MLB Selecciones
TB

11

24-44
Final
NYY

2

40-29
CronicaNumeritos
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 R H E
TB 1 0 0 0 5 0 5 0 0 11 18 0
NYY 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 2 4 1

W: Gonzalez (6-11)

L: Weaver (7-9)

Yankee Stadium, Bronx
21y

Tampa Bay booms; Gonzalez quiets New York

NEW YORK (AP) -- Jeremi Gonzalez is finally healthy and getting a chance to live up to his potential.

Gonzalez pitched one-hit ball for six innings and Travis Lee homered, doubled and drove in three runs as the last-place Tampa Bay Devil Rays beat the New York Yankees 11-2 in the first game of a day-night doubleheader Tuesday.

"He came right at us, he challenged us, he threw strikes," Yankees shortstop Derek Jeter said. "He had good stuff."

Aubrey Huff had two hits and four RBI, Marlon Anderson hit a three-run homer and Lee and Ben Grieve had consecutive homers in a five-run fifth. Tampa Bay, which had 18 hits -- every starter had at least one -- might have scored even more runs but hit into a team-record six double plays.

The Devil Rays, who had lost nine of 10, ended a four-game Yankees winning streak.

Jeff Weaver (3-6) slumped his shoulders and shook his head with every pitch as the light-hitting Devil Rays got to him for 10 hits and six runs in five innings. He walked one and hit a batter in his second start since Jose Contreras went on the disabled list June 10. The Yankees are 0-5 in his last five starts.

"It looks like it's more of an emotional thing than a physical thing to me," Yankees manager Joe Torre said. "You can't be thinking about the last pitch. You can't play the game that way."

Gonzalez (3-2) went 11-9 as a rookie with the Chicago Cubs in 1997 and was 7-7 in 1998 before having the first of three operations that kept him out of the major leagues until he was called up from Triple-A Durham on May 17.

He had elbow surgery in August 1998, had elbow reconstruction surgery in 1999 and had the ACL in his left knee repaired in 2001.

Gonzalez even thought about retiring but endured years of rehabilitation.

"I was just saying to myself, I have nothing to lose," he said. "I say to myself just work hard for two to three hours."

In his seven starts for the Devil Rays, Gonzalez is holding opposing hitters to a .132 (26-for-197) average. He has allowed three runs or fewer in six of his seven starts.

"He's been pitching well for us," manager Lou Piniella said. "He hasn't had a bad ballgame. He challenges the hitters."

On Tuesday, Gonzalez held New York hitless for 5 1/3 innings after Jason Giambi hit his 18th homer with two out in the first. But he was wild, walking five and needing 106 pitches to get through six innings. He retired the side in the fourth after walking the first two batters and balking them over to second and third.

The Yankees looked more like the team that stumbled through a 16-24 skid than the one that just swept the St. Louis Cardinals.

Jeter and Alfonso Soriano continued their slumps at the top of the order, going a combined 0-for-8. They are 4-for-57 in the first seven games of the 10-game homestand.

Travis Harper allowed a single with one out in the seventh and Mike Venafro allowed two hits and a run in the ninth to finish the four-hitter.

The Devil Rays scored once in the first on Huff's sacrifice fly and could've added more if Grieve hadn't hit into a double play.

In the fifth, Huff had a two-run double and Lee followed with a two-run homer into the empty seats in the upper deck. Grieve then hit a shot to center for Tampa Bay's second straight multihomer game.

Tampa Bay added five more runs in the seventh off reliever Sterling Hitchcock on Anderson's third homer and RBI singles by Huff and Lee.

Game notes
Tampa Bay improved to 10-29 at Yankee Stadium since entering the league in 1998. .... Tampa Bay played in its first Hall of Fame game at Cooperstown, N.Y., on Monday. The Devil Rays lost to the Philadelphia Phillies 7-5. ... With his first-inning home run, Giambi has reached base in 24 straight games. ... Devil Rays pitching coach Chris Bosio was ejected in the fourth inning by home plate umpire Alfonso Marquez after making a visit to the mound.

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