CC and the Yankees have a rough night

The New York Yankees lost to the Tampa Bay Rays by the score of 5-1 on Friday night. CC Sabathia made the start and didn’t pitch well. The Yankees offense couldn’t get anything going against Rays pitcher David Price. There was one big play in the game where Andruw Jones hit an RBI double and Nick Swisher was thrown out at the plate. That may have been the turning point of the game. The Yankees offense could use a jolt and it looks like their cleanup hitter Alex Rodriguez will be back in the lineup next week. Rodriguez started his rehab assignment tonight and went 2-3 with a homerun.
Sabathia pitched eight innings giving up five runs and ten hits. He didn’t walk a batter and struck out seven batters. Sabathia took the loss and is now 16-7 and his ERA is 2.93. Luis Ayala pitched one inning and gave up two hits and one walk and he struck out one batter.

Derek Jeter had a hit, Mark Teixeira had a hit and Robinson Cano had a hit. Nick Swisher had a hit and a walk, Andruw Jones had a hit and an RBI and Brett Gardner had a hit and a walk. Jones had a double. The Yankees were 1-3 with runners in scoring position and they left four men on base. Russell Martin and Eduardo Nunez each made an error.

The third inning the Rays scored three runs. Casey Kotchman hit a solo homerun and Kelly Shoppach hit a solo homerun right after him for back-to-back homeruns. Johnny Damon hit a solo homerun to give the Rays a 3-0 lead. In the fourth inning Jones had an RBI double and Swisher got thrown out at the plate ending the inning with a 3-1 deficit. In the fifth inning Elliot Johnson hit a solo homerun to give the Rays a 4-1 lead and Evan Longoria hit a solo homerun in the eighth inning to make it a 5-1 game. The Yankees really didn’t come close to scoring anymore after that play at the plate.

The Yankees lost the first of three to the Rays. The two teams will play game two of the series on Saturday at 4:10PM. The Yankees will have a special ceremony for Jeter celebrating his 3000th hit before the game on Saturday. The Yankees record is now 71-46 and they are currently 1 ½ games behind the Boston Red Sox. The Red Sox are playing a late game on Friday night. The Yankees have a seven game lead in the wild card race over the Anaheim Angels. Sabathia has allowed three homers in a game six other times but never as a Yankee. Price picked up his first win since July 15th.