The Yankees slam their way past the Rangers and into first in the AL

The New York Yankees defeated the Texas Rangers by the score of 8-2 on Monday night. The game took place at Yankee Stadium in the Bronx,NY. David Phelps started in the place of ace CC Sabathia who just went on the DL with elbow tightness. Phelps pitched pretty well and Derek Lowe making his Yankees debut pitched great. Nick Swisher led the Yankees offense. Ryan Dempster who the Rangers acquired at the trade deadline from the Chicago Cubs did not pitch well. David Murphy and Nelson Cruz led their offense.  Phelps pitched five innings giving up two runs on six hits. He walked one and struck out three and earned his third win of the season. Derek Lowe got credit with his first save of the season. He pitched four innings giving up no runs and two hits with no walks and four strikeouts. Dempster lost his sixth game of the season pitching six innings giving up nine hits and eight runs. He walked two and struck out four, Michael Kirkman pitched an inning giving up a hit and striking out two and Mark Lowe pitched an inning giving up no runs and no hits and he struck out one.
Derek Jeter had a hit, an RBI and drew a walk, Swisher had two hits and five RBI including a grand slam and Robinson Cano drew a walk. Mark Teixeira had a hit, Eric Chavez had two hits and an RBI and Curtis Granderson had an RBI. Russell Martin had a hit, Raul Ibanez had two hits and Ichiro Suzuki had a hit. Jeter hit a double, Suzuki hit a triple and Swisher and Chavez each hit a homerun. The Yankees were 4-5 with runners in scoring position and they left three men on base. Phelps picked off two runners, one at first and one at second.
Elvis Andrus had two hits, Josh Hamilton had a hit and drew a walk and Adrian Beltre had a hit. Nelson Cruz had two hits and an RBI, Murphy had two hits and an RBI and Murphy hit a double and a homerun. The Rangers were 1-6 with runners in scoring position and left six men on base. Kinsler and Andrus were each picked off a base.
In the first Cruz hit an RBI single to give Texas a 1-0 lead. Murphy hit a solo homerun to give Texas a 2-0 lead in the second inning. In the third inning the Yankees offense came to life, Swisher hit a grand slam and Granderson had a sacrifice fly to give the Yankees a 5-2 lead. Chavez hit a solo homerun in the sixth to make it 6-2 Yankees and in the seventh Jeter hit an RBI double and Swisher an RBI single to make it 8-2. That would be the final score of the game.
The Yankees have now won five of their last six games and with the win have the best record in the American League. The two teams have the same amount of losses but the Yankees are percentage points ahead. The two teams will play game two of a four game series on Tuesday night. The Yankees record improved to 68-47 and the Rangers record dropped to 67-47.