The Yankees amassed just four hits in their 3-1 loss to the Tampa Bay Rays on Saturday.

Here are the takeaways...

- DJ LeMahieu was back in the lineup after missing four games with a sore wrist, leading off and playing third base. He made an impact right away, lining a double off the right-field wall to start the game. He’s eventually come around to score on an Anthony Rizzo sac fly, giving the Yankees a quick 1-0 lead.

- The Rays made Gerrit Cole throw a lot of pitches early, but the Yankees’ ace was able to keep the Tampa bats quiet. Though he needed 26 pitches to get through the first frame and was up to 52 pitches through three innings, Cole looked much more comfortable as the game progressed. And after a leadoff walk to Yandy Diaz in the first inning, Cole retired the next 12 in order to take a no-hitter into the fifth. Cole finally allowed his first hit of the game with two outs in the fifth, a single to Francisco Mejia, but he got out of the inning by striking out Brett Phillips, Cole’s ninth punchout of the game to that point.

With two outs in the sixth, he walked Ji-Man Choi after getting ahead 0-2 – and was not happy with the ball four call, telling the home plate umpire he “missed that one.” Rattled, he then walked Wander Franco on four straight pitches, and Randy Arozarena dunked in a bloop single to tie the game. Cole’s day was done after six frames thanks to the extra pitches in the sixth and the high-pitch count in the first, but one earned on two hits and three walks with 10 strikeouts is certainly nothing to sneeze at.

- The Yanks couldn’t build off their lead with Cole tossing a gem, and a depleted Yankee bullpen was forced to keep the Rays at bay. Lucas Leutge entered the game in the seventh, and promptly allowed two weak hits, one of them a bloop double in a Bermuda triangle, to put runners on second and third with none out. But the Yanks caught quite the break – Kevin Kiermaier was thrown out at home on a grounder to Rizzo, and Mejia stayed put at second base. That made it runners on first and second with one out, and Aaron Boone went with Michael King, but to no avail. Taylor Walls just beat out an inning-ending double play, and as Mejia moved to third this time, Diaz reached on a high chopper to third that scored Mejia and gave Tampa Bay a 2-1 lead.

- The Yankees had just one baserunner from the second inning through the seventh, but after an Isiah Kiner-Falefa single with two outs in the eighth, Aaron Hicks pinch-hit for Jose Trevino to try to give the Yanks a lead, but he struck out to end the threat. The Rays added some insurance in the eighth as Manuel Margot extended his hitting streak to 15 games with an RBI single that scored Franco, who led off the inning with a triple.

- The Yanks had just four baserunners on the day, their lowest total of the season.

Highlights

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