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Garza, Rays shut down Yankees

May 13, 2008 - 3:29 AM ST. PETERSBURG, Florida (Ticker) -- The way the Tampa Bay Rays have been playing lately, even when they do something wrong, it turns out all right.

Matt Garza pitched seven scoreless innings as the Rays defeated the New York Yankees, 7-1, for their franchise-record 10th consecutive home win Monday.

Dioner Navarro had three hits and two RBI and Jason Bartlett added a two-run triple as the Rays posted a rare win against Yankees starter Andy Pettitte.

Bartlett's triple came one pitch after missing a squeeze sign and keyed a four-run fourth against Pettitte.

"It was a safety squeeze, but I missed it," Bartlett said. "I was glad I got to swing away."

Jonny Gomes, Evan Longoria and Akinori Iwamura also added two hits each for the Rays, who are a franchise-best six games over .500 (22-16) and trail the American League East-leading Boston Red Sox (24-17) by just one-half game.

Leading, 1-0, the Rays batted around against Pettitte (3-4) in a four-run fourth. Bartlett's two-run triple was the big blow.

"We got to Pettitte because we had good at-bats," Tampa Bay manager Joe Maddon said. "Our defense played well again."

Pettitte, who fell to 14-4 in his career against Tampa Bay, did not return to start the fifth. He allowed five runs and eight hits while striking out five and walking two.

"I felt great," Pettitte said. "I started off really good. Again, (the fourth inning) happened so fast. It seemed like my ball started elevating a little bit, just getting the ball up, and they hit it. The big blow was Bartlett's triple."

Garza (2-1) scattered five hits in seven innings. He struck out three, walked one and benefited from three double plays.

"I went right after them," Garza said. "A lot of fastballs that they were going after. I just kept attacking."

Navarro's RBI single gave Tampa Bay a 1-0 lead in the second and his RBI single in the fifth made it 6-0.

Gary Glover allowed an RBI groundout to Johnny Damon in the eighth, and Trever Miller pitched a scoreless ninth inning.

The Yankees' first five hitters - Damon, Derek Jeter, Bobby Abreu, Hideki Matsui and Jason Giambi - were a combined 1-for-17.

"Bottom line - we didn't hit tonight," Yankees manager Joe Girardi said. "This is a team that if you get ahead of them, they can't be aggressive. If you get a lead on them, sometimes you can shut a little bit of that down."

Monday's win marked the seventh time this season the Rays had allowed one run or less.

"With our starting pitching, if we can just get three or four runs, we feel like we can get the win," said Gomes, who stole two bases and scored three runs.

A day after scoring eight runs and pounding out 15 hits against the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, Tampa Bay had seven runs and 13 hits against the Yankees. The Rays are hitting .384 (28-for-73) in their past two games.

"They have a nice rotation," Girardi said. "They have speed, they have power. There's not a lot of gaps sometimes in the outfield. This is a good team."

Girardi said Alex Rodriguez, who was eligible to return from the disabled list Thursday, would not play in this weekend's series with the New York Mets. Rodriguez has been out since April 28 with a right quadriceps injury.