Resurgent Arozarena goes deep again as Rays outslug Yanks

NEW YORK -- For two months, the Rays scratched their heads and struggled to figure out what was wrong with Randy Arozarena.

The 2023 All-Star outfielder had provided remarkably consistent production over the previous three seasons, putting together similar statistics and always shining in the spotlight. But that player didn’t show up this April, and he was nowhere to be found in May.

But the Arozarena of old seems to be back now. He’s bashing big home runs, crossing his arms in celebration, chatting -- and taking midgame selfies! -- with fans. After going deep twice in Saturday’s victory, Arozarena’s return to form continued as he homered again in the Rays’ 6-4 win Sunday afternoon at Yankee Stadium.

“I feel good,” Arozarena said through interpreter Manny Navarro. “I'm feeling a lot more confident that the results are coming out and the home runs are coming out, and obviously I'm happy that I helped out the team and helped produce to help the win.”

Arozarena crushed his 15th home run of the season off Yankees starter Marcus Stroman in the fourth inning, part of a second straight four-homer performance that pushed the Rays back above .500, at 50-49. He ripped a 1-2 slider a Statcast-projected 420 feet out to left-center field, slowly trotted around the bases and hopped on third base for his usual arms-crossed celebration with third-base coach Brady Williams.

Arozarena seemed to enjoy the boos and jeers prompted by his jog around the bases, and he spent some of his time in left field talking with the fans seated behind him. Cameras even caught him posing for a selfie at one point during the game.

“I feel good here. Everyone knows the fans here are excellent fans, but it gives me a lot more motivation and inspires me a little bit more,” he said. “I get to play with a little bit more fun, and like I said, they motivate me a little bit more to play here.”

Lately, Arozarena has looked plenty motivated, and as confident as ever, wherever he has played. At the end of May, he was batting just .158 with a .568 OPS and a 28.7% strikeout rate. Now, he’s hitting .212 with a .712 OPS. Since June 1, he has hit .292 with seven homers while striking out in fewer than 20% of his plate appearances.

And Arozarena has turned it up even more recently. He has reached base safely in 27 of his past 29 games since June 14, with hits in 25 of those games and a .305/.393/.590 slash line during that span. This weekend, he homered in consecutive games for the first time since March 30-31 -- the third and fourth games of the season.

“He started off slow. The good thing with Randy is he's got a proven track record,” manager Kevin Cash said Sunday morning. “You look at where his numbers are now. If they continue this way, he's very capable of kind of slotting in right where he's been for the last three or four years.”

Arozarena didn’t have the only big hit against the Yankees, though. Brooklyn native Richie Palacios hit his first career leadoff home run, much to the audible delight of the 40-50 people in attendance to see him. That set the tone for another power-packed afternoon.

Jose Siri unloaded on a Statcast-projected 433-foot blast to center off reliever Jake Cousins in the seventh, and José Caballero launched a high-arcing solo shot to left in the ninth.

The Rays had one four-homer performance as a team in their first 97 games, back on April 14 against the Giants. They’ve had two in the past two days.

“I think that we're capable of doing things like that. We just haven't had that consistency,” Cash said. “But these guys are capable of hitting a lot of homers.”

So are the Yankees, however, which made things interesting in the late innings. After starter Shane Baz walked a career-high five batters in 3 1/3 scoreless innings, relievers Garrett Cleavinger, Manuel Rodríguez and Colin Poche kept the Yankees off the board until the seventh, when Aaron Judge hit a three-run homer off Jason Adam before Palacios and Taylor Walls turned a slick double play to escape the inning.

After allowing an RBI double to Juan Soto in the ninth, closer Pete Fairbanks retired Judge on a fly ball to center, intentionally balked to get Soto off second base and struck out Austin Wells to pick up his 18th save.

“I think they said on the broadcast it was the 22nd time we've been at .500 this year,” Fairbanks said. “I would love if we didn't have a 23rd. So let’s stack the little things right that we've done, and hopefully that sends us to where we need to be.”