New York Yankees’ AL East lead cut to FOUR defeat against Tampa Bay despite Aaron Judge’s 52nd homer

Slugger Giancarlo Stanton and manager Aaron Boone have insisted the New York Yankees still control their destiny.

Corey Kluber limited the Yankees to a pair of singles over seven shutout innings and the Tampa Bay Rays withstood Aaron Judge’s 52nd home run, beating New York 2-1 Saturday night to cut their deficit in the AL East to four games.

‘We’re not where we want to be,’ Stanton said. ‘But we’re still in a fine opportunity, so it’s ours for the taking.’

The first-place Yankees, who have seen their 15 1/2-game advantage slip away, have lost six of seven. Tampa Bay blanked them on five hits in the series opener Friday night, a 9-0 loss that Boone called ’embarrassing.’

‘We have the people to do it,’ Boone said about a turnaround. ‘If we don´t dig ourselves out, you’ll have a great story to write. We’re going to find out what we’re made of. All the noise, a lot of people out there really mad. What’s our response.’

This was the second of six games between the teams in a 10-day stretch. Yandy Diaz hit a two-run single in the third inning and the Rays made it stand up.

‘We’re No. 1 in the league in scoring, amazingly as that is,’ Boone said. ‘So, if we don´t turn this around, that will be the story.’

Judge boosted his major league homer lead with a leadoff drive in the ninth inning off Jason Adam. But Adam retired the next three batters for his eighth save.

Aaron Judge rounds the bases after hitting league-leading 52nd home run in ninth inning

The blast kept the Yankees from being shut out for the 13th time this season, and seventh over the last 26 games.

Kluber (10-7) struck out four without a walk as the Rays improved their AL-best record since August 3 to 20-9. It was the first time the 36-year old has thrown a pitch in the seventh inning since his no-hitter for the Yankees on May 19, 2021, at Texas.

‘We haven’t really gotten too far ahead of ourselves at this point,’ Kluber said. ‘I think we’ll do our best to continue to be that way.’

Peter Fairbanks had a perfect eighth before Adam closed.

Kluber retired 14 in a row before Aaron Hicks reached on a throwing error by second baseman Jonathan Aranda in the sixth and went to second on Judge’s single.

Tampa Bay manager Kevin Cash sent pitching coach Kyle Snyder to talk with Kluber but didn’t get anyone up in the bullpen.

Giancarlo Stanton breaks bat while hitting ground ball in sixth inning against Tampa Bay

Kluber then escaped damage by striking out DJ LeMahieu and getting a grounder from Stanton.

‘We needed it,’ Cash said. ‘These are big series, big pitches, big moments,’ Cash said. ‘You put a lot of pressure on the bullpen. To be able to send him back out there for one extra inning really helps us moving forward.’

Diaz put the Rays up 2-0 on a two-run single in the third that deflected off Clarke Schmidt (5-4) and into right field. Francisco Mejia and Jose Siri singled to start the inning, and both moved up on Taylor Walls´ sacrifice bunt.

Schmidt allowed two runs and four hits over 4 1/3 innings.

Yandy Diaz (right) celebrates with first base coach Chris Prieto after hitting a two-RBI single

New York had runners on the corners with one out in the first when Stanton was thrown out trying to move up to second on a pitch in the dirt. The inning ended when Josh Donaldson hit a grounder.

Stanton had his bat demolished when he hit a third-inning grounder off a 90-mph pitch from Kluber.

Yankees prospect Oswald Peraza made his first big league start at shortstop and went 0 for 3. He struck out pinch-hitting during the ninth in his debut Friday.

The Yankees will finish up their series against Tampa Bay on Sunday before returning home to begin a four-game series against the Minnesota Twins.