Teixeira Homers Twice, Leads Yanks to 6-3 Victory

On a beautiful sun soaked afternoon in San Diego, the Yankees tried to salvage a victory against the Padres before heading to Chicago. New York sent rookie call-up Chad Green to the mound this afternoon. Green made his debut against the Diamondbacks earlier this season and was touched up before being sent back down to Triple-A. Today, however, the young right-hander was simply stellar as he made his case to join the Yankees somewhat dubious rotation. San Diego sent veteran right-hander Andrew Cashner(3-5, 4.75 ERA) to oppose New York in today's third and final game of the three-game set.

The Yankees got the scoring going in the top of the second against Cashner. After Gregorius reached on a fielding error by Alexi Ramirez and then advanced to third on a single by Aaron Hicks, Ronald Torreyes grounded into a double play that scored Gregorius and gave the Yankees a one run lead. The Padres were quick to respond, however, as former Yankee and the centerpiece of the 2014 Chase Headley acquisition Yangervis Solarte smacked a solo shot off of Green in the bottom of the second that tied the game at one. But, Didi Gregorius stayed hot as he put the Yankees back on top in the top of the fourth. The sizzling shortstop drilled a line drive solo homer that pushed the Bombers back up by one.

In the top of the eighth inning, Mark Teixeira belted a solo homerun off of San Diego reliever  Carlos Villanueva that gave the Yanks a 3-1 lead. The longball was the 400th of his career, makeing him the fifth switch-hitter in Major League history to reach the 400 homerun mark, joining Mickey Mantle, Eddie Murray, Chipper Jones and Carlos Beltran.

 More runs were scored in the ninth inning today then were scored in any of the other eight innings combined. In the top of the ninth after Jacoby Ellsbury walked and stole second base, Brett Gardner lined a single into right field that scored Ellsbury and made it a 4-1 ballgame. Then, Teixeira hit his second bomb of the game, this a two-run shot off of Padre reliever Kevin Quackenbush that made it a 6-1 game.  In the bottom of the frame, Yankee reliever Anthony Swarzak served up a two run shot off the bat of rookie Alex Dickerson that pulled San Diego back to within three, at 6-3, where the score would stay for the remainder of the contest.

Chad Green was absolutely phenomenal this afternoon in his second big leagues start, tossing six innings of one run baseball, while allowing just three hits with no walks and eight punch outs. Green gave way to Delin Betances, who worked a scoreless seventh, and Miller followed with a scoreless eighth. After Swarzak allowed that two run shot, Chapman entered the ballgame and locked down his 16th save of the season as the Yankees again pulled to within a game of .500.

 Tomorrow, the Yankees begin a three-game series with the White Sox, with 4th of July first pitch scheduled for 2:10 PM ET.