Bronx, NY (Sports Network) - Rookie Andy Sonnanstine pitched a career- high eight innings and Carlos Pena hit two home runs as the Tampa Bay Devil Rays crushed the New York Yankees, 9-1, in the opener of a three-game set.
Sonnanstine (4-9) easily had the best outing of his young career, giving up just a pair of singles and one unearned run with five strikeouts and no walks. After Alex Rodriguez's RBI single in the fourth, the 24-year-old right-hander retired the final 14 batters he faced.
"Rodriguez is probably one of the best hitters I've ever seen," said Sonnanstine. "I felt real good. My arm feels strong. If they needed me, I would've went back out for the ninth. Definitely using my fastball and throwing my offspeed pitch in the zone. Just getting ahead of hitters. Anytime you can keep that lineup in a pitcher's count, you're setting yourself up for success."
"Honestly, that was probably the best start of my life. It's something I'll never forget."
Carl Crawford, Delmon Young and Greg Norton each knocked in a pair of runs for the surging Devil Rays, who have won four in a row and seven of eight.
Derek Jeter had the only other base hit with a first-inning single for the Yankees, who failed to carry the momentum from a sweep of division rival Boston.
New York entered the game trailing the Red Sox by five games in the AL East, with a one-game lead over Seattle for the AL wild card.
Yankees rookie Phil Hughes (2-3) was tagged for seven hits and five runs -- four earned -- in just 4 1/3 innings of work.
It was a long night," said Hughes. I just had a couple bad breaks. It's just something that you need to fight through. Even through the bad starts you try and keep your team in the game, but tonight I wasn't abe to do that. If it was one specific thing I could go work on it.but one night its home runs. One night it's walks. It's a litle mix of everything.bad counts. It's just something you gotta fight through. Unfortunately right now we're in a spot where every game means a lot.
Tampa Bay got off to a quick start as Akinori Iwamura led off the game with a double and scored on Crawford's single to center.
The Devil Rays then loaded the bases with one out in the third on a pair of walks and an infield single by B.J. Upton. Young's sacrifice fly to right plated Iwamura to make it 2-0 as Upton got caught in a run-down between first and second.
New York should have gotten out of the inning, but catcher Jorge Posada's throw to second baseman Robinson Cano bounced off his glove and out of play, allowing Pena to cross home plate.
The Yankees got on the board in the fourth as Jeter reached base on a Pena error and scored on Rodriguez's one-out single to center.
Pena, however, quickly atoned for his mistake with a home run to start the fifth. Upton followed with a walk and Young singled before Brendan Harris's sacrifice moved the runners over a base.
Chris Britton took over for Hughes and Norton greeted him with a single to left that scored Upton for a 5-1 Tampa Bay lead.
Pena hit his second home run of the game in the sixth and Tampa Bay scored two more runs in the eighth on Crawford's double and Young's groundout to make it 8-1.
Norton's leadoff homer in the ninth accounted for the final margin.
Game Notes
Major League Baseball suspended Yankees pitcher Joba Chamberlain two games and fined him an undisclosed amount for his actions in the top of the ninth of Thursday's game against Boston. Chamberlain was ejected with one out in the inning after airmailing two consecutive pitches directly over the head of Red Sox first baseman Kevin Youkilis' head. He began serving the suspension on Friday.Pena now has 33 home runs for the season.The Devil Rays finished August with a 15-14 record, the eighth-winning month in club history.