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Bombers away: Yanks pound Greinke in rout of Brewers

Jun 29, 2011 - 5:08 AM Bronx, NY (Sports Network) - Nick Swisher's three-run homer highlighted a big second inning and Mark Teixeira -- who went deep for the 24th time this year -- finished with four RBI, as the New York Yankees pounded the Milwaukee Brewers, 12-2, to start a three-game interleague series.

Freddy Garcia (7-6) scattered eight hits and was charged with a pair of runs over six frames to win his second straight start for the AL East leaders, who have triumphed in seven of their last nine games.

Zack Greinke (7-3) was pounded for the second time in three starts. The right- hander allowed five hits and seven runs over two innings for the Brewers, who were coming off a three-game sweep at home against Minnesota. On June 16, he was drilled for eight hits and six earned runs in 5 1/3 innings at Wrigley Field.

"I wasn't executing anything, and when I did a couple of times they took some good pitches and then I wasn't able to make another good pitch after that," Greinke said. "I just couldn't pitch any worse than I did. It's no one's fault but mine."

Brewers left fielder Ryan Braun extended his career-high hitting streak to 18 games with a double leading off the eighth inning.

The Brewers, who were playing at Yankee Stadium for the first time since moving to the National League, threatened in the opening inning, and it was downhill from there. Garcia escaped a jam with two men in scoring position when he fanned Casey McGehee to cap the frame.

Greinke didn't have his control right from the start as he pegged lead-off hitter Brett Gardner. Curtis Granderson followed with a fly ball to center field. Nyjer Morgan slipped and the ball landed next to him for a triple. Granderson then scored on Teixeira's groundout.

"We just kept putting good at-bats on him," Yankees manager Joe Girardi said of Greinke. "I thought our guys just did a nice job of moving runners over and not try to do too much off Zack Greinke. I thought our hitters took a great approach."

New York loaded the bases later in the first when McGehee failed to tag out Rodriguez at third after making a diving stop on a ground ball. However, Russell Martin flied out to end the inning.

The Yankees then blew the game open with a five-run second. Gardner and Eduardo Nunez pulled off a double steal, and Teixeira followed with an RBI groundout. Rodriguez walked prior to Robinson Cano's RBI single to center. Swisher then turned on a 2-0 fastball down the middle and homered to right field.

The Brewers went to Marco Estrada out of the bullpen in the third and he held the hosts off the scoreboard despite putting two men on base.

Mat Gamel singled in Prince Fielder in the fourth and Yuniesky Betancourt followed with a sacrifice fly to right. Gamel, though, was cut down at second during the play, leaving the score at 7-2.

Granderson walked ahead of Teixeira's blast to the second deck in right field off Estrada with nobody out in the sixth.

Teixeira is tied with Toronto's Jose Bautista for the major league lead in homers. Over the last 50 years, only three Yankees have hit more homers prior to the All-Star break - Alex Rodriguez (30 in 2007), Tino Martinez (28 in 1997) and Jason Giambi (27 in 2006 and 26 in 2003).

Jorge Posada laced an RBI single to left off Zach Braddock later in the sixth, and Cano scored on Martin's fielder's choice.

Swisher's double plated Ramiro Pena in the eighth to cap the rout.

Game Notes

The Yankees, who are a season-high 15 games over .500 this season (46-31) lead their division by 1 1/2 games over Boston. New York is a major league-best 26-12 since May 17, following their season-high six-game losing streak...Teixeira homered for the third straight game, his 299th career homer...This was Greinke's shortest start since April 16, 2007 with Kansas City at Detroit.