Rays Top Yankees In 14 Inning Game Lasting Nearly 6 Hours
It was a long night in New York on Friday, as the Yankees and Rays battled it out in extra innings. By the end of the night Yankees fans would go home dejected, and Derek Jeter would have had the worst hitting performance of his career.
“I don’t even remember the first four of them,” Jeter toldCBS Sports. “It’s one of those days, know what I mean? Some days when you think you’ve seen it all, there’s something new.”
The Yankees and Rays went fourteen innings, lasting 5 hours and 49 minutes, so one can hardly blame Derek for not remembering the entire game. It was after midnight before the Rays rallied in the 14th with 5 runs to give them the win.
Jeter may want to forget the rest of the game as well. The life-long Yankees star went 0-7 at the plate for the first time in his career. That’s definitely not the type of performance New York fans are used to seeing from one of their most beloved players of all time.
The Yankees had plenty of opportunities to win the game according to New York Daily News, but couldn’t manage to take advantage of scoring opportunities that could have given the victory and ended the marathon of a game a little sooner.
In the bottom of the 12th, the Yankees had put them self in a position to seal the game, but then a bit of craziness ensued as Carlos Beltran hit a grounder to second and was thrown out at first, leading to a rundown of Jeter. As the Rays concentrated on him, Jacoby Ellisbury made a break from third towards home. The Rays reacted and changed focus to Ellisbury, eventually tagging him out, resulting in a 4-3-3-6-3-4-3-4-5-2 double play. Jeter made is safely to third, but two batters later Soriano grounded out to short, and the Yankees went back to the dugout with runners on base, and an opportunity to win the game missed.
“It’s the right play,” NY Daily News quoted Ellisbury as saying about his dash to home plate. “You want to force them to make the long throw and it almost got away.”
The 14th inning was the death knell for New York, as Tampa Bay rallied to score 5 runs, finally breaking the tie and getting the win 10-5.
Both teams were back at it Saturday afternoon as New York managed to get their revenge in a 9-3 victory in Yankee Stadium. Jeter was not on the Yankees’ starting roster following his rough Friday night, but will be back in the line-up to finish the series on Sunday.
[Feature Image courtesy USA Today]
