Joyce's three-run homer beats Hughes, Yanks

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. - One big mistake by Phil Hughes. One-game lead for the Yankees.

Hughes held a two-run lead before Matt Joyce's three-run homer with two outs in the bottom of the sixth inning turned around Friday night's showdown between the AL East's top teams, giving the Rays a 3-2 victory over the Yankees in front of a sellout crowd of 36,973 at Tropicana Field.

"I'll be thinking about that pitch for a while," Hughes said of the 2-and-2 fastball that Joyce hit for his fourth home run. "It leaked out over the plate and he didn't miss it."

The Rays won their seventh straight to cut the Yankees' division lead to one game. Each team had only four hits.

Alex Rodriguez made it eight straight games without a home run since hitting No. 599 July 22 against the Royals at the Stadium, going 0-for-4.

Rodriguez is 9-for-34 since hitting No. 599 - he's 3-for-21 in the last five games since getting hit in the left wrist by a pitch last Sunday - and showed some frustration with plate umpire Tim Welke during his final two at-bats, both of which resulted in foul pops to first base.

"His at-bats, I was fine with them," Joe Girardi said, referring to the possibility that A-Rod is pressing.

Hughes (12-4) allowed three runs and four hits, shutting out the Rays for the first five innings. The sixth was the first inning in which he allowed more than one baserunner.

Rays starter Wade Davis (9-9), who came in 1-2 with a 4.86 ERA in three previous starts this season against the Yankees, overcame a rough first inning to win his fourth straight start.

Derek Jeter led off the game with a single to center and Nick Swisher, who had what he termed "a new most embarrassing" career moment Thursday night when Indians third baseman Andy Marte struck him out in the ninth inning, jumped on Davis' first pitch - a 92-mph fastball - and slammed it to rightfield for his 19th homer. But after getting three first-inning hits, the Yankees had just one hit the rest of the way.

"He got his curveball going and I thought he started locating his fastball better," Girardi said.

Said Swisher: "After [the first], he really found his groove."

The Yankees held the 2-0 lead Swisher provided until the sixth as Hughes pitched extremely well on the road once again, the continuation of a trend.

Hughes came in with some of the oddest home/road splits among the Yankees' starters. He entered Friday 7-2 with a 5.21 ERA at the Stadium and 5-1 with a 2.36 ERA on the road. Joyce's home run was the first Hughes has given up on the road this season in 512/3 innings. He has allowed 15 homers in 652/3 innings at home. "That's as good a game as he's pitched all year," Girardi said.

"My fastball was good and my curveball was about the best it's been this year," said Hughes, who struck out six and walked two. "Those are positive notes to build on from tonight, but you can't take [back] that pitch. You can't take back this game."

A game that made a close division race even closer.

"We understand these aren't end-of-the-world games, but these are important games in the division," Girardi said. "We're trying to win a series, and after this series, there's a lot of baseball left, but these are important games."