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Rays win testy game over reeling Yankees

Sep 17, 2014 - 5:47 AM St. Petersburg, FL (SportsNetwork.com) - Jake Odorizzi held the New York Yankees' struggling offense to a run over six innings in the Tampa Bay Rays' 6-1 victory at Tropicana Field.

Aided by a lineup that went 4-for-9 with runners in scoring position, Odorizzi (11-12) scattered five hits and a walk to help the Rays to a third straight win.

"He's righted himself. He's gotten better over the course of the year," Rays manager Joe Maddon said of his starter.

Nick Franklin had two hits and an RBI in his Tampa Bay debut, Wil Myers drove in two runs on a sacrifice fly and James Loney finished 3-for-4 for the Rays.

The Yankees, on the other hand, were just 1-for-10 with men in scoring position to fall to 1-5 on this seven-game road trip. The lone hit came on an RBI single by Ichiro Suzuki.

Michael Pineda (3-5) took the loss for New York after being reached for two runs -- one earned -- over 5 1/3 innings.

Odorizzi and Pineda had been locked into a 1-1 duel that lasted into the bottom of the sixth inning, during which Franklin doubled with one out to place the go-ahead run in scoring position.

Franklin then attempted to advance to third on a pitch in the dirt and was at first called out, though Rays manager Joe Maddon challenged the ruling and had it overturned on a replay review. After a walk to Matt Joyce, Yunel Escobar dropped down a safety squeeze bunt that New York catcher Francisco Cervelli fielded in front of an uncovered plate and turned back towards home to find Franklin sliding across to score.

As the Yankee bats continued to be silenced, the Rays put the game away with a four-run seventh highlighted by Myers' uncommon sac fly.

Evan Longoria knocked in the first run with a single in front of Loney's base hit that loaded the bases for Franklin, who drilled a single to left to push the lead to 4-1.

Myers followed with a pinch-hit blast to deep center that Jacoby Ellsbury tracked down with a diving catch, but Loney tagged and hustled all the way from second after Longoria easily trotted home.

The eighth inning was marred by a benches-clearing incident with the Rays at bat, as New York's David Phelps threw inside to Kevin Kiermaier and was in turn ejected by home plate umpire Rob Drake. The pitch was in apparent retaliation for Tampa's Steve Geltz hitting Derek Jeter with a pitch in the top of the inning, which led to Yankee skipper Joe Girardi's ejection for demonstratively voicing his displeasure.

"I'm all for pitching inside...But you hit five of our guys in four games, you don't think we're going to be pissed," Girardi said.

Pineda entered Tuesday's matchup having not received a single run with him in the game in any of his previous three starts, but got some early support in this one when Chris Young doubled in the second inning and beat the throw home on Suzuki's single to right.

New York had an opportunity to extend the margin in third, but Odorizzi pitched out of a second-and-third, one-out jam by getting Brett Gardner to pop up in the infield and fanning Brian McCann.

The Rays later drew even by taking advantage of two Yankee errors in the fifth.

Kiermaier reached on an errant throw from New York second baseman Brendan Ryan prior to Pineda issuing a rare walk to Ryan Hanigan. The Yankee hurler then bobbled a flip from McCann while running to first on Ben Zobrist's grounder to enable Kiermaier to score from second.

Game Notes

Franklin, acquired from Seattle as part of the three-team trade that sent David Price to Detroit, was recalled from Triple-A Durham on Monday ... Pineda had not allowed a walk to 119 consecutive batters and four straight starts prior to Hanigan's free pass ... The Rays honored Jeter prior to the game, with a 16-foot kayak in Yankee colors and a Tampa Bay jersey worn by former Yankees and Rays coach Don Zimmer among the gifts given to the New York captain ... Cervelli had two hits in his first game since Aug. 31. He had been sidelined with migraine headaches.