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Yankees hit 4 HRs off Santana to beat Mets

Jun 9, 2012 - 4:20 AM Bronx, NY (Sports Network) - The Yankees hit four homers off Johan Santana in his first post no-hitter start Friday, including three in a row in the third inning, and Hiroki Kuroda took care of the rest.

Kuroda gave up just one hit in seven innings while Robinson Cano, Nick Swisher and Andruw Jones had back-to-back-to-back homers in a 9-1 win over the Mets to open the three-game Subway Series.

"When you have got a guy on the mound who is working quick and throwing strikes, it's keeping you in the game and those are the guys you want to play defense for," Swisher said. "Kuroda had a good rhythm in game tonight and we had the bats working."

Cano hit two homers off Santana, who took the mound for the first time since throwing the first no-no in Mets history a week earlier, a 134-pitch gem that required a couple extra days of rest for the 33-year-old lefty who lost all of last season to shoulder surgery.

Coming off back-to-back shutouts, Santana (3-3) proved eminently hittable in five innings against the Yankees, throwing 86 pitches and giving up six runs on seven hits and a walk with five strikeouts.

"Overall, I felt good. It was just one of those days where things just didn't work out," Santana said about his outing.

Meanwhile, Kuroda (5-6) went 5 2/3 innings before allowing the Mets' only hit against him -- an Omar Quintanilla double that found the gap -- and ended with seven strikeouts and a walk.

The 37-year-old righty took a line drive off his foot on the last batter he faced, a ball that was caught by Alex Rodriguez to end the seventh inning.

Santana lost for the first time in his last nine starts (3-1).

He stretched his shutout streak to 19 innings with a 10-pitch first but walked Rodriguez leading off the second before Cano drove a first-pitch fastball over the right field wall for a 2-0 Yankees lead.

Cano, after Rodriguez's two-out single in the third, was first-pitch swinging again on a slider he sent into the upper deck in right. Three pitches later, Swisher homered to left and Jones knocked the seventh pitch of his at-bat inside the left field pole to make it 6-0.

It was the first time the Yankees hit back-to-back-to-back homers since the same three players did it against Baltimore last Aug. 28.

Kuroda retired the first 10 Mets batters until Josh Thole reached on Derek Jeter's error with one out in the fourth. But the Yankees turned a double play on David Wright's grounder and Kuroda faced the minimum again.

He fanned two in a perfect fifth and had a 3-2 count on Quintanilla in the sixth before the Mets shortstop stroked his double to the left-center field gap.

Kuroda stranded him at second, then walked Lucas Duda with two outs in the seventh. But he got out of the inning on a bizarre play when Daniel Murphy's low line drive hit off Kuroda's foot and shot to Rodriguez, who caught the ball in the air near third.

The Yankees went up 9-0 in the bottom of the seventh against Elvin Ramirez, who was working his second inning of relief for Santana. Rodriguez's sac fly scored Curtis Granderson, Swisher hit an RBI ground-rule double and Jones singled to knock in a run.

Cody Eppley threw a perfect eighth for the Yankees and Ryota Igarashi gave up a run in the ninth after Quintanilla walked to lead off, went to second on a free pass to Josh Thole and scored on Duda's double -- the second and final Mets hit of the night.

Game Notes

The Yankees went 4-2 against the Mets last season and are 50-35 all-time in regular season games...Cincinnati's Johnny Vander Meer is the only player in major league history to throw back-to-back no-hitters in 1938...No Mets pitcher has ever thrown three straight shutouts...The Yankees have won six of their last eight...Jeter had a 25-game home hitting streak against the Mets snapped.