• Preview
• Recap
• Bleachers

Rasner takes full advantage of promotion as Yanks sweep

May 4, 2008 - 9:46 PM By Larry Fleisher PA SportsTicker Contributing Writer

BRONX, New York (Ticker) -- While the New York Yankees had an enjoyable weekend, it was an absolutely miserable three days at Yankee Stadium for the Seattle Mariners.

Melky Cabrera and Robinson Cano hit back-to-back home runs as the Yankees scored six times in the bottom of the third inning en route to an 8-2 rout of the Mariners on Sunday.

The Yankees collected 14 hits and almost every member of the lineup had a hit or drove in a run. Derek Jeter went 4-for-5, Bobby Abreu had three hits while Hideki Matsui extended his hitting streak to 14 games as New York's top four hitters were a combined 11-for-18.

"I had some pretty good players coming up behind me," said New York leadoff hitter Johnny Damon, who reached base safely for the 19th straight game. "I did the easy part. I got on base and those guys took care of business."

Not to be overshadowed by the offense, Darrell Rasner (1-0) came up from the minors to throw six strong innings.

The Yankees completed the sweep of the series after losing all three games to the Detroit Tigers. In those contests against the Tigers, New York struggled at the plate and on the mound but this weekend was a complete reversal for the staff and the lineup, especially in the last two games.

After Chien-Ming Wang and Mike Mussina each pitched six effective innings, Rasner joined the roster to replace the injured Phil Hughes in the rotation. Rasner, who was 4-0 with Class AAA Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, continued to pitch well, gave up just a two-run homer in the first to Adrian Beltre before finishing with five hits allowed.

"I felt good after that first inning, after I settled down and got some of that extra energy out," Rasner said. "So once that happened I felt great."

Beltre's home run to left field was the only blemish for Rasner and by the time the Yankees finished their first inning of at least five runs scored this season in the third it was forgotten.

The Yankees were also helped by Rasner's quick turnaround. After Beltre homered, Rasner retired 15 of the final 18 hitters he faced. He struck out four, did not issue a walk and threw 49 of 76 pitches for strikes before Ross Ohlendorf, Kyle Farnsworth and Mariano Rivera tossed a scoreless inning apiece.

"After the first inning I knew it would change because he got out of it and you could see a difference," Yankees catcher Chad Moeller said. "He was really starting to roll as the game went on. He was right where he wanted to be."

New York, which scored more than five runs for the time in nine games Saturday, surpassed that total in just six plate appearances in the third.

"It was nice to see," New York manager Joe Girardi said. "We put some hits together. We took advantage of first and third hitting through the hole."

"You'd like to (get the big inning)," Jeter added. "You're not always going to be able to do it. But you have to be able to manufacture runs too and I think we've done a little bit of both. Anytime you have the big innings, it helps."

Jeter scored the tying run on Matsui's ground-rule double. Abreu, who stated the rally with RBI single, trotted home on Jason Giambi's sacrifice fly before Cabrera and Cano both drove the ball to right field to open up a 6-2 lead.

New York tacked on two more runs in the fourth as Jeter had an RBI double and Matsui added a run-scoring single.

All of the offense came against Carlos Silva (3-1), who had won his first three decisions since signing a four-year contract in the offseason. In this one, he was ripped for eight runs and 11 hits in just three-plus innings.

"I felt pretty good," Silva said. "I know I made a couple of mistakes but I made a lot of good pitches and they hit (them) too."

Silva's shortest outing of the season epitomized a lost weekend for the Mariners, whose losing streak reached a season-high five games. Seattle will return home at 13-19 and with nine losses in its last 13 games after being outscored 19-4 by the Yankees.

The latest loss came after manager John McLaren ripped into his team with a postgame tirade following Saturday's 6-1 loss that saw Felix Hernandez give up 12 hits.

"We dug a hole and we realize that," McLaren said. "We need to stay positive. There is a sense of urgency but there's not panic.

"We can fight our way through this. We dug ourselves a hole and we need to get ourselves out (of it)."