One loss against the Rays does not a disaster make. But the Yankees are a troubling 2-9 against the Red Sox and Rays, having been outscored 79-55.

Sure, most of those games came before Alex Rodriguez returned to the lineup. But the Rays showed up in New York without Jason Bartlett, Akinori Iwamura and Pat Burrell and with Evan Longoria limited to pinch hitting and scored nine runs.

Joe Girardi said he took CC Sabathia out of the game because the Yankees had a long bottom of the eighth inning. CC said he felt fine and wanted to continue. “That’s up to Joe,” he said. Sabathia had thrown 101 pitches, nine below his average.

Mariano Rivera said he would have wanted to face Longoria. “Because that’s what I do,” he said. But Girardi went with the numbers and walked Longoria to get to Upton.

Those numbers:

Longoria was 2 for 6 against Mo with a homer three strikeouts, Upton was 1 for 7 with six strikeouts. I’d say Girardi made the correct move. But Upton got a hit.

Here is Girardi’s postgame interview:

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