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Hamilton, Davis lead Rangers over Yankees

Aug 6, 2008 - 5:05 AM ARLINGTON, Texas (Ticker) -- While injury-bitten Joba Chamberlain is set to fly to Birmingham, Alabama to be examined by Dr. James Andrews, the rest of the New York Yankees appear to be on the cusp of spiraling down in the standings.

The heavy-hitting Texas Rangers' offense struck again in an 8-6 victory over the Yankees, handing New York another deflating shortcoming on Tuesday.

Josh Hamilton hit a two-run homer in the first and served another dose of the Rangers' potent lineup to a lifeless Yankees club forced to ride the arm of Andy Pettitte.

"Part of it's been pitching," Yankees manager Joe Girardi said after watching his team lose for the first time in 11 games at Arlington. "We haven't held opponents below five runs in many of those games. We haven't come up with big hits. It's a combination of a lot of different things and we've got to find a way to put another streak together."

Pettitte (12-9) surrendered five runs in five-plus pedestrian innings and allowed a run each in the second and fourth. He later was tagged by David Murphy's RBI single in the sixth and gave way to reliever David Robertson, whose blemishes set up Chris Davis' bases-clearing double in the seventh to put the Rangers up, 8-2.

"Lately I've been really hit-or-miss swinging the bat and I've been trying to find some consistency," Davis said. "I came up with the bases loaded (in the seventh inning) and was just trying to put the ball in play. He threw me a fastball down-and-in. I was looking for something over the plate that I could get into play."

Now, Pettitte has given up 14 runs and 17 hits over his last two starts and failed to pitch into the seventh inning for the third consecutive time.

"My job is to take us deep in the game," Pettitte said. "It's extremely disappointing when I'm not able to do it. It hurts me...I'm sick. The last two starts I pitched terrible, and I let us down. Tonight I left a couple of pitches up in the zone in the first two innings."

Since Chamberlain may miss an extended period of time, Pettitte will need to produce and become a stalwart in the brittle rotation if the Yankees plan on making a serious playoff push.

"It's critical now," Yankees outfielder Johnny Damon said. "We had an opportunity last night to inch closer. Both those teams (Tampa Bay and Boston) managed to win tonight, and that's a bad combination."

Richie Sexson belted a grand slam against reliever C.J. Wilson in the eighth to pull the Yankees within 8-6, but Eddie Guardado came on in the ninth and worked around a walk to notch his third save of the season.

After the game, the team announced it will most likely place Wilson on the disabled list on Wednesday.

"C.J. saw the doctor and said he had some discomfort in the arm," Texas manager Ron Washington said. "He said he could pitch through it and tonight we had an opportunity to use him in a less-pressure situation but he wasn't effective. It's bone spurs and the best thing for his peace of mind is to get it checked out."

The struggling closer's ERA is now 6.02 on the season.

"They're definitely going to put me on the DL; I'm going to have an MRI tomorrow and fly to (Los Angeles) to see Lewis Yoacum on the bone spurs in my elbow," Wilson said. "I haven't been effective and can't do the team much good when I'm like this. It's something I've admitted to (the injury), but tried to pitch through."

Texas starter Matt Harrison (3-2) gave up two runs and five hits in 6 1/3 innings in his first career start against New York, which dropped its seventh game in the last 10.

"We knew he was ready to pitch in the big leagues" Rangers outfielder Marlon Byrd said. "He was hitting his spots all night and certainly didn't play like a rookie tonight. He had good movement on all his pitches, especially his changeup."

Byrd went 3-for-3 the night after belting a walk-off grand slam in the bottom of the ninth against Damaso Marte.

"Back-to-back wins feel good, but we have to win tomorrow," Byrd said. "If we lose the next two and only split the series, it will wipe out all the accomplishment of winning these first two games."