ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — Cesar Cabral packed a travel bag with a lot more accuracy than he displayed from the mound Friday night, when he drilled three batters with pitches, was ejected for being terrible and designated for assignment.
To say that Cabral was the reason the Yankees lost to the Rays, 11-5 in front of 26,079 at Tropicana Field would be wrong.
Hiroki Kuroda couldn’t get out of the sixth inning, Matt Thornton gave up a hit that fueled a three-run Rays rally in the seventh and Adam Warren failed to put hitters away with two strikes.
Yet, Cabral giving up three hits and hitting Evan Longoria, James Loney and Logan Forsythe in the ninth certainly couldn’t be ignored and the Yankees sent the erratic lefty reliever packing after their five-game win streak vanished. Manager Joe Girardi didn’t even have enough confidence in Cabral to face the left-handed hitting Loney in the seventh when he drove in two runs against the right-handed Warren.
“It was not a good day, I didn’t want to hit anybody,’’ Cabral said. “I wanted to throw strikes, but it happens sometime.’’
Asked what umpire Joe West said was the reason he tossed Cabral in the ninth and forced the Yankees to use closer Shawn Kelley for the final out in a six-run loss, the manager referred the question to West.
“He hit the first guy in the leg with a fastball, the second guy in the leg with a changeup, and the third guy in the back somewhere, and that was enough,’’ West explained. “Do I think he did it maliciously? Probably not. But before somebody got hurt, something had to be done.”
The way West saw it, he was protecting a Yankees hitter from getting drilled on principle.
“He hit three guys in one inning. Does that set them up for them to be thrown at when they come to bat? Yes,” West said. “So, he’s got to go for disciplinary problems and to stop something else from happening.”
As for Girardi being unhappy, West understood, but …
“I’m sure he wasn’t [happy]. But I don’t want Girardi’s players hit either,’’ West said.
Rays manager Joe Maddon agreed with West on two counts.
“[Cabral] just had a hard time throwing the ball over the plate. There was nothing malicious about what he was doing. I totally believe that,’’ said Maddon, whose club halted a four-game losing streak by erasing a 4-0 deficit in the second inning. “I think Joe West did exactly the right thing there.’’
Before Cabral got tossed and then sent packing — right-hander Matt Daley will replace him Saturday — the Yankees’ first bullpen meltdown cost them the game.
Working with a 5-3 lead going into the seventh, David Phelps, Thornton and Warren gave up three runs. The big blow was Loney’s two-out single on a 1-2 pitch.
“I couldn’t make quality pitches when I needed to and it cost me,’’ said Warren, who got the Yankees’ first blown save of the season in nine chances. “I got ahead of most of the guys at two strikes and couldn’t put them away.’’
The biggest reason the Yankees won 10 of their first 16 games was the bullpen. In the previous seven games the Yankees’ relievers hadn’t allowed a run in 15 ¹/₃ innings. Friday night they gave up eight.
“There are nights like that,’’ said Phelps, who was drilled above the right hip bone by a Ryan Hanigan liner in the seventh. “Nobody’s perfect.’’