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Rays receive rings, get beat by Yankees

Tribune photo by JASON BEHNKEN

Evan Longoria strikes out in the 9th inning to end the game as the Yankees win 7-2 Tuesday night.

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By TONY FABRIZIO | The Tampa Tribune

Published: April 14, 2009

Updated: 04/14/2009 10:25 pm

The Rays again held a pregame celebration of their 2008 accomplishments Tuesday night, this time presenting American League Championship rings to players, coaches and front office personnel.

But this time, the 26-time world champion Yankees said, "enough."

One night after the Rays raised two championship banners, fired off flaming torches and pounded the Yankees by 10 runs, New York fought back with a 7-2 victory before 36,973 at Tropicana Field – Tampa Bay's 12th consecutive sellout.

A.J. Burnett, one of three free agent acquisitions to whom the Yankees committed a total of more than $420 million, carried a no-hitter into the seventh and held the Rays to two runs on three hits through eight innings.

Brett Gardner, batting lead-off for the Yankees, had an opposite field double over Carl Crawford's head in left and a ground-rule double over the wall in center and scored three runs. Nick Swisher hit a solo home run, and Derek Jeter blasted a three-run homer in the ninth.

The Rays got excellent starting pitching of their own from Matt Garza, who kept his team in the game by allowing only two runs in his seventh innings. J.P. Howell allowed a run in the eighth, and Dan Wheeler was tagged for four runs in the ninth.

"Their guy pitched really well tonight," Rays manager Joe Maddon said. "He had command of all of his pitches. He had a really good breaking ball and his typical mid-90s fastball."

The Rays managed only one baserunner through the first six innings – Pat Burrell walked in the second inning and didn't get past first base – but rallied to tie the game 2-2 in the seventh.

Carl Crawford broke up the no-hitter with a looping opposite-field line drive to left. Evan Longoria followed with a single and Carlos Pena an RBI single, and suddenly the game had the feel of one of the Rays' patented 2008 comebacks.

But after Burrell's sacrifice fly scored Longoria to tie the game, Dioner Navarro struck out for the first time in the game and catcher Jose Molina picked off Pena at first.

The Yankees got to Howell quickly in the eighth, with Gardner leading of with his ground-rule double, Jeter singling and Mark Teixeira, one of the two other high-priced free agent acquisitions, scoring Gardner with a sacrifice fly.

Garza followed up his strong season debut last week at Boston with another outing that would have been a winner on many nights. He limited the Yankees to one run in the first inning after loading the bases with none out, and the only damage after Jorge Posada's RBI sacrifice fly was Swisher's solo homer in the fourth.

"I was just trying to outlast the other guy," Garza said, referring to Burnett. "Shoot, he had his stuff tonight. He was spotting 94, 95 [mph] on the black. My job was to keep it close. I went seven, gave up two."

The Rays' 3-for-28 showing at the plate – after scoring 26 runs in their previous two games – lowered their team batting average from .304 to .285. Tampa Bay did not record a home run, extra base hit or stolen base after entering the game leading the majors in all three categories.

Of greater concern, Tampa Bay's bullpen, which compiled a 3.55 ERA last season, has pitched to a 5.85 ERA through the first eight games.

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