Rays brush off 'a last-place team,' top Yanks after benches clear - ESPN

ST. PETERBURG, Fla. — Brandon Lowe homered and drove in four runs as the AL wild card-leading Tampa Bay Rays defeated the New York Yankees, 7-4, in a contentious matchup on Sunday and kept the road team winless in series since June.

Benches and bullpens emptied twice in the eighth inning after one of five hit batters but no punches were thrown, and the Yankees lost their eighth straight series rubber game.

«Looking at it in a different view, it's a last-place team,» Lowe said. «We don't need to worry about it. We need to focus up on what we need to do down the stretch. If they lose a guy, it's not going to be quite as big of a deal as if we're losing one of our guys. We're focused up on kind of a bigger picture.»

Tampa Bay rallied from a 4-2 deficit in the sixth when Harold Ramírez flared a bases-loaded, two-out single to right off Ian Hamilton (2-2) that went just over a slow-to-react Gleyber Torres at second, and Lowe followed with a two-run single against Wandy Peralta.

New York (62-68) dropped a season-high six games under .500 and is in danger of ending its streak of 30 consecutive winning seasons. The last 16 batters made out for the Yankees, who are 0-8-2 in series since winning two of three games at Oakland in late June. New York has been held to four hits or fewer 23 times.

«We haven't been very good,» Yankees manager Aaron Boone said. «Everything has been a challenge.»

Tempers flared after Randy Arozarena was hit on a 3-1 pitch by Albert Abreu, the fourth Tampa Bay player hit. Arozarena was also hit twice by the Yankees on May 5, once by Abreu after hitting a long home run.

«I think it was on purpose,» Arozarena said through a translator. «If you look back at (the) previous series, he's hit me before. I've been