Tampa Bay Rays at New York Yankees: Final Score & Recap

The New York Yankees shut out the Tampa Bay Rays 2-0 on May 23, 2026, at Yankee Stadium, with all the game's damage concentrated in the bottom of the fourth inning and Carlos Rodón doing the rest. The DiamondIQ model opened the game with a 51 percent home win probability, essentially a coin flip, but by the final out that figure had climbed to 100 percent as the Yankees' pitching staff held Tampa Bay to just three hits.

The decisive sequence came in the fourth when Ben Rice doubled off Nick Martinez to put a runner in scoring position, generating a win-probability swing of plus 6.8 percent. Cody Bellinger followed with a two-run home run off Martinez, the single biggest play of the game at plus 14.5 percent in win probability, and that two-run burst proved to be everything the Yankees needed. The Rays' best response came in the sixth inning when Victor Mesa Jr. singled off Rodón for a plus 5.3 percent swing, but Richie Palacios immediately grounded into a double play that erased the threat and swung win probability back toward New York by 7.0 percent, effectively ending any realistic path to a Rays comeback.

Rodón was the dominant force on the night, finishing with a team-high plus 43.1 percent WPA to lead all pitchers in the game. David Bednar contributed plus 6.3 percent in relief, and Ty Johnson added plus 1.3 percent. Among position players, Rice led the offensive contributors with a plus 10.9 percent WPA and a plus 0.8 RE24, followed by Bellinger at plus 9.0 percent WPA and plus 0.4 RE24. Jonathan Aranda registered a plus 2.4 percent WPA on the Tampa Bay side. The model leans heavily on Rodón's performance and the fourth-inning construction as the pillars of the Yankees' efficient victory.