Sanchez belts two homers to lead Yanks past Rays
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. -- Red-hot Yankees catcher Gary Sanchez hit two more home runs, giving him five in his last four games, as New York rolled to an 11-5 win over the Tampa Bay Rays on Wednesday at Tropicana Field.
Sanchez started the scoring with a first-inning RBI single, added a three-run home run in the second and a solo home run in the sixth, continuing a ridiculous tear he's been on at the plate, now with 19 home runs in his first 45 games. With the win and Baltimore's loss to Boston, the Yankees (79-72) pulled to within 2 1/2 games of the second wild card in the American League with 11 games remaining in the season. The Yankees finish the season with a three-game series at home against Baltimore.
New York jumped out to a 7-0 lead in the first two innings, then held off the Rays (64-87), who inched back with five solo home runs.
The Yankees made a winner out of Masahiro Tanaka (14-4), who gave up four home runs to make the game interesting. Rays starter Alex Cobb (1-1) got only four outs and gave up nine hits and seven runs in a rough outing as he returns from Tommy John surgery.
Brad Miller had two of the Rays' five solo home runs, giving him 30 for the year. The Rays only had eight hits on the night, so more than half were home runs.
New York added three runs in the ninth, getting an RBI single from Mason Williams and a two-run home run from Donovan Solano, his first since 2014.
The Yankees pounced on Cobb, who entered the game having held the Yankees to a .187 average in his career, the lowest mark for any pitcher in history with 10 or more starts against New York. Wednesday was a much different matter, however, as the Yankees had nine hits in their first 14 plate appearances in building a 7-0 lead.
Brett Gardner singled to lead off the game, Jacoby Ellsbury walked, and then Sanchez, Brian McCann and Ronald Torreyes each had RBI singles for a 3-0 lead in the first on four hits. The second inning was actually worse for Cobb, as Solano and Gardner singled to open the inning, then the red-hot Sanchez hit a three-run home run -- his fourth straight game with a home run -- for a 6-0 lead. McCann followed with a single, and Mark Teixiera doubled, so Cobb was done, having recorded only four outs and given up nine hits. Reliever Steve Geltz gave up a sacrifice fly to Didi Gregorius to make it 7-0.
The Rays made things interesting in the third off Tanaka, hitting four solo home runs in the inning. Bobby Wilson hit his seventh home run to start the comeback, and then the Rays went back-to-back-to-back, with Evan Longoria (36), Miller (29) and Corey Dickerson (22) all hitting home runs off Tanaka.
Sanchez added to the Yankees lead with a solo home run in the sixth, giving him 19 home runs in just 45 games and giving the Yankees an 8-4 lead.
NOTES: The Rays on Thursday will place OF Steven Souza on the 60-day disabled list -- he underwent hip surgery in Nashville on Wednesday -- and will select INF Juniel Querecuto from Double-A Montgomery, adding him to the 40-man roster. He'll be the seventh Rays player to make his major league debut this season. ... 1B Logan Morrison was to have wrist surgery in Orlando on Wednesday, but that was postponed due to a scheduling conflict. ... Yankees 1B Mark Teixeira hit his 204th home run as a Yankee on Tuesday, moving past Roger Maris (203) and tying Robinson Cano (204) at 14th on the Yankees' all-time list. His next will tie him with Dave Winfield.