Yankees beat Rays for series win on transformational trade deadline day

On a day that Aaron Boone described as exciting for some players and anxious for others, the Yankees took care of business on the field with the trade deadline looming over them.

And now they go.

Ahead of the 6 p.m. trade deadline, the Yankees picked up an important series victory, getting big home runs from Giancarlo Stanton and Ben Rice to beat the Rays 7-4 on Thursday afternoon in The Bronx.

The game included a two-hour, 45-minute rain delay during the bottom of the fifth, during which the Yankees (60-49) acquired relievers David Bednar from the Pirates and Jake Bird from the Rockies – with Giants closer Camilo Doval later joining the fold. 

By the time play resumed, the Yankees were playing with a short bench as they sent infielder Oswald Peraza to the Angels.

And then after the game restarted, the Rays (54-56) were pulling Jose Caballero from the game so they could trade the speedy utilityman across the field to the Yankees.

By the end of the day, in addition to three relievers and a utilityman, the Yankees had also picked up a half-game on the Blue Jays in the standings, now entering the final two-month sprint 3 1/2 games out of first place in the AL East.

After Cody Bellinger roped an RBI single in the bottom of the first, Stanton delivered his two-run shot off Rays right-hander Ryan Pepiot. It marked his eighth home run in his last 20 games.

Rice followed with a three-run homer in the second inning to make it 6-0.

After cruising through three scoreless innings, Marcus Stroman ran into trouble in the fourth as the Rays scratched across four runs to pull within 7-4.

But Stroman eventually got through the fifth before Yerry De Los Santos provided three big innings (with five strikeouts) out of the delay.

Jonathan Loáisiga then closed it out for his first save of the season on a day when Devin Williams and Luke Weaver were likely unavailable because of recent workloads.