• Preview
• Recap
• Bleachers

Matsui powers Yankees past Rays

Apr 16, 2008 - 5:16 AM ST. PETERSBURG, Florida (Ticker) -- Rarely does redemption come so quickly.

Hideki Matsui homered and drove in two runs and Andy Pettitte won his second straight start as the New York Yankees downed the Tampa Bay Rays, 5-3, on Tuesday.

The contest was a pitching rematch from April 5 in New York between Pettitte and Edwin Jackson, which resulted in a Rays' 6-3 victory. Monday's contest also featured a pitching rematch from an earlier Rays' win, a 13-4 decision on April 4.

However, New York also avenged that setback with an 8-7 win.

Since losing his season debut on April 5, Pettitte (2-1) has allowed only four runs in his last two starts over 13 2/3 innings. The lefthander improved to 14-2 against Tampa Bay overall, including 8-1 in games at Tropicana Field.

On Tuesday, he allowed three runs and nine hits over seven innings with three walks and five strikeouts.

"They had seven hits in the first two innings and he doesn't give up any runs," Yankees manager Joe Girardi said. "He has the ability to induce some double plays. Andy's done it his entire career. He knows how to do it. Even when he doesn't have his best stuff, he finds a way to win."

"Early on, we had some base runners out there," Tampa Bay manager Joe Maddon said. "Pettitte pitched well - he pitched really well. We had good intentions (at the plate), we just didn't get it done."

Kyle Farnsworth pitched a perfect eighth inning and Mariano Rivera pitched an uneventful ninth to collect his fifth save in as many chances.

Jackson, who held the Yankees to one run in the April 5 win, surrendered five runs and four hits in this game after allowing only one run in 14 innings entering the contest.

"(It was) just one of those days when you go out and battle and try to keep the game as close as possible," Jackson said. "For the most part, I just fell behind when I needed to be ahead in the count. They get paid to hit mistakes and that's what they do."

The first of those runs came courtesy of Matsui, who opened the scoring with a one-out solo shot in the second.

After Mike DiFelice's hit gave Tampa Bay a 2-1 lead in the third, Pettitte retired seven consecutive batters and the Yankees regained the lead as Matsui's RBI groundout plated Bobby Abreu and Alex Rodriguez scored on a wild pitch from Jackson two pitches later.

"We know we'll catch fire, hopefully sooner than later," Yankees outfielder Johnny Damon said. "Five runs for our offense is not at our best, but we battled."

Derek Jeter, who played Monday for the first time since suffering a strained left quadriceps muscle on April 7, is 5-for-9 since returning.

"He's gifted," Girardi said. "A good thing during his injury was he was still able to take batting practice. He wasn't shut down."

In the fifth, Jeter and Abreu had consecutive two-out RBI singles to give the Yankees a 5-2 lead.

A night after moving into 15th place with Willie McCovey and Ted Williams on the all-time home run list, Rodriguez hit his 400th career double.

Jason Bartlett added a run-scoring infield single in the sixth to account for the Rays' final run.