Rays win for 16th time in 17 games, Hill beats Yankees 3-1

NEW YORK (AP) — Rich Hill finished May with the lowest monthly ERA in 75 years of a pitcher in his 40s, and the Tampa Bay Rays won for the 16th time in 17 games by keeping up their domination of the reeling Yankees with a 3-1 victory Monday.

Hill (4-2), a 41-year-old left-hander who is the oldest player in Rays’ history, improved to 3-0 against the Yankees this season. He threw just 56 pitches through five scoreless innings and allowed three hits. Five of New York’s first 16 batters hit his first pitch and six more hit his second.

Hill was 3-1 with a 0.78 ERA in six May starts, the third-lowest ERA in a calendar month for a pitcher 40 or older behind Cincinnati’s 41-year-old Eppa Rixey (0.60 in August 1933) and the Washington Senators’ 42-year-old Johnny Niggeling (0.64 in May 1946), according to STATS. Hill lowered his season ERA to 3.32.

Rays manager Kevin Cash brought in Michael Wacha to start the sixth, extending Tampa Bay’s record streak of 729 games without a complete game since Matt Andriese’s two-hit shutout of Oakland on May 14, 2016.

Miguel Andújar homered in the seventh, just his second since 2018. Pete Fairbanks struck out Brett Gardner with a man on to end the seventh, Ryan Thompson pitched a perfect eighth and J.P. Feyereisen, acquired May 21 from Milwaukee for shortstop Willy Adames, finished a five-hitter for his third save.

The AL East-leading Rays (35-20) improved to 7-3 against the Yankees this season and became only the fourth visiting team in the last 30 years to win nine games in a 10-game span in the Bronx, after Seattle from 2000-03, Boston from 2010-11 and the Rays from 2013-14. Tampa Bay has won nine in a row overall in intra-division matchups.

Starting a key seven-game homestand against the AL East-leading Rays and second-place Boston Red...

source https://www.chron.com/sports/article/Rays-win-for-16th-time-in-17-games-Hill-beats-16215161.php