- Kevin Tall
- Stock photo
Tuesday night Tampa Bay took a shorter trip back in time; 2008? Try games 1-8.
In related news, the New York Yankees showed the world once again why they have the highest paid most popular sports franchise, taking the second half of a two-shot from the TBay.
This one started off evenly-matched, with the top two teams in the American league mirroring each other in the early going. The Rays would need starting pitcher James Shields to live up to his moniker; it would take a big game to stave off this hungry Yankees team.
Elliot Johnson notched his second home run of his career—and the week—to open the scoring in the bottom of the third.
Alex Rodriguez answered back with a long ball of his own.
Interesting side note: while the crowd at the Trop was nearly half Yankees fans, A-Rod was greeted with a deafening boo every time he stepped up to hit.
Shields looked nasty early on but gave up another homer to A-Rod in the sixth.
A string of three consecutive hits yielded another run in the seventh.
Derek Jeter, who struck out swinging his first three times up, grounded into a blown double play fielder’s choice; Ben Zobrist sailed the throw to first over Casey Kotchman, allowing Brett Gardner to score from third.
Despite the swagger shown in the evening prior, the Rays had no answers at the plate.
Early.
Late.
At all.
This article appears in May 19-25, 2011.