By MARK DIDTLER Associated Press
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (AP) _ CC Sabathia won for the first time in more than a year, Alex Rodriguez hit one of five New York homers and the Yankees beat the Tampa Bay Rays 11-5 on Monday night.
Sabathia (1-5) allowed four runs and six hits in seven innings to stop a nine-start winless streak since a victory over Boston on April 24, 2014. The lefty missed most of last season due to a knee injury.
Rodriguez put the Yankees up 1-0 on his eighth homer this season and 662nd overall, a long drive to left field in the first.
A-Rod was hit on the arm by Erasmo Ramirez’s pitch in the ninth and advanced to second on defensive indifference. He scored when Mark Teixeira hit a two-run homer that made it 11-5.
Rodriguez has 50 home runs off Tampa Bay pitching in 209 games. He has reached base safely in 11 of 19 plate appearances this year in four road games against the Rays, with three homers, five RBIs and eight runs scored.
Rodriguez has 1,989 RBIs, three short of tying Babe Ruth for fourth place on the career list since RBIs became an official stat in 1920.
Chase Headley, Carlos Beltran and Brett Gardner also homered for the Yankees, who have won all four games this season at Tropicana Field and are 6-1 overall against the Rays.
Logan Forsythe homered and drove in three runs for the Rays.
Headley, in the fourth, and Gardner, in the sixth, each had a three-run shot off Alex Colome (2-1) as the Yankees grabbed an 8-1 lead. Beltran has hit both of his homers in the past two days, including a solo drive Monday.
Headley got his fourth RBI on a sacrifice fly in the seventh.
After Forsythe and Joey Butler hit consecutive solo homers off Sabathia during a three-run seventh, Forsythe cut the Rays’ deficit to 9-5 with an eighth-inning single.
Colome gave up eight runs and 11 hits over six innings.
The announced crowd of 10,619 was the smallest for a Rays home game against the Yankees.
TRAINER’S ROOM
Yankees: Jacoby Ellsbury was rested. Manager Joe Girardi said the center fielder looks physically tired. … RHP Ivan Nova (elbow surgery) will start his third extended spring training game Tuesday and is expected back next month. … LHP Chris Capuano (quadriceps) is scheduled to throw around 90 pitches for Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre on Tuesday night in what could be one of his last rehab starts. … INF Brendan Ryan (hamstring) hopes to start a rehab assignment next week.
Rays: Tampa Bay closer Jake McGee (elbow surgery) could return during a five-game road trip that begins Friday.
UP NEXT
Yankees RHP Nathan Eovaldi (3-0) will face Rays RHP Chris Archer (3-4) on Tuesday night.
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