Eight-run seventh lifts Yankees over Mets

Alex Rodriguez knows the Yankees can't rely on just the long ball.

"You are not going to hit home runs against great pitching. That's what it comes down to," he said. "You have to have diversity in the way you score runs, and when it counts most, it's going to be the things that we did in that inning that are going to count when it really counts."

The inning he referred to was the bottom of the seventh Sundayagainst the Mets. Trailing by two runs when the inning began, the Yankees sent 13 men to the plate, scored eight runs on six hits -- not one of which was a homer -- and raced to a 9-3 Subway Series win before a crowd of 48,293 at Yankee Stadium.

Derek Jeter grounded a tying two-run single, Brett Gardner poked a two-out, two-run double and Chris Dickerson looped a two-run single during the big inning, helping the Yankees plate their most runs in a single inning since they recorded nine against the Tigers last August.

So much for that talk about too many home runs and not enough small ball.

Well, for one day, anyway.

"I don't care how we score, quite honestly," Jeter said. "Home run, singles, doubles, triples, it really doesn't make a difference. It's good for us to have an inning like that, but for me, it doesn't make a difference how we score.

"A lot of times, it's not how hard you hit 'em, it's where you hit 'em. We were fortunate. We had a lot of balls that fell in for us. Sometimes things are contagious."

It certainly seemed that way in the seventh as the Yankees broke through against Mike Pelfrey, who hadn't yielded much more than Curtis Granderson's first-inning homer.

The Yankees had runners on first and second with none out thanks to Gardner's single and Dickerson's walk. Pitching coach Dan Warthen came out to check on Pelfrey as Terry Collins elected to leave him in rather than go to the bullpen. Turned out to be a bad move.

On Pelfrey's first pitch to him, Francisco Cervelli squared around to bunt and was plunked on the left shoulder to load the bases.

"It was a huge deflation," Collins said. "You could sense it in the dugout, especially when he hit [Cervelli]. The air came out of the balloon right then. You knew we were in trouble, and you've got Derek coming up and the middle of that lineup, which you don't want to have to face too many times, I can tell you."

Jeter hit the next pitch up the middle past a diving Jose Reyes for a single that tied it at 3 and chased Pelfrey. But the Yankees weren't even close to done.

Tim Byrdak relieved Pelfrey, Granderson sacrificed the two runners over and Mark Teixeira was intentionally walked. Collins summoned Pedro Beato, and on his first pitch, Rodriguez hit a dribbler toward third for an infield single and a 4-3 lead.

"He's a 600-plus home run guy," Harris said. "Nobody is expecting a swinging bunt. It was a ball where you can't do anything about it, and the wheels kind of fell off from there."

Robinson Cano lined an RBI single to right, the only truly well-hit ball of the inning. Jorge Posada struck out looking for the second out, but two pitches after lefthander Pat Misch got ahead 0-and-2, Gardner poked a soft liner to left for a two-run double. Dickerson then blooped a two-run single to left.

The Yankees went 5-for-7 with runners in scoring position in the inning, which included a 4-for-5 mark with the bases loaded. But the big number was zero, as in the number of homers that inning.

"We need to be more consistent,'' A-Rod said, "and we know that. But definitely, that inning was very gratifying because we haven't had many like that lately."But don't expect too much gloating from the Yankees after taking two of three in the first round of the Subway Series, which shifts to Citi Field on July 1.

"Well, it's not over in a sense, because we've got to go over there in the month of July," Joe Girardi said. "So obviously, we win a series at home, which is good. We've struggled at home of late, and we are going to play them again."