Gerrit Cole fired a masterful 7 2/3 innings, DJ LeMahieu homered twice and the New York Yankees opened their 10-game road trip by handling the Tampa Bay Rays 6-2 on Friday in St. Petersburg, Fla.
In crafting his fifth game with double-digit strikeouts (11), Cole (11-4) yielded two runs (one earned) on three hits without a walk and lowered his American League-leading ERA to 2.95.
LeMahieu went 3-for-4 with a walk, scored three times and hit solo homers in the fifth and eighth innings — his first multi-homer game since 2021.
Gleyber Torres (two runs) and Anthony Volpe had two hits apiece as the Yankees won for the fifth time in 11 meetings with the Rays thus far.
Tied with the Baltimore Orioles' Kyle Gibson in AL victories (13), Tampa Bay's Zach Eflin (13-8) allowed two runs on seven hits.
He set season-highs in strikeouts (11) and pitches (103) while walking one.
Yandy Diaz rocked a solo homer, but the Rays produced only four hits and saw their four-game winning streak end.
The matchup between elite starting hurlers Cole and Eflin — each owning the most victories for his respective club's staff — was a stellar one from the outset.
Cole limited the Rays to just a pair of singles through the infield by Brandon Lowe and Isaac Paredes through the first four innings, facing just 14 batters.
Meanwhile, Eflin scattered four hits through four innings, including a one-out double by Isiah Kiner-Falefa in the fourth, but the right-hander's swing-and-miss arsenal resulted in eight strikeouts.
In the fifth, LeMahieu lofted a 2-1 curveball into the left-center field seats for his 10th homer — the 16th deep shot surrendered by Eflin.
Through five innings, Cole and Eflin combined to fan 18 batters without issuing a walk.
With two outs in the sixth, Everson Pereira lined a run-scoring single to right for a 2-0 lead.
Beginning the batting order's third time around against Cole, Diaz put his team on the board by ripping the right-hander's 88 mph slider to left-center for his 17th home run — a 109.7 mph solo shot — to cut it to 2-1.
Wildness by reliever Trevor Kelley led to a 5-1 New York lead in the seventh after Torres' RBI ground-rule double and Giancarlo Stanton's two-run double to left, as eight Yankees batted.
After LeMahieu's second long ball, Lowe produced an RBI single for the final tally.
—Field Level Media