St. Petersburg, Fla. — Randy Arozarena homered in the first inning and then was hit by pitches in his next two plate appearances, leading to Tampa Bay manager Kevin Cash being ejected as the MLB-best Rays beat the New York Yankees 5-4 on Friday night in the first meeting this season between the AL East rivals.

Arozarena homered to center field off Jhony Brito before the rookie right-hander plunked the outfielder on the elbow guard in the third. Yankees reliever Albert Abreu then hit Arozarena around belt high with a fifth-inning pitch.

An angry Arozarena walked slowly toward first base and whipped his bat in disgust towards the Rays’ dugout.

There was yelling between the benches, but no trouble on the field. The umpires gathered and issued warnings to both teams, which prompted Cash to rush out of the dugout to argue with crew chief and first base umpire Lance Barksdale.

Wander Franco put the Rays up 5-4 with an RBI double off Jimmy Cordero (1-1) in the seventh. Yandy Díaz was initially called out at the plate, but the call was changed after a replay review.

Díaz had a solo homer in a two-run third for the Rays (27-6), who opened a 10-game lead over the last-place Yankees (17-16) in the AL East.

Kevin Kelly (3-0) pitched 1 1/3 scoreless innings to get the win. Jason Adam worked the ninth for his third save,

Harrison Bader had a three-run homer off reliever Garrett Cleavinger during a four-run sixth that pulled the Yankees even at 4.

New York is without outfielder Aaron Judge (right hip), designated hitter Giancarlo Stanton (left hamstring) and third baseman Josh Donaldson (right hamstring), as well as starting pitchers Luis Severino (right lat) and Carlos Rodón (back).

SPECIAL PITCH

Helen Kahan, a survivor of the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp, threw a ceremonial first pitch on her 100th birthday. The native of Romania lives in St. Petersburg.

TRAINER'S ROOM

Yankees: Judge and Donaldson worked out at the team's complex in nearby Tampa. Severino threw in a minor league intrasquad game at Tampa's Steinbrenner Field.

Rays: 2B Brandon Lowe was out of the lineup for the second consecutive game with back soreness. ... LHP Josh Fleming, who took a 113.1 mph infield single off his left foot Tuesday, threw off a bullpen mound and expects to pitch Sunday. ... RHP Tyler Glasnow (strained left oblique) gave up two hits, walked two and struck out four over 2 1/3 scoreless innings in his first rehab start for Triple-A Durham.

UP NEXT

Yankees RHP Domingo Germán (2-2) and Tampa Bay RHP Drew Rasmussen (3-2) are Saturday's starters.