New York Yankees Beat Rays 5-4 on Cano's Solo Shot, Keep AL East Lead

Robinson Cano’s ninth inning solo home run, his 21st of the season, gave the New York Yankees a 5-4 win over the Tampa Bay Rays and a two-game lead in Major League Baseball’s American League East Division.

The victory guarantees the Yankees (66-37) will head home with the division lead whatever the outcome of tonight’s third game in the weekend series at Tropicana Field. The Rays, with the second-best record (64-39) this season, scored a 3-2 win on July 30 and now trail New York by two games.

Alex Rodriguez had one hit and one strikeout last night as he again failed to hit a 600th career home run. The third baseman has gone 37 straight at-bats without a homer, the longest wait for any of the seven players who have reached the 600 milestone.

Mark Teixeira hit a two-run homer in the sixth inning to tie the game at 3-3, and Nick Swisher again tied it for the Yankees at 4-4 with a solo home run in the seventh.

John Jaso scored on Evan Longoria’s sacrifice fly to give the Rays a 1-0 lead in the first. Curtis Granderson drove home Rodriguez in the second to tie the score at 1-1.

The Rays moved ahead 3-1 on Carl Crawford’s RBI single in the third and Jason Bartlett’s sacrifice fly that drove in B.J. Upton in the fifth. Matt Joyce added a solo homer for the Rays in the sixth.

David Robertson (2-3) struck out two batters in one inning pitched to get the win, and Mariano Rivera got his 22nd save, giving up a hit and striking out one in one inning.

Rafael Soriano (2-1) surrendered one hit and one run while striking out one in one inning for the loss.

To contact the reporter on this story: Nancy Kercheval in Washington at nkercheval@bloomberg.net

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