Yankees End Marauders Winning Streak With 4-2 Win

TAMPA – Rain ended Chad Kuhl’s bid for his 10^th win after just one inning, and a late Yankees (45-48, 12-11) rally ended the Marauders’ (49-42, 14-8) five-game winning streak on Sunday night in Tampa. The game was delayed for 87 minutes in the top of the second inning, ending Kuhl’s night after one scoreless inning.

The Yankees took an early lead after the rain delay. Jake Cave doubled with two outs in the third inning against Matt Benedict. Cito Culver followed with a single on the ground to center field to plate Cave. Earlier in the inning, Jacob Stallings threw out Claudio Custodio attempting to steal second. It was the first caught stealing for Custodio in 19 stolen base attempts. Benedict scattered seven hits over five innings and did not allow another run.

The Marauders scratched out the tying run in the fourth inning without a hit. Jose Osuna was hit by a Stefan Lopez pitch to start the inning. Walker Gourley walked while seeing nine pitches in his second plate appearance of the game. Stallings bunted the runners over and Ashley Ponce drove in Osuna with a sacrifice fly to right field.

Bradenton took a 2-1 lead in the fifth inning against Tampa lefty Ramon Benjamin. Adam Frazier singled, went to second on a wild pitch, then scored on Max Moroff’s soft single through the right side.

Ryan Hafner (L, 1-3) pitched a perfect seventh, but ran into trouble in the Tampa eighth. Custodio led off with his third single of the game, but was forced out at second when Cave hit a fielder’s choice grounder to third. Cave stole second and moved to third on a throwing error by Stallings, then scored to tie the game 2-2 on Culver’s looping liner to right field. Aaron Judge lifted a towering fly ball to left that fell for a double after Gourley briefly lost sight of the ball, putting runners at second and third. A wild pitch during Dante Bichette Jr.’s at-bat plated the go-ahead run. After Bichette struck out, Yeicock Calderon singled home Judge with the game’s final run.

Cesar Vargas (W, 1-0) pitched two perfect innings to earn the win for Tampa. The Yankees defeated the Marauders for just the second time in seven meetings this season.

The final game of the series is Monday night at Steinbrenner Field. First pitch is at 7:00 p.m. John Kuchno will take the hill in search of his second straight win. The game will be broadcast online at www.BradentonMarauders.com.

The box score for Sunday's game can be seen here; the Play-by-Play review can be viewed here.

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