PHOENIX (AP) — Alex Rodriguez homered and singled to drive in three runs and Andy Pettitte earned his ninth victory when the New York Yankees beat the Arizona Diamondbacks 9-3 on Tuesday night.
Arizona starter Dan Haren retired 12 of his last 14 batters and left with his team trailing 3-2 after seven innings. New York blew the game open against Arizona's atrocious bullpen with a six-run eighth.
Pettitte (9-2) allowed two runs and seven hits in seven innings. He struck out seven, walked two and even got a rare base hit, considering he doesn't bat in AL games.
Haren (7-6) gave up three runs and six hits in seven innings, striking out eight and walking one. He singled twice, the first driving in the Diamondbacks' only runs of the game.
Rodriguez entered the game with six hits in his previous 42 at-bats but had shown signs of life with an RBI double in the Yankees' 10-4 loss in the series opener Monday night. His ninth home run of the season, and just his third since May 10, came with two outs in the first after Derek Jeter's leadoff single. Rodriguez's two-out single brought in the go-ahead run in the third.
Jeter too was struggling going into the game with six hits in his last 36 at-bats.
Haren, 4-0 in seven career starts against the Yankees before Tuesday night, left after throwing 109 pitches, lifted for a pinch-hitter despite his high batting average. Manager A.J. Hinch turned it over to what has been, by far, the worst corps of relievers in the majors. The results were predictable.
Esmerling Vasquez faced five batters and gave up five runs without an out. Chad Qualls, recently deposed as closer, brought his 8.87 ERA to the mound and gave up Jorge Posada's RBI sacrifice fly, an RBI single by Curtis Granderson and a two-run double by Colin Curtis. It was the first big-league hit for Curtis, called up from Triple-A Scranton on Monday.
Arizona tied it 2-2 in the second when Adam LaRoche walked, then Mark Reynolds doubled to put runners at second and third. Chris Snyder fell behind 0-2 but walked in a 13-pitch at bat. That brought up Haren, who poked a single just inside first base.
Consecutive two-out singles by Nick Swisher, Mark Teixeira and Rodriguez put the Yankees ahead 3-2 in the third.
Notes: Rodriguez has 592 career home runs and needs 17 to catch Sammy Sosa for the sixth-most in MLB history. ... Haren tied his career high for hits with 19, one shy of Micah Owings' franchise record. ... Cano got his 100th hit on Monday night, in his 274th at-at. Only three Yankees have reached 100 hits in fewer at-bats — Dave Winfield in 1984, Paul O'Neill in 1994 and Jeter in 1999. ... The crowd of 45,776, third-largest at home for Arizona this season, was decidedly pro-Yankee.
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