New York Yankees beat Tampa Bay Rays again to open up two and a half game lead in AL East
The New York Yankees wasted no time showing they came to play Tuesday night, getting out to a 5-0 lead after one inning and eventually wining 8-3 over the Tampa Bay Rays.
Nick Swisher got the scoring started with a home run to right field for a 1-0 lead. Jorge Posada added another run with a RBI single that scored Mark Teixeira. A double by Lance Berkman scored Posada and
Alex Rodriguez. Curtis Granderson finished off the scoring with a single to center field that knocked in Berkman to make the score 5-0 after the first inning.
Rays starting pitcher James Shields settled down after that and held the Yankees to just two hits over the next 4 1/3 innings, but the damage had already been done.
Shields had won the last two games he started against the Yankees, a 4-3 victory roughly a week ago (15 September) and a 3-0 win at the beginning of August. In close to 14 innings over two starts he had held
the Yankees to 12 hits and only one earned run.
“First inning, I made two or three bad pitches,” Shields said. “You let five runs in the first inning, that’s definitely not doing my job. With this team, you definitely can’t do that.”
Robinson Cano continued to make a case for AL MVP honors with a double to left field that scored Mark Teixeira and Alex Rodriguez. He now has 39 doubles on the season and 104 RBIs.
Yankees starter Phil Hughes got win no. 17 after pitching one out in to the seventh inning, allowing four hits and three earned runs while walking five and striking out six. Javier Vazquez and Joba Chamberlain
pitched the final two and two thirds innings to preserve the win.
With the win the Yankees improved to 92-59 on the season and opened up a two and a half game lead on the Rays with 11 games left to play in the regular season. The Rays continue to hold the wild card slot.
Scheduled to take the mound for the Yankees in game three on Wednesday is A.J. Burnett; Wade Davis is set to do so for the Rays. Burnett has only won one game in the last two months.
The last time he faced the Rays was on 17 July. Burnett only lasted two innings giving up four hits and four runs; he was pulled after cutting his hands on some plexiglass lineup holders.
Tags: