Yankees Find One Mo Way to Lose
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 |  | R | H | E | |
| Tampa Bay | 2 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 8 | 13 | 0 | |
| NY Yankees | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 6 | 10 | 0 |
WP - Shouse (1-0), SV - Nelson (1) LP-Rivera (0-1)
The Yankees battled back from 4-0 and 6-4 deficits last night only to lose to the Tampa Bay Rays in the 9th inning, 8-6, when Mariano Rivera gave up back to back home runs to Carl Crawford and Evan Longoria. The loss extended the Yankees negative skid to five games as they head to Baltimore for a weekend series at Camden Yards.
Rivera had only allowed four home runs in both 2007 and 2008, but last night’s pair already increased his 2009 total to four. It also helped undo the work Johnny Damon and the Yankees hitters did in getting back into the ball game.
Jason Bartlett and Carlos Pena hit first inning solo home runs off of Andy Pettitte to give the Rays a quick 2-0 lead. With a man aboard in the fourth, Longoria doubled the lead with his first of two home runs on the night. The Yankees mounted threats in each of the first three innings against Rays starter Jeff Niemann, but didn’t break through until the home half of the fourth.
Melky Cabrera drew a one out walk and moved up a base on Ramiro Pena’s single. Rays’ manager Joe Maddon decided he had dodged enough bullets with Niemann and sent for reliever Lance Cormier. But Jose Molina, who would later leave with a strained quad, doubled into the left field corner to score Cabrera and two batters later, Damon doubled into the right field corner to cut the Rays lead to 4-3.
The Yankees tied the game up in the 5th on Hideki Matsui’s 3rd home run of the season, but Ben Zobrist took Pettitte deep in the 6th to put the Rays back on top, 5-4. Tampa added a run against Jose Veras in the 7th to set up one more comeback for the Yankees.
Derek Jeter reached on a two out single off Dan Wheeler in the 8th and Damon delivered his fourth hit, a 2-run home run to tie game. It was Damon’s fourth home run in his last seven games. (He also seems to be the only Yankee to hit home runs with men on base.) But there would be no comeback after Rivera’s very human outing in the 9th inning.
Game Notes
On the YES post-game show, Joe Girardi revealed that Mariano Rivera’s surgically repaired shoulder was bothering him. Odd that he didn’t mention it after Mo struck out the side on Wednesday.
Jose Molina is likely to join Jorge Posada on the DL. Francisco Cervelli is the only remaining catcher on the 40-man roster. Options at Scranton are Chris Stewart and P.J. Pilittere, and possibly Kevin Cash. To clear room on the 40-man, the Yankees will likely either designate Angel Berroa for assignment or move Xavier Nady to the 60-day DL.
Brian Bruney felt good after making 30 throws from 60 feet yesterday. It was the first throwing he had done since he was shut down six days ago with discomfort in his elbow.
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