ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — Gleyber Torres tied his home run total from last season on Sunday, in 82 fewer games, even while dealing with a recent wrist issue. 

Torres crushed his ninth home run of the year in the second inning off Shane McClanahan, giving the Yankees a lead before they fell to the Rays 4-2 at Tropicana Field. 

It was Torres’ second home run of the series, and fourth in the past week, despite getting treatment for a wrist issue. Torres has been wearing a wrap on the wrist before and during games and then an ice wrap after games throughout this four-game set, but he indicated on Friday it was not an issue. 

“He’s been getting some treatment for his wrist, but it hasn’t been something that’s really affected him much at all in the game,” manager Aaron Boone said before the game. “Just something he’s treating and making sure he does maintenance work on it.” 

Boone was unsure if anything in particular caused the wrist to flare up. 

“I think it’s just something that’s kind of creeped up on him,” Boone said. 

Torres went 3-for-4 and added a sharp defensive play in the seventh inning, sliding to his right and firing home to get a force out at the plate. 

Torres’ ninth home run came in his 45th game of the season and 161st plate appearance. Last year, he had nine homers in 127 games and 516 plate appearances. In 2020, he only hit three homers in 42 games and 160 plate appearances. 

Despite being one of the Yankees’ hottest hitters in the first month of the season, Anthony Rizzo has gone equally cold since. 

The first baseman went 0-for-4 Sunday, falling further into the slump he has been in for the past month. 

In his first 20 games of the season, Rizzo hit .284/.391/.703 with nine home runs, 21 RBIs, nine walks and 12 strikeouts. In 26 games since entering Sunday, he was hitting .165/.284/.308 with two home runs, seven RBIs, 14 walks and 20 strikeouts. 

Rizzo’s lone hit of the series against the Rays was an RBI double smoked to right field on Thursday. 

“He’s gotten some big hits for us,” Boone said. “But I think it’s that quality of contact. … It’s just that little tick where when he gets off his good swing or gets on time with a pitch, it’s just barely missing really clipping it. I think that’s one of the things that just happens with the ebb and flow of the season. He’s still getting on base a little bit. But I think it’s just shoring up when he gets his pitch and he’s on time, making sure he sticks it.” 

Catcher Rob Brantly, who was designated for assignment on Wednesday after being called up to fill in while Kyle Higashioka was on the COVID IL, elected free agency on Friday instead of accepting an outright assignment to Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre. But on Saturday, the Yankees re-signed him to a minor league contract and assigned him to SWB.