ST. PETERSBURG -- The roster the Yankees brought to Florida this weekend was decidedly not the one they had envisioned at this point in the season. That's no secret, it hasn't been for quite some time.\n\nThe surprise is that not only has the cobbled-together lineup of next-ups held the fort while the Aaron Judges and the Giancarlo Stantons of the world rehab various maladies, they've actually put New York in position to challenge for the lead in what's widely regarded as the toughest division in baseball.\n\n\"More guys just continue to step up,\" manager Aaron Boone said. \"I'm really proud of that effort. We have to grind and scratch for everything.\"\n\nThe Yankees entered the three-game series Friday against the American League East-leading Rays in second place by 1 1/2 games and confident something could be done about that. When the dust settled Sunday after a 7-1 victory, New York had taken two of three to win its third consecutive series and moved to within a half-game of Tampa Bay.\n\n• [Box score](https://www.mlb.com/gameday/566685/final/box)\n\nWith that in mind, here are four signs from Sunday that suggest the Yankees' early success is more about talent than luck:
\n\n**They don't need the headlines**\n\nThe big to-do surrounding the series finale was how the Yankees would handle AL Cy Young Award winner
\n\n\"\\[Tanaka\\] was good, man. He was hitting his spots and living on the corners,\" Meadows said. \"That slider in the corner, the fastball, everything was working for him today, and he was definitely really good.\"\n\nIn the bottom of the fifth frame Tanaka dialed it in, using just seven pitches. He retired the side on four pitches in the seventh. He struck out seven, allowed five hits and didn't walk a batter.
**They slayed a dragon**\n\nSure, Snell racked up a host of early strikeouts -- 10 in four innings and 12 in his 5 2/3 on the day -- as the Yankees worked to devise a battle plan. But New York forced Snell to throw 30 pitches in the fourth inning and then cracked his armor in the fifth, running his pitch count into the 80s while using consecutive two-out doubles followed by a single to plate a pair of runs.
\n\n**They supplied their own power**\n\nA [partial power outage](https://www.mlb.com/yankees/news/lights-go-out-during-yankees-rays-game) at Tropicana Field interrupted the top of the ninth inning Sunday. The stadium lights and scoreboards winked out; the FOX Sports Sun TV broadcast of the game was also interrupted. [Fans used flashlights](https://www.mlb.com/cut4/the-lights-went-out-at-tropicana-field) on their phones during the delay in an attempt to brighten the stadium.
\n\nWe’ve lost lights at the Trop but the fans are creative. Good concert vibe, bad for baseball #Yankees 3 #Rays 1, top 9 pic.twitter.com/IadcrYNfwJ
— Dawn Klemish (@Sportsgal25) May 12, 2019
When power was restored 43 minutes later, the Yankees brought with it a surge of their own by way of a four-run ninth.\n\n
\n\n**... and they were also lights-out**\n\n
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