Yankees’ Tanaka has forearm strain, will miss his next start

The last-place Rays salvaged Thursday night’s series finale, handing the Yankees a 2-0 loss that put yet another dent in their postseason dreams.

Since going homerless in 10 games, Sanchez now has eight homers in his last 12 games, five in his last four games, and he’s the fastest in Major League Baseball history to 19 home runs since Wally Berger in 1930. The Yankees have said Tanaka’s injury is slight, which presumably gives them some reason to believe he could return within the next two weeks.

“I haven’t seen that sharp of a slider in a while”, Snell said.

“He can help you in so many ways, ” Girardi said.

NY started Thursday 2 1/2 games behind Baltimore for the second AL wild-card spot.

“Ten games? Then we need to win 11 out of 10”, he said with a smile, responding to a question about how many victories the Yankees needed to realistically have a shot at the playoffs. Snell turned the lead over to Chase Whitley and Alex Colome, who finished off the Yankees.

Rays rookie lefthander Blake Snell (6-8) allowed five hits over five innings, holding the Yankees to 0-for-7 with RISP, 0-for-6 in the first three innings.

The Yankees had nearly no margin for error even before they failed to complete a three-game sweep of the Rays on Thursday, dropping a 2-0 decision. “If we weren’t so deep with our starting pitching, he’d be getting some starts here”. “I thought some guys swung the bats well, we just didn’t come through with the big hit”.

Tampa Bay took a 1-0 lead in the first inning. With one out, Brad Miller hit an RBI single. He hit a three-run shot in a four-run second off Cobb (1-1) and added his 19th homer in 43 games this season on a solo drive in the sixth against Justin Marks.

Yankees rookie catcher Gary Sanchez threw out Kevin Kiermaier at second base in the third inning to end the speedster’s run of 18 consecutive successful stolen bases attempts.

In the fifth with two outs, Snell walked Sanchez, gave up a single to Butler and walked Teixeira to load the bases, but again was able to get out of the jam as Chase Headley popped out to right field. “I’m definitely happy about it”.

Yankees rookie starter Luis Cessa gave up two runs in six innings on six hits, including Corey Dickerson’s sixth-inning homer. Tonight they have a chance to finish a three-game sweep of the Rays, a team they did beat three straight times earlier this month.

NOTES: Yankees RHP Masahiro Tanaka was scratched from his next start with a strain to his right forearm.

Any Rays success will have to start with containing Sanchez, who has three home runs in two games in this series and is making a late case for Rookie of the Year, despite his late call-up. Carlos Correa was the American League Rookie of the Year last season when he hit.279/.345/.512 with 22 home runs in 99 games.