ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — As has been the case too often during their recent stretch of offensive futility, the Yankees were three-hit Monday night.
But José Caballero and Ben Rice got their money’s worth, and Cam Schlittler made sure they were enough.
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Try it freeCaballero clobbered a pair of home runs, Rice added another and Schlittler delivered a masterful bounce-back pitching performance, the combination lifting the Yankees to a much-needed and clean 5-1 win over the Rays to open a critical four-game showdown at Tropicana Field.
On a night when he dazzled across eight dominant innings, Schlittler made the three home runs stand up to lift the Yankees (50-40) to just their second win in the last 11 games, this one pulling them within three games of the Rays (52-36) for the AL East lead.
Schlitter was nearly untouchable, scattering just four soft-hit singles — all off the bat at 73.6 mph or softer — and no walks while striking out eight.
The right-hander was coming off the worst start of his young career, when he gave up a career-high six runs and four home runs in four innings last week against the Tigers.
“They want to say that there’s f–king regression because I had one bad outing, so again, it was personal to go out there and have a dominant start and put this team in the right position,” said Schlittler, who has become known for using any kind of perceived slight to his advantage.
That is not dissimilar to Caballero, who acknowledged having an extra chip on his shoulder while facing the team that traded him to the Yankees last summer.
“The environment, the people here, facing my old teammates, it’s just the little things that get me going,” said Caballero, who now has two multi-homer games in his career, both against the Rays.
The Yankees needed every bit of juice from Schlittler and Caballero to squeeze out the win and kick off in style about as big a series as July can offer.
They had led the Rays by as many as 3 ¹/₂ games on June 17. It was a three-game lead on June 24, after which the Yankees dropped nine of 10 — including four straight games in which they were three-hit — and the Rays won nine of 11, putting Tampa Bay four games up entering Monday’s series.
“I feel like we dug ourselves a hole a little bit, so it was good to go out there and get the first one,” Schlittler said. “We got a chance to shake things up.”
The night started like so many others have lately for the Yankees, as their first 13 hitters were retired in order against Rays righty Griffin Jax.
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But then Jasson Domínguez and Jazz Chisholm Jr. drew back-to-back walks with one out in the fifth inning to bring up Caballero, who drilled a three-run shot to left field — flush with an emphatic bat flip — for the 3-0 lead.
Caballero, starting at shortstop over Anthony Volpe in what Aaron Boone described as a “day-by-day” situation, then took Chris Roycroft deep in the eighth inning — again chucking his bat toward the Yankees dugout — to make it 4-1 on his career-high 10th home run of the season.
“I’m trying to spark the team somehow, some way,” Caballero said. “We’re struggling right now, going through a bad stretch. Something that can get the team going a little bit and get them excited is always good. That’s the reason why [for the bat flips].”
Rice later added his 25th homer of the year in the ninth inning for an insurance run, marking the first time in the modern era in which the Yankees won a game with all three of their hits being home runs. They also became the first team in the modern era to do it while striking out 17 times.
“Obviously a win we needed and felt good to play well,” Boone said. “It’s still a grind for us offensively, but obviously some long balls were huge.”
