Burnett flirts with no-hitter, Yankees beat Rays

[April 15, 2009]  ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (AP) -- A.J. Burnett is already paying dividends on his big contract with the New York Yankees.

The free-agent catch took a no-hit bid into the seventh inning in his second start since signing an $82.5 million, five-year deal, and Nick Swisher homered for the third time in four games to help Burnett beat the Tampa Bay Rays 7-2 on Tuesday night.

Mark Teixeira, another of the Yankees' high-priced offseason acquisitions, drove in the go-ahead run with an eighth-inning sacrifice fly off J.P. Howell (0-1) after missing New York's previous three games with tendinitis in left wrist.

Derek Jeter added a three-run homer in the ninth.

Burnett (2-0) allowed one baserunner until the seventh, when Tampa Bay's Carl Crawford fouled off three 0-2 pitches before lining a single to left and later scoring on Carlos Pena's RBI single.

The Rays added a second run in the inning on Pat Burrell's sacrifice fly to make it 2-all heading into the eighth, when the Yankees broke the tie with a double, single and Teixeira's sacrifice fly.

Burnett allowed two runs and three hits, walked one and struck out nine in eight innings -- taming a torrid offense that had 17 hits in each of its previous two games, including a 15-5 rout of the Yankees on Monday night.

Jorge Posada had a bases-loaded sacrifice fly off Matt Garza in the first inning. Swisher, obtained from the Chicago White Sox in an offseason trade, added a solo homer in the fourth.

The Yankees broke it open in the ninth, scoring on Brett Gardner's RBI double and Jeter's shot off Dan Wheeler. Jeter finished 3-for-5, and his 208th career homer tied him with Alex Rodriguez for 11th on the Yankees' list.

A night after raising the first division and league title banners in franchise history, the Rays received 14-carat white gold AL championship rings featuring 48 diamonds during a pregame ceremony.

But unlike Monday night, when they got off to a fast start with four runs in the first inning and five more in the second, the Rays only managed to get three balls out of the infield before Crawford lined his opposite-field single leading off the seventh.

Longoria followed with a single to left, giving him a hit in all eight of Tampa Bay's games. Pena made it three straight hits off Burnett, singling to right to drive in Crawford and trim New York's lead to 2-1.

Gardner doubled over Crawford's head in left field, moved to third on Jeter's bloop single and raced home on Teixeira's sacrifice fly in the eighth.

Garza settled down after a shaky first inning in which he allowed singles to Gardner and Jeter before walking Teixeira to load the bases with no outs. But the Yankees only managed to score once, on Posada's sacrifice fly, and didn't generate a lot more offense until breaking it open in the late innings.

Swisher's fourth homer of the season made it 2-0, and he doubled with two outs in the sixth for just the fourth hit off Garza, who struck out nine and walked two while allowing two runs and five hits in seven innings.

Notes: Rodriguez, rehabbing from hip surgery, worked out again at the club's complex in Tampa. He expects to begin taking batting practice soon. ... Rays SS Jason Bartlett homered Sunday and Monday, doubling his total from last season when he hit one in 454 at-bats. ... Including the postseason, the Rays have sold out 12 consecutive games at Tropicana Field. It's the first time they've sold out the first two games of a season. ... New York finishes its nine-game, season-opening road trip Wednesday, and the new Yankee Stadium opens Thursday. Longtime public-address announcer Bob Sheppard will not work the home opener while he continues to recover from a bronchial infection. Sheppard, who missed last season because of his illness, became the voice of the old Yankee Stadium in 1951.

[Associated Press; By FRED GOODALL]

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