A four-game series split with the Rays later, and the Yankees enter a well-earned day off right where they started the holiday weekend: first place in the AL East with a 4.5 game lead.
The split itself couldn’t have been cleaner. The Yankees won the first two games, and the Rays took the next two. Two games where New York’s power and pitching were on full display, two where the Tropicana Field Effect was out full force.
If anything, the series was a shot across the Yankees’ bow. Giancarlo Stanton and Josh Donaldson’s bats were missed, and the Yankees are batting just .