NEW YORK -- Matt Moore was all over the place with his pitches. The result of his effort, though, has the Tampa Bay Rays right where they want to be. Moore had New York flailing for five wild innings, and Tampa Bay beat the Yankees 7-0 on Tuesday night to push them to the brink of missing out on the post-season for the second time in 19 years. "You cannot be more effectively wild than he was tonight," Rays manager Joe Maddon said. Tampa Bay roughed up Hiroki Kuroda in tightening its grip on an AL wild-card spot with its fifth straight win. Matt Joyce had a leadoff homer as the Rays jumped ahead 3-0 in the first and David DeJesus had two RBI doubles. Tampa Bay has a one-game lead over Cleveland for the top wild card with five to play. Texas is two behind the Rays. Kansas City played later. The Yankees trail the Indians, who won 5-4, by five games -- and also are behind the Rangers and Royals. The Yankees would be eliminated Wednesday if Cleveland wins or they lose. "This is not a good feeling," manager Joe Girardi said. "It hurts." Moore (16-4) gave up only three hits but threw three wild pitches to up his AL-leading total to 16 and walked six. Jamey Wright and Jake Odorizzi, who earned his first career save with three innings, finished the four-hitter that ensured New York could not pass the Rays in the standings. "It was a little bit challenging out there just to kind of get you know some good sequences going where I was having a solid release point," Moore said. "I feel like I was trying to get way too aggressive with put away pitches, like I was trying to miss the bat." The defeat gave the Yankees 75 losses for the first time since they lost 86 games in 1992. The Rays got right to work against Kuroda (11-13), tagging him for three more first-inning runs. Maddon put Joyce in the top spot with hopes of getting him going. In a 3-for-41 slump coming in, Joyce connected on a 1-1 pitch for the Rays seventh leadoff homer of the season. Wil Myers followed with a single and DeJesus drove him in with a double to right field. Evan Longorias sacrifice fly capped the inning. "You set the tone right from the start," Joyce said. "Obviously Wil and David coming up behind me and not just settling for a couple of runs. But you know we kept attacking them, kept being aggressive and kept scoring and thats what its going to take." Kuroda has yielded 23 of his 77 runs this season in the first inning. After that, the biggest mystery for the eerily quiet late-season crowd of 43,407 was if the Mariano Rivera bobblehead dolls would arrive before the end of the game. The figurines were delayed by train and truck trouble in a cross-country journey, and the Yankees were forced to give out vouchers to the first 18,000 fans entitled to one of the promotional gifts in tribute to the retiring closer. Alas, the bobbleheads arrived in the third inning. The Yankees bats didnt. Ichiro Suzuki got New Yorks first hit in the bottom of third and Alex Rodriguez and Alfonso Soriano walked to load the bases but Mark Reynolds popped out to right field and Eduardo Nunez grounded into a fielders choice. The Yankees were 0 for 10 with runners in scoring position overall. "We all know the situation, but you cant win ballgames when you cant put runs on the board," said Vernon Wells, who was 0 for 4. "You give their pitcher credit but we had opportunities and didnt come through." Kuroda settled down after the first and held Tampa Bay hitless until the sixth, when James Loney doubled with the bases loaded for two runs. Kuroda extended his winless skid to eight starts, matching a career worst first done in 2008 with the Dodgers. The 38-year-old right-hander was having one of his best seasons until he was hit hard Aug. 17 at Boston. This time, he allowed five runs and five hits in 5 2-3 innings. "Im really disappointed Im not contributing to the team," Kuroda said through a translator. NOTES: Rays SS Yunel Escobar left with a sore left ankle. "Hes not awful but Im not sure about tomorrow yet," Maddon said. C Jose Lobaton has a bruised right elbow. "Hes fine I think he should be fine," Maddon said. ... Yankees RHP Phil Hughes will take LHP CC Sabathias spot in the Yankees rotation on Wednesday. Sabathia sustained a Grade 2 strain in his left hamstring in his start Friday, and was shut down for the last week of season Monday. ... Maddon had no report on OF Desmond Jennings (tight left hamstring). Jennings played catch before the game but did not run. ... The bases had plates on the sides with "Mariano Rivera" and "42." Custom Jerseys China . According to TSN Hockey Insider Darren Dreger, the Maple Leafs have trade offers on the table for the 26-year-old, but none have been deemed acceptable by the team. Custom Jerseys . Detroits powerful offence made that unnecessary. Scherzer allowed two hits and struck out seven, and the Tigers backed their star right-hander with three early homers in an 8-1 victory over the Tampa Bay Rays on Thursday night. https://www.cheapcustomjerseysonline.com/ . Anything less than gold for either nation is considered a disappointment. Yet for Switzerland, advancing