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Bradley remains undefeated in 7 starts, Arozarena hits two homers and Rays beat Yankees 9-1

Bradley remains undefeated in 7 starts, Arozarena hits two homers and Rays beat Yankees 9-1

NEW YORK — Taj Bradley threw seven innings of one hit to remain unbeaten in seven straight starts, Randy Arozarena hit two of Tampa Bay’s four home runs and the Rays beat the New York Yankees 9-1 on Saturday.

“He’s just in a dominant phase right now,” Rays manager Kevin Cash said.

Alex Jackson, Isaac Paredes and Arozarena hit a homer off Nestor Cortes, and Arozarena added one off Josh Maciejewski for his seventh multi-homer game. Arozarena tied a career high with four hits, and Curtis Mead, back in the majors for the first time since May 3, had three hits, including a go-ahead double in the third.

Bradley (5-4) allowed his lone hit when Ben Rice doubled in the first inning, and the 23-year-old right-hander has a 0.92 ERA in his last eight starts. He leads the major leagues in ERA among pitchers with at least 30 innings pitched as of June 8, surpassing Pittsburgh’s Paul Skenes’ 1.14.

“It seemed like the cutter shape changed all day long,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said. “He mixed in some bigger, slower ones, had a good split. So he had a little bit of everything and a little bit of a different look for us all day long and just kept us at bay and stayed off the barrel.”

Since Bradley gave up nine runs in Baltimore on June 1, his season ERA has dropped from 5.81 to 2.63. With his fastball reaching 100.1 mph, Bradley threw his third shutout ball in four games, striking out five and walking two in his Yankee Stadium debut.

“I was excited. Even in the bullpen, you get booed,” he said.

Juan Soto tripled and scored on a grounder by Jahmai Jones in the ninth inning, dropping the Yankees to 9-19 after a 50-22 start.

Cortes (4-9) went 0-4 in his last five starts, allowing six runs, eight hits and two walks in 4 1/3 innings. He is 4-4 with a 2.48 ERA at home and 0-5 with a 6.04 ERA away.

“It’s tough to pitch in the big leagues when you don’t have your best stuff,” Cortes said. “We’ve got to get better, starting with me.”

Tampa Bay had nine right-handed batters in its lineup and improved its record to 17-8 against left-handed batters.

Jackson went 2 for 32 against lefties and 7 for 85 overall. He walked in the third and scored when Mead hit a two-out double off the left-field wall.

Cortes allowed a single to Jose Siri in the fourth inning, then walked Taylor Walls, who entered with a .158 batting average. Jackson hit a full-count cutter to right-center for his second home run of the season and first since June 10, giving the Rays a 4-0 lead.

Paredes and Arozarena hit solo homers in the fifth inning against Cortes, who has allowed a season-record three homers and walked 19 in 21 starts this season. Paredes, who was in a 3-for-34 slide, has 16 homers this season and 69 in his major league career, all of them to left field.

New York turned three double plays and leads the Major League with 92.

DJ LaMahieu went 0 for 3 with two strikeouts and is hitless in 17 plate appearances, dropping his average to .177. The two-time batting champion has been booed by frustrated fans of late.

Alex Verdugo, who dropped to sixth from the cleanup, was 0-for-3 and is hitting .148 (16-for-108) with five RBI since June 15.

Carlos Narváez, a 25-year-old catcher for the Yankees who has played in the minor leagues since 2016, made his major league debut as a replacement defensive back in the ninth inning and hit an opposite-field single.

“Goosebumps. Of course my dream was to debut here, but to win,” Narváez said. “It’s been a long journey.”

Rays: RHP Jeffrey Springs (Tommy John surgery in May 2023) was scheduled to start Saturday for Triple-A Durham in his 11th minor league rehab game.

Yankees: DH Giancarlo Stanton (left hamstring strain) is expected to be available late next week, though the team has not yet decided whether he will rehab. … RHP Clarke Schmidt (right lat strain) threw his first bullpen session since the injury on Saturday. … RHP JT Brubaker (oblique strain) is out for three or four weeks.

RHP Marcus Stroman (7-4, 3.51) will start for the Yankees on Sunday, while RHP Shane Baz (0-1, 5.23) will start for the Rays.

Corrects to seven consecutive undefeated starts, up from eight in a previous version.

AP MLB: https://apnews.com/MLB