Homers by Gleyber Torres and Matt Carpenter back Jameson Taillon as Yankees beat Rays
Yankees' Matt Carpenter watches his home run against the Tampa Bay Rays during the fourth inning of a baseball game Friday, May 27, 2022, in St. Petersburg, Fla. Credit: AP/Scott Audette
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — Rays infielder Taylor Walls gave the Yankees some bulletin-board material on Thursday night after Tampa Bay lost the first meeting between the clubs.
“That team’s very beatable, and we know we can beat them,’’ Walls said. “We’re here. We’re going to be here all year.’’
Here’s the thing, though: The Yankees don’t need any bulletin-board material.
On Friday night, they expanded their AL East lead over Tampa Bay to 6½ games with a 2-0 victory before 19,018 at Tropicana Field.
The “very beatable” Yankees won their fourth in a row and improved to an MLB-best 33-13 behind eight dominant innings from Jameson Taillon (two hits, five strikeouts) and home runs by Gleyber Torres and newcomer Matt Carpenter.
Walls, who is batting .150 and committed a key throwing error in Thursday’s 7-2 Yankees victory, did not play.
Taillon (5-1, 2.49 ERA) continued the Yankees’ season-long string of outstanding starting pitching. Yankees starting pitchers have an AL-best 2.78 ERA.
One night after Nestor Cortes threw eight innings of shutout ball before allowing a leadoff single in the ninth and getting pulled, Taillon retired the first 12 batters and the last nine he faced.
Taillon pitched to one batter over the minimum. He allowed two baserunners — a fifth-inning leadoff single by Randy Arozarena (who was thrown out trying to steal second) and a sixth-inning leadoff double by Manuel Margot.
Clay Holmes struck out two in a perfect ninth for his sixth save in six chances. He has pitched 24 consecutive scoreless innings, allowing only 12 hits and two walks with 26 strikeouts in that span. The game was over in 2:23.
“Pretty cool for me to throw eight and have Clay close it out,” Taillon said of his fellow former Pittsburgh Pirate. “For us to be here, in this situation, pitching together in a game, is pretty cool.”
Taillon was perfect with two strikeouts in the first four innings. The Yankees took a 2-0 lead in the fourth on home runs by Torres (438 feet) and Carpenter (384 feet) off lefthander Jeffrey Springs (2-2, 1.62).
Torres hammered a high 91-mph fastball deep into the left-centerfield stands for his eighth home run. He walked the first few steps toward first base before dropping the bat and starting his trot. “I felt like I crushed that ball,” he said. “I just enjoyed the moment.”
Two batters later, Carpenter picked up his first Yankees hit when he clobbered a first-pitch fastball for another no-doubter, this one to right. “That’s the Matt Carpenter I knew from the NL Central right there,” Taillon said.
Carpenter, a former three-time All-Star with St. Louis, signed with the Yankees on Thursday. He flew from Dallas to Tampa, arrived at the ballpark two hours before first pitch and was inserted into the lineup, going 0-for-2 with a hit by pitch, a walk and two runs scored. “I went from my living room to the best team in baseball,” he said.
Overnight, Carpenter became a sensation not for his productive Yankees debut but for the mustache he debuted to comply with the team’s facial-hair policy.
He was known for his scruffy beard during his 11 seasons in St. Louis, but his whirlwind Thursday included a date with a razor before he left home. “My kids didn’t recognize me when I walked out of the bathroom,” he said. “I’ve got a 6- and 5-year-old at home and they’ve never seen me without a beard. It’s a little different. But I’m here to rock it.”
Cortes — who until Carpenter arrived was the undisputed Yankees mustache king — said: “I think the best comparison I heard was Luigi,” referring to the “Super Mario” character.
On Friday, Tampa Bay got its first baserunner when Arozarena opened the fifth with a hard-hit single to the left of shortstop Isiah Kiner-Falefa. He was thrown out trying to steal second by Kyle Higashioka.
Margot doubled off the leftfield wall to open the sixth. Vidal Brujan fouled out to Higashioka before Torres made a spectacular diving catch of Mike Zunino’s liner to the shortstop side of second base for the second out. Taillon ended the inning by striking out Kevin Kiermaier and wound up departing after 93 pitches.
Oh, and Taillon said he was not aware of Walls’ comments.
“Any team in the big leagues is beatable,” he said. “The best teams in 162 games might lose 50 or 60 or whatever. Any team’s beatable. But this team’s pretty tough to beat.”
Anthony Rieber covers sports media and business and professional sports (you know, games and trades and things). He has worked at Newsday since Aug. 31, 1998, and has been in his current position since Jan. 1, 2026.
