Rays come from behind twice to beat Yankees in a 10-inning thriller

John Romano, Tampa Bay Times on Apr 11, 2026

Published in Baseball

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TAMPA, Fla. — Every so often, you see a perfect baseball game.

Not in the literal sense of a pitcher retiring 27 consecutive hitters but in a dramatic, big-picture, every-moment-counts sort of way.

That was what the Rays’ 5-4 walk-off victory in 10 innings against the Yankees felt like on Saturday night.

Never mind that the hometown team came from behind in both the eighth and 10th innings to win. That was almost incidental compared to the level of tension and skill on display.

There were huge at-bats, critical managerial decisions, crucial fluke hits, a wall-climbing catch by Cody Bellinger, bullpen heroics and an animated split crowd of 21,620.

And in the end, it was back-to-back bunts by Chandler Simpson and Taylor Walls and a ground-ball single against a five-man infield by Jonathan Aranda that allowed the Rays to score two runs in the 10th without hitting the ball out of the infield.

There aren’t many pitchers who have dominated the Rays quite so stunningly as Yankees ace Max Fried.

He came into Saturday’s game with a 5-0 record and a 0.77 ERA in five starts against Tampa Bay. Rays hitters had a .121 batting average versus Fried in more than 100 at-bats.

And, for much of the game, it seemed like Fried was on his way to authoring another Rays heartbreak. Through five innings, he had given up only two hits and one run.

The difference on this day, however, was that Rays starter Nick Martinez was equally effective if not quite as overpowering. The Yankees stacked the lineup with left-handed hitters and they reached base eight times in 15 plate appearances, but Martinez worked around the traffic by retiring right-handers in all seven plate appearances.

The only run Martinez allowed was a homer by Austin Wells, which turned out to be appropriate. Martinez has allowed four runs in his three starts this season and all have come on homers: two solo and one two-run shot.

With Martinez tiring in the fifth, the Yankees put together a walk, a 108-mph lineout by Aaron Judge, a single and another walk to load the bases. Manager Kevin Cash opted to pull Martinez and bring in Kevin Kelly to face former MVP Giancarlo Stanton.

Kelly needed only four pitches to retire Stanton, getting him to swing at strike three on a 77-mph sweeper.

The Rays took a lead in the sixth when Walls singled, aggressively went to third on a single to center by Ryan Vilade and scored on a sacrifice fly from Aranda.

The Yankees came back in the eighth inning with a one-out walk and a chopper to first that bounced over the head of Aranda for a double. Reliever Bryan Baker, who had saves in his previous two appearances, got Austin Wells to pop up to short left field to keep the tying run at third base.

Moments later, however, former Ray Jose Caballero — who was 5 for 43 for a .116 average — doubled down the left-field line to put New York up 3-2.

With Fried still on the mound, catcher Nick Fortes led off the eighth with a double. Pinch-runner Chandler Simpson was moved to third on a bunt by Walls and then scored when Yandy Diaz hit his own chopper against the drawn-in infield. First baseman Ben Rice snagged the high bouncer, but was unable to get Simpson at the plate.