Clint Frazier hits walk-off homer in 11th as Yankees top Rays, snap four-game losing streak

The Yankees on offense this season far too often have resembled Sisyphus and his eternal adventure with the boulder.

It didn’t figure to be much different Tuesday night against one of the best pitchers in the sport – and it wasn’t.

Indeed, on a night when said pitcher, Rays righthander Tyler Glasnow, wasn’t close to his best, the Yankees putting together rallies was the same uphill battle it’s been most of the season.

Eventually, the Yankees prevailed, 5-3, in 11 innings on Clint Frazier’s walk-off, two-run homer for a much-needed victory in front of 12,537 at the Stadium.

Frazier also made a spectacular catch to keep the score tied in the eighth.

"We’ll call it Club 161st, that’s what it felt like in there," Frazier said of the clubhouse atmosphere. "There was a lot of happiness in that room because we’ve been going through some stuff as a team."

The Yankees (30-25), who went 2-for-11 with runners in scoring position and stranded 10 in beating Tampa at the Stadium for the first time in five tries this season, snapped a four-game losing streak, while the Rays (35-21) fell for only the second time in their last 18 games.

"Not close to where we need to be, but an important day to pull that one out," Aaron Boone said.

After Luis Cessa struck out two in a perfect 11th, Frazier took over.

Gary Sanchez, who struck out with the bases loaded to end the 10th, started the inning at second. He went to third with two outs on Brett Gardner’s groundout. Frazier, 0-for-2 but with two walks on the night, then roped a 0-and-1 slider to left for his fifth homer.

"Going into that at-bat, I felt I was going to do something," said Frazier, whose only other walk-off hit came July 8, 2017, a ninth-inning, three-run shot to beat the Brewers.

It was still far from a brilliant night of baseball as the Yankees managed just six hits – the Rays had three – and were again at times sloppy in the field and on the bases; Sanchez, most memorably, getting thrown out at third on a grounder to short after leading off the seventh with a double (Sanchez did nail a runner, Austin Meadows, trying to advance on a ball in the dirt for a key out in the sixth).

The Yankees, who nearly won it in the ninth when DJ LeMahieu lined out to second baseman Brandon Lowe with two on, also stranded two in the eighth.

With two outs Giancarlo Stanton, given the night off but pinch hitting for Mike Ford, fell to 0-for-13 since returning from the IL last Friday with a groundout.

That half-inning of frustration came after the play by Frazier in the eighth.

Getting the start in right with Aaron Judge at DH, Frazier kept it tied at 3-3 with a full-out diving catch on Joey Wendle’s flare with runners at the corners for the final out. The pitcher, Chad Green, raised his arms as if signaling touchdown.

"A great play to be able to lay out and hang on to it," Boone said. "He needed every inch of it."

The Yankees got six scoreless and hitless innings from its bullpen after Domingo German allowed three runs and three hits, including two homers, over five innings.

Glasnow, who came in 5-2 with a 2.57 ERA and 98 strikeouts in 11 starts, allowed three runs and four hits over seven innings in which he walked two and struck out eight. He all but gifted two runs in the third when he suddenly lost his command with two outs, but the Yankees were happy to take it. As they were when Kittredge’s slidercame across in just the right spot for Frazier, who went 1-for-3 but still is hitting only .185 with a .632 OPS.

"It's a feeling I'm sure that I won't forget just because what we've been going through as a team, what I've been going through individually," Frazier said. "We needed that win."

By Erik Boland

erik.boland@newsday.comeboland11

Erik Boland started in Newsday's sports department in 2002. He covered high school and college sports, then shifted to the Jets beat. He has covered the Yankees since 2009.