After rallying from an early deficit, the Tampa Bay Rays could not hold a one-run lead in the bottom of the ninth inning, and Brett Gardner's 11th inning home run sent the Tampa Bay Rays to a 6-5 loss to the New York Yankees Thursday.
New York jumped on Archer in the bottom of the second inning with three straight hits -- a single by Chase Headley, followed by a double from Jacoby Ellsbury and single from Todd Frazier -- led to a 2-0 deficit.
Gary Sanchez extended the lead to three runs an inning later, lifting his 15th home run into the seats in left.
Tampa Bay finally got on the board in the top of the fourth, as Evan Longoria took the first pitch of the inning from C.C. Sabathia and sent it into the front row for his 16th home run on the season.
The Rays took the lead in the top of the fifth, as back-to-back doubles by Adeiny Hechaverria and Peter Bourjos made it a 3-2 game and a walk to Steven Souza Jr. ended Sabathia's evening. Joe Girardi went to right-hander Chad Green, allowing Kevin Cash to pinch-hit Brad Miller for Trevor Plouffe, who delivered a two-run double to turn the one-run deficit into a one-run lead.
Corey Dickerson extended the lead against Green to 5-3 in the sixth inning with a blast off the second-deck in right for his 19th homer of the year.
New York got a run in the eighth on a fielder's choice grounder by Matt Holiday off Brad Boxberger to cut the lead back to 5-4, and in the ninth, after Gardner tripled to lead off the inning, Alex Colome got a groundout by Clint Frazier and a shallow flyout by Aaron Judge before Gary Sanchez's ground ball rolled between Hechaverria and Tim Beckham to tie the game.
Andrew Kittredge matched Aroldis Chapman with a scoreless tenth, but after Chapman worked a similar eleventh, Kittredge started the bottom of the inning by giving up Gardner's 18th home run of the year to end the game.
The loss snaps the Rays' two-game winning streak and drops them back to three games above .500 on the year.
Tampa Bay will look to rebound Friday, when Austin Pruitt (5-1, 6.25 ERA) returns to take the spot of the injured Jake Odorizzi, taking on Masahiro Tanaka (7-9, 5.37 ERA). First pitch is scheduled for 7:05, with coverage on WDAE starting at 6:00 with The Inside Pitch presented by Sykes Lakeland.