to the semifinal might be a victory in itself. Wholesale Custom Jerseys . -- Clayton Kershaw and Hyun-Jin Ryu will be the Dodgers starting pitchers in their two-game season-opening series in Australia against the Arizona Diamondbacks. Custom Jerseys Cheap . Solomon Elimimian did not make the trip with the team after suffering what appeared to be a right leg injury in the teams regular season finale against the Calgary Stampeders.Any NFL team that drafts Michael Sam will be taking on much more than a rookie pass-rusher. But experts say the smart approach for a team that signs the leagues first openly gay athlete -- from a marketing and public relations standpoint -- is to simply let Sams on-field play speak for him and his team. "While this is a significant announcement given the sport, the general hope is that hes just accepted as one of the other men on the roster, and therefore his marketability is still simply tied to his ability to play well on the field and ultimately make the team," said Paul Swangard, managing director of the Warsaw Sports Marketing Center at the University of Oregon. Sam declared Sunday that he is gay in interviews with ESPN, The New York Times and Outsports. The Missouri All-American had already come out last August to his coaches and teammates, who respected his privacy. Now Sam is entering uncharted territory as he prepares for the NFL draft. The SECs co-defensive player of the year was projected to be a mid-round selection. At 6-foot-2, 255 pounds, Sam will likely have to transition to outside linebacker, which could impact where hes drafted. But announcing hes gay could also have an impact on his draft status. "Im not naive to think there arent potentially some owners or executives out there who will say, Eh, Im not so sure now." said Golden State Warriors President and Chief of Operations Rick Welts, who came out publicly in 2011. "But also, I hope, there are a lot who would say, Theres an opportunity to do something that I think our fans would actually embrace. And if were supposed to win football games, if this guy helps us win football games, thats somebody we should have on our roster." Sam, 24, joins a growing list of active athletes to publicly come out, including Robbie Rogers, a winger for Major League Soccers Los Angeles Galaxy, and Brittney Griner, who plays for the WNBAs Phoenix Mercury. Conner Mertens, a kicker for Division III Willamette University, came out as bisexual late last month, and is believed to have been the first active college football player to publicly announce his sexuality. Griner, as one of the WNBAs brightest stars, was the centerpiece of the Mercurys marketing campaign. She also made a point of supporting causes that are important to her. "There was nothing about heer that was difficult in marketing.dddddddddddd We supported what she wanted to do with bullying and the LGBT community. We made those connecting points," said Amber Cox, president of the Mercury before leaving to go to the Big East last fall. Nike has also thrown support to LGBT athletes, signing both Griner and Jason Collins, a former NBA player who came out last year, to sponsorship deals, and launching its "Be True" campaign. Profits from the .BeTrue collection are being donated to the LGBT Sports Coalition to support the goal of ending discrimination in sport. Mark Elderkin of the Gay Ad Network, an online media platform for national advertisers, said NFL teams need only look at Sams track record. "Theyre going to make their choices based on who the best college athletes are. And theyre going to choose Michael if they deem him the best pick. So, I think they need to focus on the facts, and his performance over the years, his All-America status and everything hes done for Missouri," Elderkin said. "Also his relationships with the fans, and with the positive energy he has around his teammates and their full support, shows that hes not going to be disruptive to the team in any way, but is going to add value." But its still a reality that gay athletes face a backlash. Derogatory comments were easily found among the positive posts on social media and other online commentary following Sams announcement. A Pew Research survey last year of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender adults in the U.S. found that just 4 per cent saw pro sports leagues as friendly toward LGBT people, while 59 per cent saw the leagues as unfriendly and 36 per cent saw them as neutral. Still, even over the past year there have been significant overall victories in gay and lesbian rights, most notably two U.S. Supreme Court decisions in June. One ruling cleared the way for ending a ban on same-sex marriages in California; the other struck down a 1996 law passed by Congress that banned federal recognition of same-sex marriages. It remains to be seen how growing tolerance extends to the NFL playing field. "I think the point thats being made in a lot of the discussion is, Lets just move on," Swangard said. "If the guy makes a team, then he makes the team. His sexual orientation shouldnt be the story." ' ' '