HOWIE RUMBERG
AP Sports Writer
NEW YORK (AP) — Staked to an early lead, Jake Odorizzi was off his mark.
Ben Zobrist started a four-run first with his 1,000th career hit, but the New York Yankees used their biggest comeback of the season to end the Tampa Bay Rays’ five-game winning streak in the Bronx with an 8-5 victory Wednesday night.
“I’m solely to blame for tonight,” Odorizzi said. “The loss is on me and the whole team can point the finger in this direction and I’ll accept it.”
Wil Myers, Yunel Escobar and Logan Forsythe drove in runs while chasing Yankees starter Chris Capuano after he got just one out. Ryan Hanigan capped the 30-minute top of the first with a sacrifice fly.
But Brian McCann homered in the bottom half to end Odorizzi’s scoreless streak at 14 1-3 innings. And the Yankees catcher added a two-run single in the third.
Filling in for the injured Martin Prado, Chris Young hit his first homer with the Yankees — he was cut by the Mets on Aug. 9 — to tie it at 4 in the fourth. Young added an RBI double in the eighth and finished a triple shy of the cycle.
Mark Teixeira made up for botching a foul pop in the first by hitting a go-ahead RBI triple — his first three-base hit since July 6, 2012, at Boston — in the fifth that Myers had trouble corralling in the corner in right field.
That was the end of the night for Odorizzi (10-12), charged with six runs and five hits in 4 1-3 innings.
“I didn’t see his normal assertive fastball, period,” Rays manager Joe Maddon said. “I just think that he pitches off his fastball, and when he’s assertive with his fastball it normally goes well for him.”
Once Capuano was out, the Rays failed to add on against the New York bullpen.
Five relievers combined for 8 2-3 gritty innings, allowing seven hits, including Evan Longoria’s 20th homer in the ninth. Preston Claiborne (3-0) pitched two innings for the win.
“We just know if we hold the game the way it is our guys could come back,” said Dellin Betances, who pitched 1 1-3 scoreless innings. “It was a great win.”
With a full moon peeking through the clouds in center field, the Yankees closed the gap to 4-3 in the third with the help of Hanigan’s errant throw on ball four.
Young, who singled, was running on a full-count pitch to Jacoby Ellsbury. Hanigan’s throw on ball four went into center field, allowing Young to advance to third on the error. Ellsbury stole second and, one out later, McCann lined a two-run single to left field.
“I thought it was a close pitch so I thought there was a chance we’re going to get the call, so that’s why I just came up throwing,” Hanigan said.
TRAINER’S ROOM
Rays: RHP Nathan Karns (0-0) will take the rotation spot of Drew Smyly, who has been shut down for the season after throwing 153 innings combined with Tampa Bay and Detroit.
Yankees: DH-OF Carlos Beltran was scratched from the lineup about 90 minutes before the game because of right elbow soreness. Afterward, he said he will give it a few days before deciding if he will have to end his season early to have surgery to remove the bone spur that has been troubling him since mid-May. “It’s been frustrating,” Beltran said. … Prado (hamstring) and OF Brett Gardner (abdominal strain) were also out of the lineup again.
UP NEXT
The AL East rivals play the finale of a three-game series Thursday with a matchup of stingy starters: the Yankees’ Michael Pineda (3-4) vs. the Rays’ Alex Cobb (9-7). Pineda has not allowed more than two earned runs in any of his nine career starts for New York. Cobb has yielded two runs or fewer in 11 straight starts, a franchise record.
1,000 HITS
Zobrist’s accomplishment was especially meaningful to his manager. “When he first came here I would not have anticipated 1,000 hits,” Joe Maddon said. “He went back to the minor leagues and came back reinvented.”
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