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After taking a 6-0 lead against the Rays and blowing it with Gerrit Cole on the mound, the Yankees came back to force extra innings before suffering a crushing loss.

The Rays walked it off for an 8-7 win in 10 innings in front of 32,142 in a playoff-like atmosphere at Tropicana Field.

Despite the teams being separated by nine games entering the series — with the Rays (28-7) atop the AL East and the Yankees (18-17) in last place, just as they finished the weekend — they played three one-run games. 

And yet dropping two of three, especially with how gut-wrenching Sunday’s finale was, felt like a brutal swing for the beaten-up Yankees.

“I feel like we could have walked away with three of these games and they probably feel the same way,” Anthony Rizzo said.

After the Yankees’ bullpen had already used Jimmy Cordero, Clay Holmes, Wandy Peralta and Michael King to get through the ninth inning — with Ian Hamilton and Ron Marinaccio unavailable — Albert Abreu came on for the bottom of the 10th and allowed a one-out single to Isaac Paredes to end it.

The Knicks have a tough fight on their hands.

The Mets put forth another uninspiring performance in a 5-2 loss to the Rockies at Citi Field. Tylor Megill was shaky early, giving up a run in each of the first two innings. 

The Mets came back to tie the game, but Megill was unable to get out of the fifth and departed the game with the Mets down 3-2. Stephen Nogosek surrendered a two-run homer to Ezequiel Tovar in the sixth that sealed the deal for the Rockies.

Pete Alonso and Francisco Lindor each had an RBI groundout, but the Mets have mustered only four runs in four games. With a major league-record $355 million payroll, New York (17-17) has lost 10 of 13 since winning eight of nine.

“We have gotten outside of what we do best, including myself,” Lindor said. “We’re going to go through stretches like this. We just have to keep on pushing, fight the fight, and stay within ourselves.”

Chick-fil-A is testing a new one-of-a-kind plant-forward entree – the Chick-fil-A Cauliflower Sandwich – in three US markets.

Inspired by flavors from the original Chick-fil-A Chicken Sandwich, theChick-fil-A Cauliflower Sandwich is made with a tender filet cut from a whole, real cauliflower that is marinated and breaded in the original Chick-fil-A signature seasoning, pressure-cooked and paired with two dill pickle chips and served between two toasted, buttery buns.  

The testing of the Cauliflower Sandwich is currently taking place in Denver, Charleston, S.C. and North Carolina’s Greensboro-Triad region.

Customers in the three test markets can check the Chick-fil-A App or contact their local Chick-fil-A restaurant to find out if their restaurant will be participating in the test.

According to the brand, Chick-fil-A chefs created, developed and tested the sandwich in-house for nearly four years to find the right ingredients and perfect the recipe.

For the first time in the series, Akira Schmid looked human when he surrendered five goals in a 5-2 Game 6 loss against the New York Rangers. However, the New Jersey Devils goaltender was tremendous when his team needed him the most in Game 7 as the Devils defeated the Rangers, 4-0.

Schmid stopped all 31 shots that he faced and recorded just his second career shutout. When the dust settled in the series, Schmid recorded an impressive 1.72 goals-against-average after replacing Vitek Vanecek in Game 3.

With Monday’s victory, the Devils won their first playoff series since defeating — you guessed it — the Rangers in Game 7 of the 2012 Eastern Conference Final. It also marked New Jersey’s sixth win in their last eight Game 7s, including winning four of their last five.

Following their triumph over the Rangers, the Devils will face their Metropolitan Division rivals in the Carolina Hurricanes.

As the Islanders skated off the UBS Arena ice on Friday, handshake lines finished and last vestiges of the crowd clearing out, the reality in front of them was clear as day.

They had lost a winnable Game 6, 2-1 to the Hurricanes on home ice with Paul Stastny ending their season in overtime. 

They had lost a winnable series, blowing leads in both Game 2 and Game 6 that will haunt them for the entire offseason. 

And they might have lost their best chance of an extended playoff run with this core of players.

“One-goal leads in the playoffs are just not safe,” Mathew Barzal said in a dead-quiet locker room, repeating a mantra the Islanders learned in the first round to their chagrin.

The deeper and tougher Knicks had little trouble overpowering and vanquishing the Cavaliers in the end, even with negligible contributions  for most of the first round from their lone All-Star.

One game after Julius Randle had been benched for the entire fourth quarter of Sunday’s win at Madison Square Garden, he re-injured his left ankle late in the second quarter and didn’t play in the second half.

And Tom Thibodeau’s gritty squad absorbed every punch once more and prevailed yet again.

Jalen Brunson finished with a team-high 23 points and Obi Toppin filled in ably for Randle in the second half as the Knicks dispatched the Cavs in five games, finishing them off without their leading scorer for the final two quarters of a series-sealing 106-95 victory Wednesday night at a silenced Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse.

Thibodeau and the Knicks deservedly will make the franchise’s first trip to the second round of the playoffs since 2013 and only their second since 2000. 

The Green Bay Packers and New York Jets have agreed to a trade sending longtime Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers to the Big Apple.

The long-awaited trade will see the four-time NFL Most Valuable Player sent to the Jets along with the Packers’ 15th overall pick in the 2023 NFL Draft, according to reports from ESPN and NFL Network.

The Packers will receive the Jets’ 13th overall pick in this month’s draft, as well as one of the Jets’ second-round picks and their 2024 first-round draft pick if Rodgers plays at least 65% of the Jets’ offensive plays this season.

Rodgers, 39, has spent his entire 18-season NFL career with the Packers, where he led the team to a 31-25 victory in Super Bowl XLV in 2011.  

The New York Knicks completed the MSG-sweep of Cleveland with a stout 102-93 win on Sunday.

Tom Thibodeau made an incredible decision that could very well be credited as the deciding and game-changing choice that lifted New York above the Cavs to wrap up the weekend: he benched Julius Randle for the whole fourth quarter.

Randle played 77 regular-season games this year. He sat through a fourth quarter just eight times, once because of his season-ending ankle injury against the Heat on March 29. Obi Toppin, his replacement on Sunday, played only 14 minutes in Games 1 and 2, 15 in G2, and, finally, 20 in G4 to send Cleveland home packing.

“We were searching, and we knew this game was going to be a challenge because of the late game on Friday, short turnaround, early start today, and have to find a way to win,” Thibodeau said. “That group got going, so at some point, you make a decision—probably around the five-minute mark, six-minute mark—and rode that out.”

And rode that out they did on the way to another W, the third in this series and the second-to-last before clinching a place in the Eastern Conference semi-finals for the first time since 2013.