ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — It took the newest Yankee to get their biggest hit of what was shaping up to be another lost weekend against the Rays.
Rougned Odor, playing his first game since arriving in a trade from the Rangers, delivered a two-out RBI single in the 10th inning Sunday to drive in the winning run in a 8-4 win over the Rays.
It snapped a three-game losing streak and came after the Yankees had numerous previous chances to take the lead — and failed.
“I just tried to put the ball in play and drive the run in,’’ Odor said. “I got a good pitch to hit and made good contact and stayed up the middle of the field.”
Odor had been hitless before the at-bat and the Yankees were going through another rough day with runners in scoring position, going just 1-for-11 before Odor’s single.
Even in the 10th, Gleyber Torres — who tied the game with a single in the eighth — was unable to get Aaron Judge in from third. Judge was thrown out at the plate for the second out on Torres’ grounder to short.
But Odor, acquired for a pair of minor leaguers after being designated for assignment, drove in Aaron Hicks.
Rougned Odor (r.) drove in the winning run in the 10th inning for the Yankees on April 11, 2021. APGary Sanchez followed with a run-scoring single to make it 6-4 and Gio Urshela then came up with his fourth hit of the day, an RBI single to right that also scored Sanchez when Manuel Margot let the ball get by him in right.
Albert Abreu, just recalled from the alternate site, finished the game with a scoreless bottom of the 10th.
“He has a lot of energy and I like the way he plays,’’ Urshela said of Odor. “He’s coming here to win.”
Urshela’s four hits included a 453-foot two-run homer in the third inning off ex-Met Michael Wacha.
Before the game, Aaron Boone insisted his lineup was poised to break out despite some recent lackluster performances.
“If the guys we have, as talented as they are, are routinely going up there stringing together good at-bats, I promise you, the results are gonna be there,’’ Boone said. “And somebody is gonna have to pay for the struggles of this first week.”
That turned out to be the Rays — at least in the 10th.
An inning earlier, the Yankees’ bats were still lost, as they found a way to not score in a wild top of the ninth.
Urshela started the inning with a hard ground ball up the middle that a diving Willy Adames deflected into right field, allowing a hustling Urshela to get to second for a leadoff double.
Brett Gardner walked and DJ LeMahieu hit a grounder to third to force Urshela, but Kevin Padlo’s throwing error allowed Gardner to get to third and LeMahieu to get to second.
With Judge at the plate, Diego Castillo bounced a pitch and Gardner started to come home, but catcher Mike Zunino grabbed it out of the air and Gardner got caught in a rundown for the second out.
Judge followed by grounding to short to end the threat.
The back-and-forth game also featured some drama, as warnings were issued to both benches following Jordan Montgomery drilling Austin Meadows in the shoulder in the bottom of the first inning.
Montgomery then hit Meadows again, this time in the left wrist, with two outs and no one on in the fifth. The umpires met, but let Montgomery stay in the game.
It was the fourth time the series a Rays’ batter was hit with a pitch.
Montgomery blamed the pitches on a lack of command, as he was unable to find his rhythm for most of his five-plus innings. He gave up a pair of homers.
Chad Green threw 2 ¹/₃ perfect innings in relief of Montgomery before Darren O’Day finished the eighth and Aroldis Chapman pitched around a two-out double by Zunino.
“You know you’re gonna take lumps, even when you’re a really good club,” said Boone, who added his team “came in with an edge” Sunday.








