Rays' Brignac homers in 11th to beat Yankees

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. - It was not, Jorge Posada said, a case of the Yankees wasting one of CC Sabathia's best outings of the season. Credit had to be given, he correctly pointed out, to the Rays' David Price, who also pitched brilliantly.

The lefthanders more than performed to their billing as staff aces and two of the leading contenders for the AL Cy Young Award, matching zeros for eight innings last night.

But after the Yankees' 1-0, 11-inning loss to the Rays, few of the questions were about that.

The Yankees, with two of their starting outfielders injured, are foundering. They have lost four games in a row, seven of their last eight, and are out of first place in the East for the first time since Aug. 3.

Light-hitting Reid Brignac won it in the 11th, leading off the inning by driving Sergio Mitre's 3-and-2 changeup over the wall in rightfield for his seventh homer of the season.

Why Mitre, and Chad Gaudin before him, pitched instead of the usual favored righthanders in close games dominated Joe Girardi's at times brusque postgame news conference.

"They've been used a lot lately," Girardi said of Joba Chamberlain and David Robertson. "It's something we felt we had to stay away from them."

Robertson pitched Friday and Saturday nights - two interminable games - in Texas, but Chamberlain pitched only Friday, throwing 21 pitches. Chamberlain said he was healthy and could have pitched but also said, "You have to listen to your body" at this time of year.

Girardi faced questions about just how important winning the division is if Gaudin and Mitre were pitching critical innings.

"[It's about] not hurting guys," Girardi said. "You're trying to win the game. We're doing everything we can to win the game . . . We just felt we had to stay away from some guys tonight."

Sabathia and Price were tremendous. Sabathia, once again denied his 20th victory of the season - Price did it to him last Oct. 2 here as well - allowed two hits in eight innings, walking two and striking out nine.

The lefthander, who no-hit the Rays for 7 2/3 innings here April 10, set down the first eight hitters he faced last night.

The Rays didn't get their second hit off Sabathia until the eighth, when Sean Rodriguez led off with a single. Price, with a fastball hitting 97 mph, allowed three hits in eight innings, walking two and striking out four.

"I was able to mix it up, both sides of the plate," Sabathia said.

He said of Price: "He's got it all working right now.

Both pitchers did.

"He was good; I thought our guy was better," Posada said. "CC threw a hell of a game. But we couldn't score because Price was that good, too."

The Yankees did not have rightfielder Nick Swisher and leftfielder Brett Gardner in the starting lineup, though both made appearances. Swisher, who will go for a second MRI on his left knee, pinch hit in the eighth and grounded out. Gardner, who had an MRI on his right wrist yesterday - it showed inflammation but no structural damage - pinch ran in the 10th. He stole second but was picked off by Joaquin Benoit for the third out and could be seen discussing it with Girardi in the dugout.

"We talked about it and I'll leave it at that," Girardi said.

Gardner said simply: "I screwed up. My fault."

Posada said there is inherent frustration in losing, but that it's not a pervasive feeling in the clubhouse.

"Losing always feels frustrating but I think we're pretty positive," he said. "You get a performance like you do today, you look forward to tomorrow. We have to stay positive. We have to stay positive in here."