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Boss gets an eyeful as Yankees, Ivan Nova fall to Rays
- Updated: July 30, 2016
12:18 AM ET
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — It’s a relatively short drive from the Tampa offices of the New York Yankees, where Hal Steinbrenner goes to work each day, to Tropicana Field, where the Yankees got roughed up Friday night by the last-place Tampa Bay Rays, a team that could be well on its way to 100 losses this season.
Steinbrenner chose to make that drive Friday night, and if he had any doubt about the condition of and prospects for his team this season, or simply wanted to see it for himself, the Yankees’ managing general partner (i.e., boss) certainly got himself an eyeful.
The team that had won eight of its previous 11, all against winning teams, looked feeble at bat and ineffective on the mound against a team that started the night with a 39-61 record and 18½ games out of first place. Ivan Nova, who was at the very least pitching to keep himself in the Yankees’ rotation and possibly even to keep himself on the team, gave up a home run to the first batter he faced and could not get out of the fifth inning. The Yankees managed to scrape together 10 hits but no runs until the eighth inning, by which point they already trailed 5-0. And that one run, driven in by a Mark Teixeira single, was all they could eke out on a night in which they left 10 on base and went 1-for-9 with runners in scoring position in a 5-1 loss.
On the bright side, the owner did get to see Alex Rodriguez, the highest-paid benchwarmer on his roster, make a rare pinch-hitting appearance — against a right-handed reliever, no less! — and bounce a single into left field in the ninth inning.
Yankees manager Joe Girardi takes the ball from starter Ivan Nova, who didn’t make it out of the fifth inning Friday in giving up five runs to the Rays. Kim Klement/USA TODAY Sports
Whether what Steinbrenner saw was worse than he imagined it could be or simply pretty much what he had expected is known only to him; he watched the game from a luxury suite one deck above the press box and was not …
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