ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — In the heat of a playoff chase, victories these days for the Yankees come as easily as 38-year-old Carlos Beltran laboring around the bases, the not-quite-svelte Brian McCann lunging for a pop-up or Dellin Betances managing another high-tension escape of his own mess.
It took all that and more for the Yankees to survive Wednesday night with a 3-1 victory over the Tampa Bay Rays, sending them into Friday’s series opener against the Mets at Citi Field three games behind the Toronto Blue Jays.
The Yankees rode the superb pitching of Luis Severino, who rebounded from his only poor performance since being called up in early August, and two big hits from the other rookie in the lineup, first baseman Greg Bird, who doubled home Beltran with a second-inning double and blasted a ninth-inning solo home run that would have carried deep into the right-field stands had it not clanked off one of the catwalks that rings Tropicana Field’s domed roof.