ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (AP) — Isaac Paredes homered in his first three at-bats and the Tampa Bay Rays beat the Yankees 5-4 on Tuesday night, handing New York only its third loss in 20 games.
Paredes combined with Harold Ramirez for back-to-back homers in the first off Nestor Cortes, then put the Rays ahead 3-2 in the third and added a two-run drive in the fifth on the first pitch after Clarke Schmidt relieved.
It was just the second multihomer game for Paredes, who hit two against Detroit on May 18. He was hit by a pitch from Ron Marinaccio in the seventh.
“The adrenaline was definitely saying that I should hit another homer,” Paredes said through a translator.
Tampa Bay had lost eight of its previous 10 games.
The Rays acquired the 23-year-old from Detroit on April 4 for outfielder Austin Meadows. Paredes is hitting .209 with eight homers and 16 RBIs, and 10 of his last 13 hits have been for extra bases.
This was the seventh time a Tampa Bay player hit three homers after Jonny Gomes, B.J. Upton, Evan Longoria (twice), Travis d’Arnaud and Brandon Lowe. — the latter two against the Yankees.
“That’s what made it very special,” Paredes said. “It’s always a tough series against the Yankees and so it’s very important to win against them. With the series that we’ve been having up to this, I’m just glad we were able to get a victory out of this.”.
The Rays led 5-2 before Marwin Gonzalez hit a two-run homer with two outs in the ninth off Colin Poche, who got his fifth save when pinch-hitter Aaron Judge flied out to the left-field warning track.
“Got off a great swing and just missed tying it,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said.
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