Pettitte K’s 10 as Yanks blank Rays 7-0

Coming into tonight’s game, the Yankees and the Rays plan to compete for one thing. That one thing is the lead for the AL East. The Yankees turned to Andy Pettitte to close the gap between third and first place and sure enough, Pettitte delivered as the Yanks blanked the Rays 7-0.

Andy Pettitte was his usual self going 7 1/3 innings giving up 0 runs, 2 hits and 10K’s, the most strikeouts Pettitte had since throwing 10K’s on July 6, 2003 vs. the Boston Red Sox.  Freddy Garcia (who hasn’t pitched in exactly 2 weeks) went 1 2/3 giving up 0 runs on 2 hits and 1 K.

The Yankees were aided by 3 Tampa Bay errors which led to 2 of the 7 runs. Russell Martin hit a grand slam as apart of his 3 hit day which was just enough to seal the win.

Tomorrow Ivan Nova goes to the mound vs. Alex Cobb for the Rays. The game is on YES and first pitch is at 7:05pm.

NOTE: With the Tampa Bay loss and the Baltimore Orioles win, the Yankees are only a half game back behind both teams for first place. Let’s see what the Yankees do tomorrow.