Tags : baseball, Derek Jeter, mlb
Nick Ends Night; Swisher Belts Walk Off Homer As Yanks Exhaust Rays
New York, NY (AHN) – Derek Jeter may go down as the greatest Yankee ever, but Tuesday night belonged to another Pinstriper.
Nick Swisher belted two round-trippers, the second of which provided another celebration in the new Yankee Stadium as New York bounced to its 13th walk-off of the year in a 3-2 win over the struggling Tampa Bay Rays.
Swisher gave the Yanks the early lead with a homer in the second inning off Rays starter David Price, who gave up just two runs in six innings.
Alex Rodriguez’ red-hot bat brought in a run in the sixth to cushion the lead. A-Rod is batting .440 (11-for-25) in his last six games.
It was a good thing for the Yanks they had Swisher and A-Rod’s contributions, as Jeter had an awful night in going 0-for-4 with three strikeouts.
Jeter is hitless in his last 12 at-bats to remain four hits from breaking Gehrig’s total of 2,721 hits.
Evan Longoria trimmed the lead with a solo jack in the seventh that chased Yanks starter Chad Gaudin, who finished with six innings of one run ball.
The usually reliable Phil Hughes earned his first blow save of the year by allowing a solo jack to Jason Bartlett in the eighth to tie the game at two.
Swisher took a 0-1 fastball off Dan Wheeler to left field in the ninth to set up the customary shaving cream pie to the face from Yanks starter A.J. Burnett.
New York (90-50) has a season-high nine game lead in the AL East after taking three games in two days from the Rays.
Tampa (72-67) has lost eight of its last 10 games, trailing New York by 17.5 games in the AL East and Boston by 8.5 in the Wild Card.
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