Rays shake up the lineup against the Yankees and get much-needed win

John Romano, Tampa Bay Times on Apr 10, 2026

Published in Baseball

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TAMPA, Fla. — Turns out, the decision was brilliant. The outcome was magical.

Even if the praise is probably a little overblown.

Rays manager Kevin Cash shook up his lineup on Friday and the results were immediate in a 5-3 win against the Yankees.

Moving his three big hitters — Yandy Diaz, Jonathan Aranda and Junior Caminero — around the top half of the batting order, Cash got four hits, two walks and five RBIs from the first four spots in the Rays order.

Diaz, who had hit leadoff in the season’s first dozen games, was moved to the cleanup spot and produced a two-run, game-tying homer in the first inning. It was Diaz’s first game in the cleanup spot since getting a handful of at-bats there in 2024.

There seemed to be several thoughts behind the change. Tampa Bay’s offense had gone cold the past couple of games and Caminero had gotten off to a slow start while hitting No. 4. Without much protection behind him in the lineup, teams had been pitching around Caminero. Last year, 49% of the pitches thrown to Caminero were in the strike zone. Coming into Friday night’s game, that number was only 38% in 2026.

Chandler Simpson had also been one of Tampa Bay’s hottest hitters while getting the bulk of his at-bats deeper in the lineup. So Cash moved Simpson to leadoff, hit Caminero at No. 2, Aranda at No. 3 and Diaz at cleanup.

“Somebody is going to have somebody hitting behind him,” Cash said, alluding to the three big bats in the lineup. “We’ll see how it plays. I like the at-bats that we’ve had. Jonny and Yandy both do such a good job of pitch recognition and generally not expanding. Hopefully, it helps.”

The Rays took the lead in the second inning when Taylor Walls was hit by a pitch, Nick Fortes singled and Simpson drove in Walls with a fielder’s choice.

Steven Matz won his third consecutive start with five solid innings.

Pep’s return

Ryan Pepiot’s return to the rotation took a big step forward on Friday when he threw a live batting practice session before the game.

Pepiot, who began the season on the injured list with hip inflammation, said his mechanics were back to normal after trying to adjust to the hip pain during spring training.

“Felt good to be back on the mound, felt like the mechanics were better,” Pepiot said. “Still feel like a little bit to go, but we made a lot of progress. I was way out of sorts, trying different things just to try to maneuver during camp. Now, I feel like I’m closer to what I was to finish last season.”

Cash, who watched Pepiot’s session from the dugout, said the team will see how Pepiot feels Saturday morning to determine the next step in his rehab.

“I was encouraged by it.” Cash said. “The velocity and stuff was in line with what we would expect in a live BP. We’ve got to be close to getting him on a mound in a game setting.”

In the zone

Nick Martinez, who is scheduled to start Saturday’s game, said there is no secret to his strong start (2.25 ERA through two starts) as a Ray.

“I’ve just been really aggressive in the zone,” Martinez said. “Trusting the game plan and trusting what the catchers are seeing and challenging guys.”

Martinez, who has given up only one walk through 12 innings, has been in the strike zone with 65.7% of his pitches. The league average is 62.6%.

Miscellany

Drew Rasmussen, whose start was pushed back for the birth of his daughter on Tuesday, will likely start Sunday’s game at the Trop … Carson Williams, who has been one of the top shortstop prospects in baseball, was scheduled to play second base in the second game of a doubleheader on Saturday night in Scranton Wilkes-Barre before it was rained out. It would have been the first time in 495 games as a professional that Williams played at second … There’s a new twist to the City Connect jerseys the Rays will unveil on Saturday night. After getting complaints that the numbers were difficult to read on the backs of the black jerseys, the Rays have changed the color scheme to include brighter green numerals.