Jacoby Ellsbury had hit Chris Archer better than he had any other pitcher. Archer had been strafed by Ellsbury worse than he had by any other hitter.
The result was predictable.
Ellsbury’s two-run home run broke up a shutout and lifted the Yankees to a 5-1 win over the Rays before 33,460 at the Stadium.
“We’re having fun playing, leaving it all out on the field. It’s exciting coming to the yard competing each and every day with a chance to win,’’ said Ellsbury, who went 2-for-4 with a double, two RBIs, two runs scored and that homer to spur the Bombers to their season-high seventh straight victory.
“You just want to contribute to wins. Ultimately that’s the goal, winning ballgames. And it’s been a lot of fun coming to the yard with that mentality as a team that we’re going to compete and give everything we have on that field.”
That winning streak is the Yankees’ longest streak since the start of the 2013 season, left them a season-high 11 games over .500. And Ellsbury has been a big part of their run, going 9-for-21 on this homestand.
He has hit four home runs in his last 19 games after going deep just once in the prior 58. But as hot as Ellsbury has been, he has always been scalding against Archer.
The outfielder is a career 19-for-34 (.559) with two homers and four walks against Archer, his best average against any pitcher, and the most hits the Rays right-hander has given up against batter. It begs the question of why.
“I don’t know. Sometimes it just happens, and you try to make sense of it,’’ manager Joe Girardi said. “I asked the question to my bench coach Rob Thomson: I said, ‘He sees him so well.’ You wonder why one guy sees a guy really well and another guy doesn’t. It’s just kind of worked out that way.”
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It worked out for the Yankees on Saturday. With Archer locked in a scoreless pitcher’s duel with Masahiro Tanaka, Brett Gardner singled to lead off the sixth and Ellsbury smacked a 2-1 fastball for a line-drive home run to right-center.
“A lot of that is in the past,’’ Archer said. “You know he’s a veteran hitter. I left a cookie out there for him and he capitalized.”
Gary Sanchez followed with a solo shot to push the lead to 3-0. And with the Yankees leading 3-1 in the eight, Ellsbury was in the middle of another rally against reliever Enny Romero. After another leadoff single by Gardner, Ellsbury laced a ground-rule double to left. Following Sanchez’ sacrifice fly, Ellsbury scored on Starlin Castro’s for the final scoreline.
“It’s one of those things you can’t really put a finger on it of why I’ve had success off him,” Ellsbury said. “He’s a tremendous pitcher with great stuff and any given night he can have your number. I’m just fortunate I’ve been able to put some good swings on him.
“My approach is really no different to anybody else: Just go up there and try to have a quality at-bat and fortunately for me I’ve had some success. But you never rely on that. Every time you go out there you try and compete.’’