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Tampa Bay Rays manager Kevin Cash has had to defend his strategy using relievers as starters time and time again.

At least this time Rod Brind'Amour Jersey , the defense came after the formula led his team to a victory.

Wilmer Font held the high-scoring Yankees in check and the Rays stopped New York 3-1 Sunday to avoid a four-game sweep.

”We’re doing everything we can (and) what we think is right to win games,” Cash said. ”When we win, yeah, we like it. When we lose, it’s grueling.”

In his third start of the season, Font turned in his best performance of the year in any role, allowing just one run in 4 2-3 innings with five strikeouts. The right-hander, who also has eight relief appearances, matched a career-high with 74 pitches.

Tampa Bay, which has been hurt by injuries to its rotation, employed a reliever to open for the 15th time in 29 games. Entering the game, relievers working as starters had allowed 13 earned runs in 18 innings.

”Today he gave us a huge boost,” Cash said of the 28-year old right-hander. ”He probably got a little deeper in the game than what we even anticipated.”

Matt Duffy drove in two runs with a second-inning single for his first multi-RBI game in over a month. The infielder, who missed 2017 while undergoing two Achilles surgeries, is hitting .352 (25 for 71) with seven RBI over his last 18 contests.

”I typically don’t see CC too well,” Duffy said. ”That wasn’t the greatest pitch to hit Authentic DaeSean Hamilton Jersey , but when you’re going well, those seem to fall.”

Carlos Gomez had an RBI double as Tampa Bay scored all three runs in the second against CC Sabathia (4-2). The left-hander pitched into the eighth inning for the first time this season and struck out 10 for just the second time since the start of 2014.

”I just tried to be really aggressive because they were aggressive,” Sabathia said.

Tampa Bay defeated New York for the first time this season. The Yankees opened the season with five straight wins, outscoring the Rays 31-10 over the games, and was trying for a four-game sweep. The Rays are 5-18 in their last 23 games at Yankee Stadium.

Chaz Roe (1-1) pitched two scoreless innings for the victory. Sergio Romo, who has also drawn five starts this season, closed for his third save in six chances.

Rookie Willy Adames singled to lead off the Rays second. Adeiny Hechavarria, who missed nearly a month with a strained hamstring, singled for the first of his three hits. Gomez doubled and Duffy delivered a two-out single.

Hechavarria also robbed rookie sensation Gleyber Torres of a base hit with dive and throw from shortstop in the seventh inning.

New York matched its lowest run total at home this season.

Aaron Judge and Didi Gregorius worked two-out walks against Jose Alvarado in the fifth, but the hard-throwing lefty struck out Giancarlo Stanton on four pitches.

In the eighth, Diego Castillo struck out Gary Sanchez on three pitches to strand another runner.

Aaron Hicks homered off Font in the fifth – it was actually the second homer of the day. Hours earlier, the Yankees held their 72nd Old-Timers’ Day and Nick Swisher, making his debut with the former players, hit a long drive to right field.

Hall of Famers Whitey Ford and Reggie Jackson were joined by the likes of Don Larsen, Willie Randolph, Andy Pettitte and Jason Giambi. Current New York manager Aaron Boone also took part for the first time.

UP NEXT

Rays: Tampa Bay will start a reliever for the third consecutive day when RHP Ryne Stanek (1-1 Authentic Sylvester Williams Jersey , 2.55 ERA) draws the start as the Rays open a three-game series at Houston. He’ll be opposed by RHP Gerrit Cole (8-1, 2.40 ERA).

Yankees: New York heads to Washington for a makeshift doubleheader Monday. The teams will resume a suspended game from May 15 before a traditional nine-inning game follows. With heavy rain falling, play was halted after 5 1-2 innings with the teams tied at 3. The teams were set to resume play, and their interleague series, one day later, but rain continued to fall and both events were postponed. Boone will turn to his bullpen to begin the day and RHP Sonny Gray (4-4, 4.96 ERA) takes the mound in game two.

TRAINER’S ROOM

Yankees: OF Brett Gardner (knee) was held out of the lineup with a little soreness.

