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A-Rod, Yankees down Rays, win third straight

Sep 4, 2008 - 4:30 AM ST. PETERSBURG, Florida (Ticker) -- For five months, the New York Yankees have had their share of ups and downs. But in September, they've been absolutely perfect.

Alex Rodriguez hit his 549th home run to move past Mike Schmidt on the all-time list and had four RBI, leading the Yankees past the Tampa Bay Rays, 8-4, on Wednesday.

Rodriguez had three hits, including his second homer in as many nights for the Yankees, who defeated the American League East-leading Rays for the second consecutive game and posted their third straight win.

New York (75-64) is 9-6 this season against Tampa Bay (84-53) and, in the AL wild-card race, stayed within seven games of the Boston Red Sox (82-57), who moved within three games of the Rays for first place in the division - the closest the Red Sox have been since August 7, when they trailed by 2 1/2 games.

"They beat us, they handily beat us the last two nights," Tampa Bay manager Joe Maddon said. "We're just making some mistakes right now we need to eradicate.

"They've put a lot of pressure on our defense in the infield. I'm sure there was a little frustration among the group tonight. It just indicates how much they care."

A night after tying Schmidt, Rodriguez moved into sole possession of 12th place in career homers with a two-run shot in the ninth off Troy Percival, a historic blast which was ruled fair and then upheld with the assistance of instant replay - baseball's first use of its newly implemented policy.

"I'm sure he's going to be a part of more of those," Yankees center fielder Johnny Damon said. "He's got nine more years left on that contract."

In the third, Rodriguez and Jason Giambi hit consecutive RBI doubles and, one batter later, Hideki Matsui added an RBI single for a 5-1 lead.

In the fourth, Rodriguez had an RBI single to make it 6-1. In the bottom of the inning, Gabe Gross' two-run homer pulled Tampa Bay within 6-3.

In the fifth, the Rays loaded the bases with no outs but did not score. Edwar Ramirez (5-1) retired Willy Aybar on a line-drive double play to Cano at second, and then Eric Hinske popped out to shortstop.

"Edwar gave us three extremely exceptional outs," Yankees manager Joe Girardi said. "I thought that turned the game around. They kept chipping away and they get the bases loaded and nobody out and don't score. That's the game."

Rookie lefthander Phil Coke, who made his major league debut Monday, pitched two perfect innings after Ramirez escaped the fifth-inning jam.

"I'm just trying to throw strikes and give my team a chance to win," Coke said. "I can't even put into words what it's been like (being in the majors), because it's been just way beyond what I imagined it would be."

Neither starter had much success, including Yankees righthander Carl Pavano, who allowed six hits and three runs in four innings. He walked two and struck out one.

"I'm disappointed in myself," Pavano said. "I can't say enough about the guys' offense and the defense behind me. It's all about the team right now, but I'm definitely disappointed in myself tonight."

Rays starter Edwin Jackson (11-9) left after a season-low 3 1/3 innings, allowing a season-high 10 hits and six runs, after yielding five runs in his last four starts - a span of 26 innings.

"That was kind of a funny outing there," Maddon said. "There were a lot of choppers. It's not like they pinned (Jackson's) ears back."

It marked the first time Tampa Bay lost home games on consecutive nights since April 14-15.

"We're proven what we are, so for me to sit here and say, 'It's a speed bump.' No way," Percival said. "I think at the 130-game mark, we've been tested."

The replay of Rodriguez's home run, which hit the Tropicana Field D-ring catwalk in left field, took two minutes and 15 seconds for the umpires to confirm it was fair.

"Maddon went to the plate umpire and the plate umpire said, 'You have to argue with the guy who made the call (third base umpire Brian Runge),'" crew chief Charlie Reliford said. "Brian came over and we discussed as a crew what we had. We all believed it was a home run, but since the technology is in place, we made the decision to use the technology and go look at the replays.

"And the replays we reviewed were conclusive that the call we made was correct."

Reliford said all four umpires were involved in the decision.

"Technically, it's up to the crew chief," Reliford said. "But when the ship sinks, everyone drowns. We operate as a crew, we do everything as a crew and we make decisions as a crew."