Rays dominate Yankees, stretching lead to 4 games

On the eve of the series against the Rays, Joe Girardi ticked off the division leaders' attributes.

"Speed, power, defense," he said. "It's a complete team that you're playing and they're playing at an extremely high level."

The Rays displayed all of those characteristics last night in a 10-6 win over the Yankees in front of 43,283 at the Stadium. The Yankees made the final score a lot closer by scoring four runs in the ninth.

The Rays (29-11), looking more energetic in every way, batted around twice in increasing their AL East lead to four games over the Yankees (25-15), who looked sluggish and weary after back-to-back nights of drama against the Red Sox.

Of more immediate concern than the deficit is the health of the Yankees, who lost yet another player to injury.

This one was outright bizarre. With two outs in the sixth, Marcus Thames sent a single to left and somehow managed to step on the bat he had just released, spraining his left ankle. Ramiro Peña, Girardi's lone reserve, took Thames' spot in rightfield.

Before the game, Girardi said "he's not there yet" of regular rightfielder Nick Swisher, out with tightness in his left biceps. Catcher Jorge Posada is still sidelined and received a precautionary MRI on his right foot.

Is the attrition starting, finally, to have an effect?

It certainly looked that way last night as the sluggish Yankees mustered little off Wade Davis (4-3) and received a poor outing from A.J. Burnett. Davis allowed two runs and six hits in 52/3 innings while Burnett, battling his command all night, allowed six runs and nine hits in 62/3. Burnett (4-2) threw 116 pitches, only 67 for strikes.

The Rays asserted themselves on the game's second pitch as Jason Bartlett crushed a 1-and-0 pitch to left. It was Bartlett's third career leadoff homer, all of them in the Bronx.

Burnett retired the Rays in order in the second but ran into trouble in the third, walking No. 9 hitter Reid Brignac to start the inning. Brignac scored on Evan Longoria's sacrifice fly to right to make it 2-0.

It got worse, much worse, for Burnett the next inning.

B.J. Upton started the fourth with a hard grounder that Derek Jeter couldn't quite get to going to his left and Hank Blalock followed with a grounder off Burnett for a single. A double steal put the runners at second and third and John Jaso slapped a double down the leftfield line to make it 4-0.

Jaso went to third when Francisco Cervelli tried to pick him off and the throw bounced off the runner and rolled into center. Burnett struck out Brignac and induced a groundout from Bartlett. Carl Crawford, however, doubled in Jaso and Longoria's line shot to right brought Crawford in to make it 6-0 and made the Stadium sound like a tomb.

The Yankees cut their deficit to 6-1 in the fourth as Alex Rodriguez, after leading off with a walk, came in on Cervelli's sacrifice fly to right.

The Yankees' other run came in the sixth on Rodriguez's 589th homer, and sixth of the season, making it 6-2. The Rays added four runs off Boone Logan and Mark Melancon in the eighth to make it 10-2.