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Rivera homers, drives in 4 as Rays beat Yankees

May 15, 2015 - 4:46 AM St. Petersburg, FL (SportsNetwork.com) - Rene Rivera hit a three-run homer and added an RBI single as the Tampa Bay Rays beat the New York Yankees 6-1 in the finale of a four-game set at Tropicana Field.

Steven Souza Jr. doubled twice and scored two runs for the Rays, who won the final three games of the series.

Erasmo Ramirez (1-1) snapped a 15-start winless streak after holding the Yankees to one hit over five scoreless innings. Ramirez, who walked two and struck out four, won his first start since April 1, 2014 while a member of the Seattle Mariners.

Matt Andriese tossed the final four innings to earn his second save of the season.

"Can't say enough about what Erasmo and Andriese did for us tonight, saving the bullpen a little bit and getting us fresh for the upcoming series (at Minnesota)," said Rays manager Kevin Cash.

Alex Rodriguez ruined Tampa Bay's shutout bid with a leadoff home run in the ninth, the 663rd of his career.

"It's baseball," Yankees manager Joe Girardi said. "I thought we started to hit Ramirez the second time through, and we hit it at people. That's baseball."

The Rays took a 1-0 lead in the first as Souza scored on James Loney's two-out single.

New York starter Chase Whitley (1-2) exited in the second with a right elbow injury after issuing consecutive two-out walks. Rivera crushed the first pitch from reliever Esmil Rogers to give Tampa Bay a 4-0 lead.

"For Rene to capitalize on that first pitch was huge for us," Cash said.

Rivera, who entered the game batting .126 this season with five RBI, singled home David DeJesus in the fourth.

Evan Longoria plated Souza with a single in the seventh to make it 6-0.

Game Notes

The Rays announced Thursday that pitcher Alex Cobb underwent successful Tommy John surgery ... Tampa Bay has held opponents to two or fewer runs in 19 games this season, most in the majors ... The Yankees concluded a string of 17 straight games against AL East opponents with a 10-7 record ... New York's three-game losing streak matches a season high.