ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — You elevate your status, no matter your line of work, via two paths. The first is self-improvement. The second is your competitors getting worse.
At this early juncture of the baseball season, the Yankees are 2-for-2.
Manager Joe Girardi's group clobbered David Price's Rays 10-2 Thursday night at Tropicana Field, in the first 2014 matchup between the industry's Goliath and David. The Yankees are rolling at 10-6, residing atop the American League East, while the Rays have lost four straight and, at 7-9, share the division cellar with the defending World Series champion Red Sox.
In a most eventful game, featuring a Yankees triple play, CC Sabathia's best effort of the season, an injury scare for Carlos Beltran and a ridiculously productive Yankees infield (9-for-19 with a walk, four doubles, a triple, a homer, two runs scored and five RBI), the Rays' ineptitude and misfortune might have stood out the most.
"It's just one of those moments," Rays manager Joe Maddon said after the game. "Everybody goes through it. Ours is right now. And it's just a matter of how consistent we remain. And I'm talking about this office and this chair. If I'm consistent, the boys are going to be just fine."
Maddon has the track record to back up such words. Yet there's no doubting this has been a cruel April for the perpetually underfunded Rays. They have suffered arguably the most impactful injury in the American League East so far, with lefty starting pitcher Matt Moore tearing his UCL and requiring season-ending Tommy John surgery. Throw in an oblique injury to starter Alex Cobb that will keep him out of action until mid-to-late May and a 50-game suspension for Alex Colome after testing positive illegal performance-enhancing drugs, and you have a pitching shortage.
Then observe that the Rays are tied with the Astros for the 13th-most runs scored in the AL, 47, and you have a team-wide malfunction. Throw in underwhelming starts by the Red Sox, Blue Jays and Orioles, and the Yankees — despite their own dalliances with the disabled list — look even better in the AL, on the wings of their clearly upgraded lineup and starting rotation.
"We have great respect for the teams in this division," Rays executive vice president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman said before the game. "In the offseason, in spring training, coming into every season, we appreciate how difficult it is to compete in this division and that every win matters. So in that respect, it's not that early, and that 15 games have been played.
"[We're] also appreciating that any 15-game subset over the course of the year can tell different stories. So appreciating that and also respecting the fact that I don't foresee a scenario in which this doesn't go down to late September for multiple teams in this division that will be competing for the division crown."
The game turned on the second-inning triple play, as the Rays, down 4-0, had put men on first and second with none out. Then Sean Rodriguez stroked the ball well, but easy for Yankees third baseman Yangervis Solarte to range to his right, step on third and throw to Brian Roberts at second, who then relayed it to Scott Sizemore, making his first professional start at first base, for the third triple play behind Sabathia in a Yankees uniform.
"Hit it more to the left, it's foul, I get another pitch," Rodriguez said. "Hit it to the right more, it's at least a double play and not so much a triple play. I hit it hard to the perfect spot for him to step and throw."
In all, the Rays went 0-for-7 with runners in scoring position. Their fortunes figure to turn. "Keep plugging. Keep working," said Price, whose career record against the Yankees fell to 9-5.
Maddon, lamenting that other AL East clubs have emulated the Rays' embracing of defensive shifts, proclaimed the AL East never has been more competitive.
"We talked about the razor-thin line between winning and losing," Maddon said. "This is a laser-thin line."
Right now, the Yankees reside on the right sign of that line. They can stay there by continuing to excel, or by their opponents continuing to struggle. Or, if they could choose so, both.
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