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Yankees finish sweep of Rays to reach .500

Apr 20, 2015 - 3:07 AM St. Petersburg, FL (SportsNetwork.com) - Mark Teixeira and Chase Headley each drove in two runs to lift the New York Yankees to a 5-3 victory on Sunday and a three-game sweep of the Tampa Bay Rays at Tropicana Field.

The Yankees have won five of their last seven to reach the .500 mark for the first time since they were 1-1.

Michael Pineda (2-0) worked the first 5 2/3 innings for his second win, allowing three runs on seven hits with a walk and five strikeouts. Four New York relievers combined for two-hit relief over the final 3 1/3 innings with Andrew Miller pitching around a leadoff double in the ninth for his fourth save.

"He had to fight through today," said Yankees manager Joe Girardi about Pineda. "He really didn't have his slider today. For whatever reason it wasn't sharp, but he managed to get us pretty far into the game."

Steven Souza, Jr. clubbed a two-run homer in the first inning and doubled in a run in the fifth for the Rays, who were swept at home by the Yankees for the first time in 10 years.

Matt Andriese (0-1) took the loss in his second start. He yielded four runs on eight hits and two walks in 3 1/3 innings.

"They are heavy left-handed, they are heavy switch, and they can create some havoc on the base paths," Rays manager Kevin Cash said of New York.

The Yankees erased a 2-1 deficit with a pair of runs in the third. Brett Gardner singled after Jacoby Ellsbury had been thrown out trying to steal second and raced to third on a double into the left field corner by Alex Rodriguez. Teixeira drove in Gardner with a grounder to second and Headley singled to center to plate Rodriguez with the go-ahead run.

Garrett Jones tripled past a diving Desmond Jennings in center field to start the New York fourth and scored on John Ryan Murphy's sacrifice fly. Rodriguez walked to start the fifth against reliever Steve Geltz, advanced to second on a slow ground ball to first and scored on Headley's double down the right field line to make it 5-2.

"I thought we did a good job of getting runners in when we had the opportunity today," Girardi added. "We felt we were going to have a pretty good offense. It's just good to see."

The Rays got one back in the home fifth on Souza's run-scoring double, but he was left on third when Evan Longoria grounded to third. Tampa Bay also stranded a runner on third in the seventh when Dellin Betances fanned Souza and got Asdrubal Cabrera on a grounder to short.

Betances worked around a one-out walk in the eighth before turning it over to Miller, who surrendered a leadoff double to Ryan Brett. The Yankee lefty then struck out the next three batters, including Souza to close it out.

New York opened the scoring in the first when Ellsbury singled, took second on a balk, advanced to third on a bunt and scored on a line drive to deep right field by Teixeira. Tampa Bay answered immediately in the home half when David DeJesus walked and Souza followed with his third home run of the season.

Game Notes

The Yankees hadn't swept a three-game series at Tropicana Field since Sept. 13-15, 2005 and last swept a series of three games or more against the Rays from Sept. 7-9, 2009 -- a four-game set at Yankee Stadium ... The Yankees had the leadoff batter on base in each of the first seven innings ... Brett's ninth-inning double was his first major league hit ... The Rays designated pitcher Grant Balfour for assignment and selected the contract of pitcher Brandon Gomes from Triple-A Durham. Gomes worked two scoreless innings on Sunday ... The Rays will take Monday off before welcoming Boston on Tuesday for the start of a three-game set ... The Yankees continue a 10-game road trip Monday with the start of a four-game series in Detroit.