ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — The Yankees entered Tropicana Field to face their stiffest AL East competition battered and bruised and on Thursday night, it didn’t matter.
Just as he has all season, Nestor Cortes pitched like an ace, which allowed a makeshift Yankees lineup — that didn’t get a hit off Ryan Yarbrough until the sixth inning — enough time to break through in a 7-2 win over the Rays.
It was the first of 19 games between the teams this season, with 10 of those meetings coming in the Yankees’ next 25 games. And the win extended the Bombers’ AL East lead to 5 ½ games.
Cortes took a shutout into the ninth and threw a career-high 109 pitches.
He allowed a two-out single in the first to Harold Ramirez and then got Randy Arozarena to fly to left and Manuel Margot to line out to left, where Miguel Andujar made a diving catch.
He retired 14 straight before Isiah Kiner-Falefa made an error to lead off the bottom of the sixth.
By then, the Yankees had built a three-run, all in the top of the inning.
Yarbrough entered with a 2.41 ERA against the Yankees and retired 15 of the first 16 batters he saw, with only Anthony Rizzo reaching on a one-out walk in the first.
Facing a lineup that was without Giancarlo Stanton (ankle), DJ LeMahieu (left wrist), Josh Donaldson (COVID IL) and Aaron Hicks (hamstring), the Yankees won their third straight game after suffering their first three-game losing streak of the season.
Newly signed Matt Carpenter led off the sixth by getting hit by a pitch and the light-hitting Marwin Gonzalez followed with the Yankees’ first hit of the night, a single up the middle to bring up the top of the order.
After a visit from pitching coach Kyle Snyder, Aaron Judge singled up the middle to score Carpenter from second and give the Yankees a 1-0 lead.
Rizzo flied out to right for the first out, with Gonzalez moving up to third.
With Ryan Thompson in to face Gleyber Torres, Judge stole second.
Torres popped out before Andujar hit a grounder to shortstop. Taylor Walls stumbled and then bounced his throw to first, where Ramirez didn’t get a glove on the ball and it got away, allowing a second run to score on the play, giving the Yankees a 3-0 lead.
The Yankees threatened in the seventh, with Kiner-Falefa leading off with a walk against Ralph Garza Jr. and Jose Trevino reaching on an infield single. Both runners advanced on a groundout by Carpenter. After Gonzalez popped out, Garza threw a wild pitch with Judge at the plate. and Kiner-Falefa scored to make it 4-0.
Cortes finally gave up another hit with two outs in the seventh, as Manuel Margot’s shot to right-center just eluded Judge.
The lefty got Isaac Paredes to ground out to get out of the inning.
The Yankees tacked on three more runs in the ninth courtesy of a Judge sacrifice fly and a run-scoring double by Rizzo.
It was a promising start to an important stretch for the Yankees, who built much of their early success against sub-.500 teams, including going 9-4 against the last-place Orioles.
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