Aaron Judge energized Yankee Stadium, at least for a few minutes Sunday afternoon.
His 35th home run of the season, a three-run shot in the seventh inning, briefly brought cheers to the crowd of 45,178 on a day of a mixture of frustration and apathy.
But it was only a temporary respite.
The Yankees had another chance in the ninth inning when Judge came up to bat to tie the game, but the comeback ended there, and the Yankees suffered their second straight loss to the Rays, 4-6.
The Yankees (59-42) tried Sunday to see how many runners they could put on base without scoring through the first four innings.
They had chances with the bases loaded and one out in each of the first two innings but couldn’t score, then left two more runners in scoring position in the fourth inning and with a runner on third base to end the game.
“We’re just trying to do too much,” Judge said. “Right now we’re two games out of first place in the division. We’ve got work to do, but I think it’s important to just try to keep it simple, not listen to the outside noise and just focus on what we can do in this room.”
The Rays (50-49) held the Yankees to just two hits for 10 at-bats with scoring position, leaving nine runners on base.
That, combined with four home runs given up by pitcher Marcus Stroman and his relief pitchers, led the Yankees to lose for the 20th time in their last 29 games.
“It’s like football. You just have to stop the run, get long runs on third downs and find a way to break through,” said coach Aaron Boone, who was ejected after the sixth inning for arguing balls and strikes. “Obviously, we’ve struggled to win games over the last month, so we’ve got to find a way right now.”
Judge hit a .444-foot home run in the seventh inning to cut the Rays’ lead to 5-3, followed by a single by Austin Wells.
But Gleyber Torres, who gave up an earned run on a defensive error earlier in the game, got a double play to end the inning.
In the ninth inning, Juan Soto singled home Ben Rice with one out, leaving Judge at bat with a possible tying run.
But Pete Fairbanks got him to hit a fly to center field before Wells struck out to end the game.
“For the first 60, 70 games, this offense has been phenomenal,” said Stroman, who allowed just three runs, two earned, in 5 1/3 innings. “It’s hard to be phenomenal in 162 games.”
Rays right-hander Shane Baz tried to help the Yankees by pitching 3 1/3 innings, but managed to keep the score at zero before leaving the game.
The Yankees had bases loaded with one out in each of the first two innings, but failed to score either time.
In the top of the first, Torres hit a fly ball to left field that was too shallow to allow Soto to score from third base, after which Alex Verdugo hit a liner to first for the out.
Then in the second inning, Soto got on base with the count at 3-0, got the green light to swing at a fastball at the top of the zone and got a 3-6-1 double play to end the inning.
The Buzzers walked leadoff hitters Anthony Volpe and Trent Grisham in the top of the fourth, then with one out, Grisham double-stole to advance to second and third base.
But left-handed relief pitcher Garrett Cleavinger stopped them there by striking out Rice and getting Soto to hit a fly out to center field.
“This is not the type of pitch we’re used to or the type of pitch we want to hit,” said Verdugo, who has struggled with 16 hits in 112 at-bats (.143) over his past 28 games. “Whether you’re a team that wins the World Series or not, obviously there are ups and downs throughout the year. This time we’ve been tested, we’ve been hit hard and we’re still climbing back up.”
