Yankees Sting Rays With the Long Ball
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ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — Alex Rodriguez, Derek Jeter, and Bobby Abreu hammered to back the pitching of Andy Pettitte and lead the Yankees to a 7–3 victory over the struggling Tampa Bay Devil Rays last night.
With Yankees owner George Steinbrenner watching from his suite at Tropicana Field, Rodriguez hit his major league-leading 31st homer five pitches after Jeter hit his first in nearly a month. Abreu finished the fourth-inning power surge with a two-out solo shot off right-hander James Shields (7–5) that made it 4–1.
Pettitte (5–6) rebounded from allowing eight runs in consecutive starts for the first time in his career, giving up six hits and three runs in 5 2-3 innings. The left-hander, 12-1 in 18 lifetime starts against Tampa Bay, threw 102 pitches before being replaced by Luis Vizcaino with two runners on in the sixth.
Ty Wigginton’s sacrifice fly drove in the final run charged to Pettitte, who also yielded an RBI double to Josh Wilson in the third and Jonny Gomes’ sacrifice fly in the fourth after the Devil Rays loaded the bases with no outs.
Vizcaino worked a perfect seventh and Kyle Farnsworth pitched a scoreless eighth before Mariano Rivera finished up for the Yankees (43–43), who climbed back to .500 for the first time since June 23.
Rodriguez’s homer was the 495th of his career. He homered in his last game before the All-Star break, becoming the first Yankee to have at least 30 by the break since Roger Maris had 33 on his way to hitting 61 in 1961.
The Yankees reached the break under .500 at the latest point in a season since they were 60–61 on September 5, 1995. But they will play eight of their first 12 following the break against Tampa Bay. Rodriguez reached base on third baseman Akinori Iwamura’s second-inning fielding error and scored on Abreu’s double to right. Jeter’s first homer since June 16 snapped a 1-1 tie, and A-Rod gave New York a 3-1 lead.
Shields settled down to strike out Hideki Matsui and get Jorge Posada to fly to center, then faltered again when Abreu hit New York’s third homer of the inning. The Yankees added a run in the fifth when Jeter grounded into a double play with the bases loaded. They went up 6-2 in the sixth on Posada’s RBI double.
