren worked a scoreless eighth before giving up a run to turn the game into a save situation in the ninth. Andrew Miller came on to lock things down as he has all season and worked out of the jam quickly.

Alex Rodriguez got the scoring started for the Yankees with a two-run home run to score Brian McCann in the second inning. McCann had walked to reach base before the big hit by Rodriguez. It was Rodriguez's first home run since August 20th, hopefully signaling that the DH is returning to his first half form after a terrible August at the plate. McCann made it 3-0 with his 24th home run of the season in the fourth inning, continuing to hit extremely well off Rays starter Jake Odorizzi. The Yankees completed their scoring for the night when Greg Bird homered into the second deck in the seventh inning to score McCann and make it 5-1. Bird has had some trouble with the high strike so far in his first few games as a big leaguer, but his swing is undeniably made for Yankee Stadium, and the power has been there as advertised to this point.

With the hopes of winning the series, Nathan Eovaldi looks to stay on a roll as he gets the start in tomorrow's afternoon game. Matt Moore gets the start for Tampa Bay. The game starts at 1:05 pm and will be on FOX Sports 1 instead of YES.