AMERICAN LEAGUE

Rays blank Yanks; elimination nears

NEW YORK - Matt Moore had New York flailing for five wild innings, and the Tampa Bay Rays beat the Yankees 7-0 on Tuesday night to push them to the brink of missing out on the postseason for the second time in 19 years.

“This is not a good feeling,” Manager Joe Girardi said. “It hurts.”

Tampa Bay roughed up Hiroki Kuroda in tightening its grip on an AL wild-card spot with its fifth consecutive victory. Matt Joyce had a lead off home run as the Rays jumped ahead 3-0 in the first and David DeJesus had two RBI doubles.

Tampa Bay has a one game lead over Cleveland for the top wild card with five to play.

The Yankees trail the Indians, who won 5-4, by five games - and are behind the Rangers and Royals. The Yankees would be eliminated today if Cleveland wins and they lose.

Technically, however, the Yankees are still alive for the second wild card.

“You bet we are,” Girardi said before the game, with a sort of whistling past the graveyard optimism, but the task is clear. “I think the guys understand that. If we don’t win, then we have no shot.”

Moore (16-4) gave up only three hits but threw three wild pitches to up his AL-leading total to 16 and walked six. Jamey Wright and Jake Odorizzi, who earned the save with three innings, finished the four-hitter that ensured New York could not pass the Rays in the standings.

The defeat also gave the Yankees 75 losses for the first time since they lost 86 games in 1992.

The Rays got right to work against Kuroda (11-13), tagging him for three more first-inning runs.

Tampa Bay manager Joe Maddon put Joyce in the top spot with hopes of getting him going. In a 3-for-41 slump coming in, Joyce connected on a 1-1 pitch for the Rays seventh lead off home run of the season. Wil Myers followed with a single and DeJesus drove him in with a double to right field. Evan Longoria’s sacrifice fly capped the inning.

Kuroda has yielded 23 of his 77runs this season in the first inning.

After that, the biggest mystery for the eerily quiet late-season crowd of 43,407 was if the Mariano Rivera bobble head dolls would arrive before the end of the game. The figurines were delayed by train and truck trouble in a cross-country journey, and the Yankees were forced to give out vouchers to the first 18,000 fans entitled to one of the promotional gifts in tribute to the retiring closer.

Alas, the bobble heads arrived in the third inning, but the Yankees’ bats didn’t.

Ichiro Suzuki got New York’s first hit in the bottom of third and Alex Rodriguez and Alfonso Soriano walked to load the bases but Mark Reynolds popped out to right field and Eduardo Nunez grounded into a fielder’s choice.

The Yankees were 0 for 10 with runners in scoring position overall.

Kuroda settled down after the first and held Tampa Bay hitless until the sixth, when James Loney doubled with the bases loaded for two runs.

Kuroda extended his winlesss kid to eight starts, matching a career worst first done in 2008 with the Dodgers. The 38-year-old right hander was having one of his best seasons until he was hit hard Aug. 17 at Boston. This time, he allowed five runs and five hits in 5 2/3 innings. INDIANS 5, WHITE SOX 4 Pinch-hitter Jason Giambi hit a two-run home run with two outs in the ninth inning to give Cleveland a stunning victory over visiting Chicago, keeping the Indians up with the lead pack in the AL wild-card race. Giambi drove a 1-1 pitch from Addison Reed (5-4) into the lower deck in right field to save the Indians from a potentially devastating loss.

BLUE JAYS 3, ORIOLES 2 (10) Toronto eliminated host Baltimore from the playoff hunt Tuesday night, using two clutch RBI singles by Mark DeRosa to beat the Orioles in 10 innings. Baltimore’s sixth straight loss, combined with Cleveland’s comeback win over the Chicago White Sox, left the Orioles six games behind the Indians for the final wild-card slot with five games left.

RANGERS 3, ASTROS 2 Adrian Beltre homered at home for the first time in more than a month and host Texas stayed close in the wild-card race, beating Houston and sending the Astros to their 11th straight loss. With five games left in the regular season, Texas remained a game behind Cleveland for the AL’s second wild-card spot.

TIGERS 4, TWINS 2 Doug Fister struck out seven and visiting Detroit homered three times in the fourth inning to clinch a playoff berth with a victory over Minnesota. Victor Martinez and Omar Infante went back-to-back and Austin Jackson hit a two-run homer later in the fourth to put the Tigers in front.

NATIONAL LEAGUE PIRATES 8, CUBS 2 Gerrit Cole threw six strong innings and Pittsburgh took over the NL wild-card lead, beating host Chicago. The Pirates moved one game ahead of Cincinnati, which lost to the Mets. Pittsburgh remained two games behind NL Central-leading St. Louis.

BRAVES 3, BREWERS 2 Andrelton Simmons’ single to the gap in right-center drove in Justin Upton with two outs in the ninth inning to give host Atlanta a victory over Milwaukee.

PHILLIES 2, MARLINS 1 Darin Ruf and Kevin Frandsen drove in runs without a hit in the first inning, and visiting Philadelphia beat Miami to hand the Marlins their 100th loss of the season. It’s the second triple-digit-loss season in Marlins history, joining the 108-defeat year in 1998.

METS 4, REDS 2 Daniel Murphy hit a three run home run off Mike Leake, whose long streak of scoreless innings got shattered early, and New York beat host Cincinnati, a costly setback to the Reds’ hopes of a second consecutive NL Central title. The Reds and Pittsburgh Pirates clinched playoff spots on Monday night, but hope to chase down the first-place St. Louis Cardinals with closing surges.

INTERLEAGUE ROCKIES 8, RED SOX 3 Charlie Blackmon hit his first career lead off home run and Tyler Chatwood pitched seven strong innings, lifting Colorado to a victory over visiting Boston. John Lackey (10-13) struggled on the road again, allowing 4 runs on 6 hits in 6 innings.

Tuesday’s games NATIONAL LEAGUE Atlanta 3, Milwaukee 2 NY Mets 4, Cincinnati 2 Philadelphia 2, Miami 1 Pittsburgh 8, Chicago Cubs 2 St. Louis 2, Washington 0 Arizona at San Diego, (n) LA Dodgers at San Francisco, (n) AMERICAN LEAGUE Cleveland 5, Chicago White Sox 4 Tampa Bay 7, NY Yankees 0 Toronto 3, Baltimore 2 (10) Texas 3, Houston 2 Detroit 4, Minnesota 2 Oakland at LA Angels, (n) Kansas City at Seattle, (n) INTERLEAGUE Colorado 8, Boston 3

Sports, Pages 19 on 09/25/2013

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