Swisher’s Second Blast of the Night Gives Yankees Walk-Off Win
game, connecting with one out in the ninth inning to lead the New York Yankees
over Tampa Bay 3-2 Tuesday night and send the Rays to their season-high seventh
straight loss.
The switch-hitting Swisher connected from both sides of
the plate. He won it with a left-handed shot off Dan Wheeler (4-4).
Derek Jeter struck out three times and remained stuck in
his longest slump of the year, moving no closer to the Yankees hit record held
by Lou Gehrig.
Rays rookie David Price fanned Jeter his first three
times up, twice catching him looking. The Yankees star had nothing to show for
four at-bats, leaving him in an 0-for-12 rut and still four hits behind Gehrig's
total of 2,721.
Mariano Rivera (2-2) pitched a perfect ninth as the
Yankees won for the 12th time in 15 games.
Swisher homered in the second and Alex Rodriguez had an
RBI single in the sixth. Swisher has three multihomer games this season — he
connected lefty and righty each time. Of Swisher's 26 homers this season, only
five have come at hitter-friendly Yankee Stadium.
Jason Bartlett greeted Yankees reliever Phil Hughes with
a leadoff home run in the eighth, tying it at 2. Evan Longoria hit his 30th
homer the previous inning off starter Chad Gaudin.
Plagued by deep pitch counts earlier in the year, Price
came out throwing strikes. He gave up only three hits in six innings, walked two
and struck out six.
Randy Choate retired Jeter on a lineout leading off the
eighth, then made the defensive play of the game. The sidearming lefty tracked
down Johnny Damon's drag bunt, lunged for the ball and flipped it with his glove
while falling forward for the out.
Gaudin took a 2-0 lead into the seventh. His winless
streak reached 10 starts, before he was traded from San Diego to the Yankees in
early August.
Gaudin helped himself by picking off speedster Carl
Crawford at first base with a quick move in the sixth. Crawford also got trapped
after a triple in the opening inning, taking off on Longoria's grounder and
getting tagged out in a rundown.
Jeter's parents watched from an upstairs box, and they
saw their son go hitless in three straight games for the first time this season.
A day after moving past Yogi Berra into third place for
most games played as a Yankee, Jeter joked with the Hall of Famer catcher in the
clubhouse.
"I got more rings than him, that's what counts," Berra
kidded. "He's still a baby."
Jeter batted leadoff as the designated hitter, having
started both games at shortstop in Monday's day-night doubleheader sweep of the
Rays.
Notes
Tampa Bay slugger Carlos Pena, who broke two
fingers Monday when hit by a pitch from CC Sabathia, met with a hand specialist.
He hasn't made a decision on whether to have surgery. … 35-year-old Chris
Richard got his first major league hit since 2003. He'd been in the minors until
the Rays called him up this week. … Jeter has struck out four times in a game
twice. Curt Schilling fanned him four times in 1997 with Philadelphia.