Rays bring down Sonny Gray, Yankees

Sometimes you’re Sonny, and sometimes you’re Gray. Things had been going so well for the Yankees lately that it could be all too easy to forget that they, too, could be susceptible to games like Thursday night’s. Days when a dark cloud casts a pallor on the happy, sun-kissed days that have dominated this warm autumn at Yankee Stadium.You can hit four home runs, but your pitching can still fall apart, which led to a 9-6 loss to the Rays. Sonny Gray can struggle, the bullpen can do the same, and the team that looked unbeatable Wednesday can look pedestrian the next game.Though the Red Sox lost, 12-2, to the Astros, Boston’s magic number to clinch the AL East dwindled to one with three to play.The Yankees saw a three-run lead evaporate behind yet another uneven home performance by Gray. He pitched 4 2/3 innings, allowing six runs, six hits, five walks, a wild pitch and two home runs. Gray has allowed 15 earned runs in his last three home games, with six homers. Working without Chad Green and Dellin Betances, both of whom pitched Wednesday, the shorthanded bullpen faltered behind Gray, allowing two more runs in a seven-run fifth and another in the sixth.Things disassembled at a breakneck pace in that big inning. Holding on to a 4-1 lead, Gray was undone by his wildness, along with Gary Sanchez’s inability to rein him in. After a quick first out, Gray allowed back-to-back singles to Mallex Smith and Corey Dickerson.With Evan Longoria batting, Gray sailed an off-speed pitch by Sanchez to score Smith, and Sanchez’s wild throw back home allowed Dickerson to advance to third.Up to that point, Gray spent the game getting hit hard, but to little adverse effect. Sanchez’s MLB-worst 16th passed ball let Dickerson score before Gray walked Lucas Duda. Then came a two-run, go-ahead homer by Wilson Ramos, on a hanging curve. Gray allowed a single to Adeiny Hechavarria before getting pulled for Jonathan Holder, who didn’t fare much better. Holder gave up three more runs, one charged to Gray, as the Rays exploded for the 8-4 lead. In the sixth, Chasen Shreve let up a solo home run — an absolute blast to the second deck in left by pinch hitter Trevor Plouffe — to make it 9-4.Before to that, it was business as usual for the Yankees. That business, of course, being pummelling teams with their big, loud bats.The Yankees were dealt a quick deficit when Dickerson homered on the fourth pitch of the game, but the one-run lead lasted about as long as it takes an Aaron Judge projectile to exit the park. Brett Gardner led off the bottom of the first with a homer to right, on Jake Faria’s 0-and-1 splitter, and then Judge did his worst against the Rays’ rookie. Judge’s 51st homer landed in the second deck in right, marking the first time the Yankees have hit back-to-back homers to lead off a game since April 16, 2012, when Derek Jeter and Curtis Granderson accomplished the feat.Greg Bird hit a solo home run to lead off the fourth, his second in two days and his eighth since returning from the disabled list a little over a month ago. Aaron Hicks added another solo shot in the ninth, his second in two games.