Rays beat Yankees, 7-3, to avoid sweep

By Pete Caldera / The Record (Hackensack N.J.)
Friday, June 8, 2012

NEW YORK — An extraordinary run of Yankees’ starting pitching ended on Thursday night, as CC Sabathia – despite racking up 12 strikeouts — couldn’t solve the Rays.

After Tampa Bay departed with a 7-3 victory at the Stadium, it was time to gear up for another Subway Series.

The surprising Mets visit the Bronx for three games beginning Friday night, and Mark Teixeira can already feel the energy of a packed house of crosstown fans witnessing lefty ace Johan Santana’s first start since pitching the first no-hitter in Mets history.

"To me, the Mets series and Red Sox [team stats] series are the best series at Yankee Stadium," Teixeira said. "The fans are so into it. And especially this year, the Mets are having a great year.
"Facing Johan, (Friday night) is going to be electric. It’s going to be a great atmosphere."
It wasn’t so grand on Thursday night as Sabathia (7-3) yielded five runs (three earned) on seven hits and a walk in seven innings.

An Alex Rodriguez error led to two unearned runs, and A-Rod struck out with the bases loaded – on an 11-pitch at-bat – to derail the Yanks’ best chance against lefty David Price.
After A-Rod whiffed, Robinson Cano grounded out to preserve the Rays’ 5-1 lead. Price (8-3) only went five innings, yielding one run on three hits and four walks.
Batting as the tying run, Eric Chavez grounded out to end the eighth. Curtis Granderson struck out four times and the Yankees (31-25) dropped one-half game behind the Rays (32-25) in the nip-and-tuck AL East.
"You look at both divisions, they’re very similar," Yankees manager Joe Girardi said, alluding to the Mets’ battle in the NL East. "Where you are in the division can change in three days, dramatically. And that makes it interesting."
With runners at the corners in the second, Chris Stewart’s one-out check swing RBI groundout tied the game at 1.
But A-Rod’s third-inning throwing error led to a 3-1 Rays’ lead.
Elliot Johnson’s grounder to Rodriguez should’ve left the Rays with two out and nobody on. Instead, Ben Zobrist grounded an RBI single to center, Desmond Jennings doubled and B.J. Upton delivered a sacrifice fly.
Upton had doubled and scored on Jose Lobaton’s bloop single in the second.
After Lobaton and Matt Joyce rapped one-out singles in the fourth, No. 9 hitter Drew Sutton drove in both runners with a double into the left-field corner to make it 5-1.
And soon enough, the focus shifted to the weekend’s Subway Series – a series in which the Yankees have won four of the last five games and 14 of the last 21.

"For us, it’s just another game. It’s another hitter standing in the batter’s box," said Andy Pettitte, who starts Sunday’s series finale. "But you can no doubt feel the electricity in the air because the fans are so excited about it.
"For us now, it’s probably just kind of old hat because we play them every year."
In Pettitte’s mind, there was no substitute for the first Subway Series at the previous Yankee Stadium in 1997. Pettitte started and lost the inaugural Mets-Yanks game, 6-0, as Dave Mlicki went the distance for the visitors from Queens

"That was probably the most exciting because it’s so fresh, so new," Pettitte said in recalling the raucous atmosphere. "It was very cool in that sense."
The Yankees own a .592 all-time interleague winning percentage, tops in the majors, though the idea of NL vs. AL has fizzled even for players in pinstripes.
"I’ll be honest, I’ve said interleague in general has run its course," Teixeira said. "Playing Pittsburgh in Seattle in July just doesn’t make a lot of sense. But the Subway Series makes sense."
There will be some alterations to the schedule next year when Houston moves to the AL West and the leagues are balanced at 15 teams apiece. But, "I would love to continue to play the Mets at least one series every year," Teixeira said. "Because the fans deserve that."