Jose Caballero went deep twice against his former club and drove in four runs, and the New York Yankees opened an important four-game series with Tampa Bay by toppling the first-place Rays 5-1 on Monday night in St. Petersburg, Fla.
A former Tampa Bay utility infielder for parts of two seasons, Caballero slugged similar shots in the fifth and eight innings as the struggling Yankees won for just the second time in 11 games. Ben Rice also homered for New York which had just three hits, all of which were homers.
Starter Cam Schlittler (9-5) allowed just one run on four hits over a dominating eight innings that featured eight strikeouts and no walks.
Tampa Bay’s Richie Palacios was 2-for-3 with an RBI single. Chandler Simpson singled to stretch his hitting streak to nine games and scored.
In a five-inning outing, Griffin Jax (4-6) retired the first 13 batters he faced and surrendered all three of his baserunners and runs in a three-batter span that ended with Caballero’s first long ball – the only hit against him.
Jax struck out 10 and walked two hitters, both preceding Caballero’s at-bat.
The Rays fanned 17 Yankees but lost against an American League East team at home for the first time in 13 contests this season.
Schlittler and Jax, two hard-throwing right-handers, blew away batters with hard stuff early, with the former topping out at 101 and the latter fanning the side in the second inning with upper-90s stuff.
The New York power pitcher allowed just a popup to shallow right for a single by Jonny DeLuca through the first four and struck out four, while Jax was perfect through four and recorded seven strikeouts in facing a dozen Yankees hitters.
That all changed in the fifth as Jax lost command and issued a pair of one-out walks to Jasson Dominguez and Jazz Chisholm Jr.
Caballero belted a 90-mph changeup, turned and whipped his bat toward his dugout, and watched the three-run blast sail 395 feet to left-center.
However, the home side scored when Palacios’ two-out single to left fell in and scored Simpson, who reached base with an infield single.
In the eighth, Caballero answered with another homer to left-center, his 10th, off newcomer Chris Roycroft in his club debut. Rice popped his 25th shot an inning later.