A rare losing season without a playoff appearance led to significant front office changes for the Green Bay Packers.

A new structure is in place at the top of the front-office flow chart, and new general manager Brian Gutekunst is signaling that the Packers might be a little more aggressive in free agency.

The ”draft-and-develop” philosophy will still be the foundation of the way that Green Bay builds the roster, Gutekunst said Monday at his introductory news conference at Lambeau Field.

”But I do think I will lead in my own personality and probably a little bit more aggressive in certain areas,” said Gutekunst, formerly Green Bay’s player personnel director.

”We’re not going to leave any stone unturned as far as every avenue of player acquisition.”

Predecessor Ted Thompson is now a senior advisor following a 13-year tenure highlighted by the Super Bowl-winning 2010 season.

The Packers went to four NFC title games and won six NFC North crowns under his watch.

Thompson also took heat from some vocal fans for being timid in free agency, especially at a time when two-time NFL MVP quarterback Aaron Rodgers is still in his prime at age 34.

The defense did not improve over the past four seasons despite being stocked with high draft picks.

Thompson had the titles of executive vice president, general manger & director of football operations – positions that will now be held by different executives under the structural change initiated by team president/CEO Mark Murphy.

”It’s very difficult for one person to handle all of those responsibilities, so really looking at it, I decided it would be in the best long-term interests of the organization to change the structure,” said Murphy Authentic Kerryon Johnson Jersey , who oversaw the GM search.

Gutekunst, 44, will have complete control over roster decisions as general manager.

Coach Mike McCarthy, who is under contract through 2019 after receiving a one-year extension during the season, will now report directly to Murphy. He will have the authority to hire and fire the head coach.

Russ Ball, the team’s salary cap expert and chief contract negotiator, was promoted to executive vice president/director of football operations after serving as vice president of football administration/player finance. Ball, who interviewed for the GM job, will also report directly to Murphy.

Murphy said he decided to make the change during a broad re-evaluation sparked by the GM search. He hoped that lines of communication would improve in order to break down ”silos” that had built up over the years.

”I just felt like there were too many silos in football, whether that be coaching and personnel, the college and the pro side, and breaking down those silos” was necessary, Murphy said.

Murphy is the highest-ranking administrator on a team without a traditional owner – the Packers are the NFL’s only publicly-owned franchise. In times when there might be close calls, Murphy would cast a tiebreaking vote.

”But I hope it never gets to that,” Murphy said. ”That’ll be the goal, is that we can work together and through good communication we’ll all be on the same page.”

He has more football experience than the average team president Authentic Tracy Walker Jersey , having played safety under Hall of Fame coach Joe Gibbs for the Washington Redskins.

Also a lawyer, Murphy had extensive experience in sports administration before becoming Packers president/CEO in 2007, including athletic director stints at Northwestern and Colgate.

Entering his 20th season with the Packers, Gutekunst is also a football lifer, but on the personnel side. He spent the past two seasons as player personnel director. He also oversaw college scouting for four years, and worked 11 seasons as a regional college scout in the talent-rich Southeast.

Gutekunst got his start in Green Bay as a scouting intern in the summer of 1997, spent most of 1998 as a scouting assistant for the Kansas City Chiefs before returning to the Packers for good when then-GM and Hall of Famer Ron Wolf hired him as a scout on Dec. 30, 1998.

Gutekunst had interviewed for other GM openings in recent years. In fact, he got the call from Murphy offering him the Packers’ job while on a trip over the weekend to Houston to interview for the Texans’ vacancy.

The interview with the Packers on Friday ended up being his last one.

”I let Mark know on Friday that this was my dream job, that I absolutely love this place,” Gutekunst said.

Interjected Murphy: ”You didn’t tell your agent that.”

It all worked out in the end.

”I’m really glad that it came to where we are now,” said Gutekunst, as his wife and children watched from the front row of the auditorium.

The Packers also interviewed director-football operations Eliot Wolf, who is the son of the former GM and friends with Gutekunst; and former Buffalo Bills GM Doug Whaley.

Gutekunst said he hoped that he could keep Wolf as his ”right-hand man”, but wouldn’t hold him back if other opportunities arose.

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