A-Rod Hits His 53rd Home Run!

New York Yankees (90-67).


Devil Rays -7

Yanks- 6
Final


Andy Pettitte and the Yankees sleepwalked their way to a horrendos 4-1 loss to the Blue Jays yesterday. And now they trail the Red Sox by 3 games thanks to the bullpen blowing a five-run lead on Tuesday night. The Yankees have 5 games left to capture their 10th straight AL East title.

A-Rod hit his 53rd home run of the year. Kei Igawa was solid, but the bullpen stunk up the joint and got smoked by the last-place Devil Rays. The Yankees failed for the second consecutive day to clinch a playoff spot.

The Yankees led 1-0 and went looking for more in the third.

With the bases loaded and nobody out, A-Rod cleared the bases when he took a Jason Hammel offering over the wall in deep left for his 53rd home run of the year. The Yanks held a commanding 5-0 lead.

Kei Igawa, who replaced Roger Clemens, was outstanding on the night. He allowed 0 runs in five innings of work.

Edwar Ramirez and the rest of the bullpen immediately ran into trouble in the sixth.

Ramirez, Bruney, Villone and Karstens allowed 7 runs, 3 hits, and 5 walks in one inning of work.

The Devil Rays took a 6-5 lead into the eighth.

With two on and one out, a sacrifice fly by Melky Cabrera brought home Bronson Sardinha to tie the game at 6-6.

Farnsworth pitched a scoreless eighth. Jose Veras pitched a scoreless ninth.

Jeff Karstens came on in the tenth.

D. Navarro hit a solo home run off of Karstens to win the game.

A-Rod, who leads all of baseball with 53 home runs and 151 RBIs, went 1-for-4 with 1 run and 4 RBIs on the night.