The New York Yankees offense wakes up powered by Zoilo Almonte

The New York Yankees defeated the Tampa Bay Rays by the score of 6-2 on Friday night. The game took place at Yankee Stadium in the Bronx, New York. David Phelps started for the Yankees and pitched pretty well. The bullpen did a good job and Zoilo Almonte in his first major league start was the offensive star.

Phelps pitched 5 2/3 innings giving up two runs and eight hits. He walked one and struck out four and earned his fifth win of the season. Boone Logan faced one batter and struck him out, Shawn Kelley pitched a perfect inning with two strikeouts and David Robertson gave up a hit and struck out one in one inning. Mariano Rivera pitched a perfect inning.

Brett Gardner had a hit, Ichiro Suzuki had a hit and an RBI and Robinson Cano had a hit and an RBI. Travis Hafner had a hit, Lyle Overbay had two hits and an RBI and Almonte had three hits and an RBI. David Adams had a hit and an RBI, Austin Romine had a hit and Romine hit a double and Almonte hit a homerun. The Yankees were 3-8 with runners in scoring position and left three men on base. Suzuki and Cano each had a stolen base.

Roberto Hernandez took the loss his eighth of the season. He pitched seven innings giving up nine hits and five runs with four strikeouts and Cesar Ramos pitched an inning giving up two hits and one run with two strikeouts.

Ben Zobrist had two hits and an RBI, James Loney had a hit and Will Myers had a hit. Luke Scott had two hits and an RBI, Jose Molina had a hit and Yunel Escobar had two hits and drew a walk. Scott hit a double and the Rays were 2-7 with runners in scoring position and left nine men on base. Zobrist had a stolen base.

In the first Cano hit a sacrifice fly to give the Yankees a 1-0 lead. Zobrist hit an RBI single in the third to tie the game at one. Suzuki hit an RBI groundout in the third giving the Yankees a 2-1 lead. Scott hit an RBI single to tie the game in the fourth. Nix hit into a double play scoring a run and Adams hit an RBI single in the fourth. The Yankees had a 4-2 lead. Almonte hit a homerun in the sixth to make it 5-2 and Overbay hit an RBI single in the eighth to make it 6-2.

The Yankees record improved to 40-33 and the Rays record dropped to 38-36. The two teams will play game two of there four game set on Saturday afternoon