Yankees make history, strike out 17 times again

ESPN News Services

Jul 7, 2026, 11:24 PM ET

The New York Yankees can't stop striking out.

In a 6-4 loss to the Tampa Bay Rays on Tuesday night in St. Petersburg, Florida, New York whiffed 17 times to become the first team in American League history whose batters hit that mark in consecutive nine-inning games.

Starter Ian Seymour, one of five Rays to take the mound, struck out 12 batters in 5⅓ innings; he's the first pitcher on any team to have that many K's through five innings against the Yankees in the last 50 years.

A night earlier, Griffin Jax struck out 10 in five innings of a 5-1 Rays loss.

"You're going to have nights where you're up against a dominant pitcher, especially in today's game where you have those double digits [strikeouts] here and there," manager Aaron Boone told reporters Tuesday night. "But we got to do a better job of getting the ball in play."

Paul Goldschmidt struck out four times Tuesday and is now in an 0-for-30 slide. Jose Caballero also struck out four times.

"That's a lot of strikeouts," Cody Bellinger said of the 17 overall. "I knew we had 17 yesterday; I didn't feel like we had that many today. But the Rays, they've notoriously got really good arms."

New York did manage 11 hits, reaching double digits for the first time since June 17, but the result -- a 10th loss in 12 games -- was all too familiar.

Boone said his team, which fell four games behind the first-place Rays in the AL East, won't change its approach but acknowledged some players need to get going.

"We have to get some guys on track right now," he said. "Some really good players obviously that are going through a tough time right now. So we're not going to overhaul and change, but part of our approach is being a tough out and being situational, and we got to do a better job of that right now."

Overall, the Yankees now have 824 strikeouts this season, the third-highest mark in the AL.

"I don't want to be down at the bottom, but we're going to keep trying," Boone said. "Were going to come here and grind away tomorrow."

It won't get any easier. Rays lefty Shane McClanahan, whose 77 strikeouts rank second on the Rays, will be on the mound, opposing Yankees ace Gerrit Cole in the third game of the four-game set.

Information from ESPN Research and The Associated Press was used in this report.