Big Hits By Headley and Ryan Lift Yankees to Sweep-Avoiding Win Over Rays

Brandon McCarthy tossed seven innings of two-run ball and the Chase Headley/Brendan Ryan duo connected on a pair of RBI Doubles tonight as the Yankees avoided a sweep of this midweek series with a 3-2 win over the Rays.

For the Yanks, though they collected just four hits in it, the W was their first since Saturday, when they beat the Orioles by the same score. 

And yes, the two contests share a lot of similarities.

For one, in this evening's competition New York's offense really only had two good at-bats, coming in the fifth and sixth.

In the former of that couple, the aforementioned doubles by Headley and Ryan turned a 1-0 defecit into a 2-1 lead against Alex Cobb (6 IP, 3 ER), with Chris Young also contributing to the rally with a leadoff HBP.

Then in the latter, thanks to a Derek Jeter single and a couple of walks that loaded the bases, the Yankees were able to cross home again on a hard-hit sac fly by Brett Gardner that was caught at the wall by Wil Myers, doubling their advantage and essentially ending the ballgame.  

Yes, in the sixth Tampa Bay got one back on an Evan Longoria groundout, but since McCarthy bounced back with an immaculate performance in the seventh and Dellin Betances and David Robertson put up zeros in the last two frames the Yanks still ended up emerging victorious, something that thankfully improved their record to a solid three games above .500.