The New York Yankees were left on the field in a painful way for the whole team, as they fell 10-8 to the Tampa Bay Rays, in a game in which they left the ball to their closer Devin Williams with a four-run lead and he let it go so that the game went to extra innings.
Williams has struggled in his first few weeks with the Yankees and is a far cry from the dominant closer who shone with the Milwaukee Brewers. In his latest dark chapter, he gave up a wide lead, which culminated in a two-run single by Brandon Lowe.
The loss went to Yoendrys Gomez, who gave up a two-run homer to Jonathan Aranda, as the Yankees saw their five-game winning streak come to an end, although they remain at the top of their division with a 13-8 record
Aaron Judge defends Devin Williams
After Devin Williams’ debacle in the ninth inning and the problems he has had in establishing himself as the Yankees closer, captain Aaron Judge did not hesitate to come to his defense after a bad outing to be the main culprit for the loss to the Rays.
“We signed him for a reason. He’s the best closer in baseball, we have a long season. This guy is going to save us a lot of games and help us, I’m not worried at all. He knows what he has to do, he’ll go out and figure it out. Everyone in this room, we want him coming out of the bullpen, especially in a close game,” Judge said to endorse his teammate Devin Williams.
Judge noted that despite losing the four-run lead, Williams is the player the Yankees want on the mound and reiterated: “Nobody here is worried. He’s going to get the job done.”
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