Yankees Bronx Bomb Devil Rays, 21-4

The Tampa Bay Devil Ray humiliated the Yankees Friday night, 14-4. Tonight they're glad to be getting out of Dodge. The Yankees, who swept a doubleheader on Saturday that included 17 runs in the nightcap, scoring 21 more today. Alex Rodriguez, Bobby Abreu, Hideki Matsui, and Robinson Cano had a home run each, and rookie Shelley Duncan hit a pair of shots as the Yankees won 21-4. The Bombers ripped a season high 25 hits.

The game was tied 3-3 when the Yankees bats went wild. Cano lead it off with a triple and came home on Andy Phillips' single. After a Duncan walk and a Melky Cabrera ground out, Derek Jeter singled to right for a 5-3 lead. Abreu did the same to push it to 6-3, and when Jeter and Abreu pulled a double steal, Dionner Navarro's throw was wild allowing Jeter to score. An Alex Rodriguez walk put runners on the corners, and Hideki Matsui singled up the middle for an 8-3 lead. Rays' manager Joe Maddon finally came out to get Jamie Shields, who entered the game with a 3.91 ERA and left it with a 4.44 mark.

Reliever Casey Fossum was greeted by back to back singles by Matsui and Cano to plate 2 more, and 2 batters later Duncan slugged a 3-run HR to cap off the 10 run inning.

Andy Pettitte finally got the run support, and then some, that he had been craving all season. He allowed 3 runs over 6 innings, and struck out 8 to even his record up at 6-6. he allowed Carlos Pena's 23rd home run and gave up a 2-run single to Josh Wilson that had tied the game 3-3 in the 4th. Newly recalled Sean Henn threw a pair of scoreless innings before Mike Myers allowed an unearned run in the 9th.

Matsui, who had 5 hits, got the scoring going with his 9 home run in the last 17 games, and his 17th of the season. Abreu hit his 8th off of Shawn Camp to start the 5th, and Duncan slammed his 2nd of the game, and 3rd in 4 games to start the 6th. Three batters later, in what seemed like an instant replay of Saturday's game, A-Rod hit a 2-run shot on to the netting in left-center field. It was his 34th of the season and number 498 all-time. His 3 RBI on the day gave him 99 in 97 games.

In the 8th, Cano, who had 4 hits, welcomed Scott Dohmann to the party with his 8th home run of the season.

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Cano is 17-33 (.515) over his last 8 games. That includes an 0-4 in the mix.

Matsui has 9 home runs in July and is batting .348 with 17 RBI.

The Yankees reached 5 games over .500 for the first time this season.

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