Tanaka shines in dimmed spotlight

St. Petersburg, Fla.

Masahiro Tanaka and Tropicana Field were both lights out.

Tanaka outpitched reigning Cy Young Award winner Blake Snell, Thairo Estrada homered just after play resumed following a ninth-inning power outage and the New York Yankees beat the Tampa Bay Rays 7-1 Sunday to take two of three from the AL East leaders.

"Masa went out and set the tone for us," Yankees manager Aaron Boone said.

New York closed back within one-half game of the Rays. Despite 16 players going on the injured list the Yankees are 24-16, just four wins fewer than after 40 games last year.

"More guys just continue to step up," Boone said. "It's not easy for us right now. We've got to grind and scratch for everything."

Tanaka (3-3) matched his season high of seven innings, allowing one run and five hits with seven strikeouts and no walks.

"He's a wizard," Rays center fielder Kevin Kiermaier said.

Tanaka had his best splitter this season and threw it on 27 of 73 pitches along with 29 sliders, 15 fastballs and two sinkers. He gave up his only run when Austin Meadows homered in the sixth.

Snell (3-4) struck out six of his first seven batters, getting eight swings and misses in the first two innings. He was perfect through three innings, getting seven strikeouts and throwing just 38 pitches.

But Snell needed 30 pitches to get through the fourth inning, and New York went ahead in the fifth when Austin Romine and Michael Tauchman hit consecutive two-out doubles and DJ LeMahieu followed with an RBI single for a 2-0 lead.

Coming off a win Monday over Arizona in which he retired his first 17 batters, Snell struck out 12 in 52/3 innings, giving up two runs, four hits, two walks.

Ryne Stanek threw a run-scoring wild pitch in the eighth, and play stopped when the ballpark lights went out after...