Pettitte Stellar In Yankees Win

Andy Pettitte was phenomenal in the New York Yankees (30-24) 7-0 win over the Tampa Bay Rays (31-24) on Tuesday night. Pettitte dominated the Rays lineup right from the beginning and never looked back. Andy went 7 1/3 innings gave up only two hits and struck out 10 against the division leading Rays. The Yankees now move within a half game of first place with the win.

Rays starter James Shields struggled in his five innings of work but did not get any help from the two errors his defense made behind him. The first error in the bottom of the first inning was a costly one. The Yankees loaded the bases off of Shields and with two outs when Raul Ibanez hit a grounder to Rays shortstop Elliot Johnson. Johnson threw in the dirt past Carlos Pena and that allowed two runs to score and put the Yankees out to an early 2-0 lead.

In the bottom of the fourth inning the Yankees would blow the game open. Raul Ibanez walked, Nick Swisher singled and Eric Chavez walked loading the bases for Russell Martin who to put it nicely has struggled this season. Martin lifted an opposite field grand slam off of Shields and put the Yankees up 6-0. It was Martins fifth home run of the season, he finished the game 3-4 and is now hitting .211, hopefully things are turning around for Martin as the season goes forward.

In the fifth inning the Yankees would add their seventh run when Robinson Cano led off with a double and Nick Swisher drove him in with a double of his own. Swisher now has 34 RBIs this season.

The 10 strikeout performance was Andy Pettittes 14^th career double digit strike out game, 11^th with the Yankees.

The Yankees will play the Rays again Wednesday night.  Ivan Nova (6-2 5.60) starts for the Yankees while Alex Cobb (2-1 3.71) goes for the Rays. Pregame coverage begins at 6:30, first pitch at 7:05 right here on 104.5 The Team ESPN Radio.