street. PETERSBURG, FL – There are games where physical and mental fouls are incidental and unimportant.
Against a club that made a historic start, the Yankees had no room for any kind of error.
Cardinal issues seared the Yankees in an 8-7, 10-inning loss to the Rays at Tropicana Field on Sunday, ending a winnable streak with a losing streak.
The most obvious misstep came in the sixth inning of the game, which was tied.
Jimmy Cordero entered, walked Tampa Bay’s Jose Seri and advanced the runner to second on a groundout.
Siri will register an error, but it’s a mental error.
Siri swooped in to third base and made a huge leap.
Cordero turned off Yandy Diaz, who hit a catcher between the mound and first base.
Cordero sent it into the field and didn’t check Serre, who finished third and continued for home.
Cordero threw to DJ Limahieu for the second time in the second inning, but Seeree scored from second on a two-footed ball.
“I have to be more aware of this situation,” manager Aaron Boone said of Cordero. “And a great steal break, per se of a second, so they have to do a better job of controlling the running game.”
Against the Rays, who became the seventh team since 1901 to win 19 of their first 22 games at home, such fouls — plus a couple involving Jeleber Torres — aren’t ideal.
In the fifth inning, Torres was charged with an error that resulted in an unearned run.
With Diaz on first, Wander Franco crashed a chopper over LeMahieu’s head, and Torres slid in to stop it.
He got up and threw the diamond to third Oswaldo Cabrera, while Diaz attempted to take the extra base.
Short jumpers were bowled by Cabrera, who was unable to get the ball out, enabling Diaz to get up and score.
The Yankees’ lead of 6-1 became 6-2, and the Rays jumped ahead in the next inning against Gerrit Cole.
Perhaps Cole was just tiring, and an odd play a few innings before caused him to throw several extra pitches.
In the second inning, with Harold Ramirez on first, Manuel Margo’s chopper hit high for Torres, who hit the ball in front of the second base bag.
He picked the ball cleanly but was placed too far out on the turf to step on the base or mark Ramirez.
Everyone was safe.
Although Cole escaped from a jam by retiring Christian Bethancourt on three pitches, he had to score one more out in the inning to do so.
“For sure, difficult teams will benefit from mistakes,” said Cole, who has made a lot of mistakes himself. “In this case, they did.”
