Teixeira goes big in Yankees win over White Sox

[August 01, 2015]  (The Sports Xchange) - Mark Teixeira smacked two long home runs to center field for six RBIs, including a grand slam in the second inning, as the New York Yankees pounded out 18 hits in a 13-6 victory against the Chicago White Sox on Friday.

Right fielder Carlos Beltran and infielder Brendan Ryan also finished with three hits, while four other Yankees had multi-hit games.

Rookie left-hander Carlos Rodon (4-4) took the loss after allowing eight earned runs on eight hits in three-plus innings.

Right-hander Nathan Eovaldi (11-2) earned the win by pitching 5-2/3 innings and allowing three runs on seven hits.

White Sox designated hitter Adam LaRoche tied a career high with four hits (4-for-5, RBI) and also pitched a scoreless ninth.

The Yankees (58-44) are leading the American League East and it did not take them long to take a commanding lead.

After scoring a run on two doubles in the first, they made it a 6-0 lead with five runs in the second on five hits, including Teixeira's slam.

Rodon allowed back-to-back singles by catcher John Ryan Murphy and second baseman Brendan Ryan to start the inning, but fell into trouble after they were sacrificed to second and third.

Rodon got center fielder Jacoby Ellsbury to line out for the second out, holding Ryan at third, but control issues loaded the bases on a walk, which was followed by designated hitter Alex Rodriguez's run-scoring infield hit.

Teixeira then launched his slam to center field for his 27th homer of the season and first of the game.

Eovaldi allowed two runs in the third on a two-run homer by Chicago first baseman Jose Abreu, but got five more runs of support on another five hits by his teammates in the Yankees' half of the fourth, again highlighted by a Teixeira homer, this time off right-hander Matt Albers.

That homer set a major league record for the switch-hitting Teixeira, who has homered from both sides of the plate in the same game 14 times.

(Editing by Greg Stutchbury)

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