NEW YORK — No matter how dominating Yankees reliever Aroldis Chapman can be at times, a meltdown always is on the horizon.
You know it and the Yankees know it.
It happened again Wednesday night. Chapman was wild as can be again and the Tampa Bay Rays scored three 10th-inning runs.
With the Yankees on their way to yet another loss, most of the remaining fans headed for the exits.
And then out of nowhere, the Yankees showed who they were during the first half of the season when no team was better.
The Yankees loaded the bases with nobody out in the bottom of the 10th, then Josh Donaldson won it with a midnight grand slam. Amazingly, the Yankees pulled out an 8-7 win after trailing 4-0 through 5 ½ innings and 7-4 heading to the bottom of the 10th.
The win was just the Yankees’ second in their last 12 games.
Down 4-0, the Yankees chipped away scoring two in the sixth and one in the seventh before knotting the game in the eighth on a leadoff homer by Anthony Rizzo,.
In the 10th, Gleyber Torres started a rally with a single, moving ghost-runner Aaron Judge to third. After Rizzo walked, Donaldson homered and the Yankees improbably pulled off comeback win No. 31, most in the American League.
The Yankees injected some youth into their lineup in hopes of sparking the offense with Estevan Florial and Oswaldo Cabrera coming up from Triple-A.
Playing third base and batting sixth in his major league debut, Cabrera was 0-for-4 with a flyball to deep right, two strikeouts and a groundout to center. Batting ninth and playing center field, Florial grounded out to second and struck out before leaving for a pinch-hitter in the seventh.
Rays starter Corey Kluber limited the Yankees to two runs on six innings, the damage coming on a two-run, sixth-inning homer by Gleyber Torres that sliced the Rays’ 4-0 lead in half.
The Yankees made it 4-3 in the seventh when Aaron Judge walked on four pitches with the bases loaded, but Torres then grounded into an inning-ending double play and the Rays stayed on top for another inning.
The Yankees’ starting pitching has been mostly stellar during their slump, but Domingo German didn’t keep it up allowing three runs over 4 2/3 innings.
The Rays took a 1-0 lead in third when German walked leadoff hitter Jose Siri and Yandy Diaz laced a one-out RBI double. Tampa Bay tacked up two more in the fifth to knock out German, who allowed three consecutive hits with one out, the last a two-run double by Diaz.
Harold Ramirez made it 4-0 with a leadoff homer in the sixth off lefty reliever Lucas Luetge.
NOTABLE
-- DJ LeMahieu laced a line-drive, pinch-hit single during the Yankees’ seventh-inning rally after not starting for the fourth game in a row due to a sore right toe. LeMahieu immediately departed for pinch-runner, but is expected to start Thursday night.
-- Aaron Hicks’ first game action since his nightmare showing on Monday night came in the ninth when he pinch-hit for Isiah Kiner-Falefa and struck out, which brought loud boos.
-- The game was stopped in the top of the seventh for 63 minutes due to rain.
-- Closer Clay Holmes was placed on the 15-day injured list with back spasms and replaced on the roster by rookie reliever Ron Marinaccio, who was recalled from Triple-A.
-- Outfielders Miguel Andujar and Tim Locastro were optioned to Triple-A to open up roster spots for Cabrera and Florial.
-- Torres’ homer was his 17th of the season and first in his last 18 games.
-- Judge has no homers in five games. His 46 for the season has him on a pace for 63.
LOOKING AHEAD
Thursday: Blue Jays at Yankees, 7:05 p.m., YES & MLB Network. RHP Jose Berrios (8-5, 5.61) vs. RHP Frankie Montas (4-9, 3.59).
Friday: Blue Jays at Yankees, 7:05 p.m., Apple TV. RHP Kevin Gausman (8-9, 3.16) vs. RHP Jameson Taillon (11-3, 3.95).
Saturday: Blue Jays at Yankees, 1:05 p.m., YES & MLB Network. TBA vs. RHP Gerrit Cole (9-5, 3.30).
Sunday: Blue Jays at Yankees, 1:35 p.m., YES & MLB Network. TBA vs. LHP Nestor Cortes (9-4, 2.74).
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Randy Miller may be reached at [email protected].