Tribe falls again to the big bats of the Yankees



The Yankees have outhit the Indians 24-10 in just two games.
NEW YORK (AP) -- The New York Yankees have found the formula to beat Cleveland: Get a big early lead and a home run from Alex Rodriguez to help a rookie starter gain his first major league win.
Rodriguez hit his major league-leading ninth homer, Kei Igawa limited the Indians to a pair of runs over six innings, and the Yankees defeated Cleveland 9-2 on Wednesday night.
Jason Giambi also homered for the Yankees (7-6), who matched their season high of one game over .500.
A-Rod hit a two-run drive in the sixth off reliever Tom Mastny, connecting for the second straight night. Rodriguez, who leads the majors with 23 RBIs, matched Albert Pujols and Chris Shelton (both last year) for the fourth-fastest to nine homers, trailing only Mike Schmidt (10 games in 1976), Luis Gonzalez (10 in 2001) and Larry Walker (12 in 1997).
Rodriguez had been 0-for-3 with two strikeouts before the drive to left, which extended his regular-season hitting streak to 18 games dating to last year. After the trip around the bases, he exchanged laughs with Derek Jeter in the dugout and came out for a curtain call. A-Rod has an extra-base hit in 12 of 13 games this season and is batting .365.
Rough start
New York has outscored Cleveland 19-5 and outhit the Indians 24-10 in the opening two games of the three-game series.
A night after Chase Wright won 10-3 in his big league debut after getting an 8-1 lead in the second, Igawa (1-0) was handed a 6-2 lead in the third. A veteran of eight seasons in Japan's Central League, the 27-year-old left-hander didn't get decisions in his first two starts, pitching poorly against Baltimore but well at Oakland.
Against Cleveland, he allowed five hits, struck out five and walked one, lowering his ERA from 7.84 to 6.06. After Bobby Abreu's first-inning sacrifice fly against Jeremy Sowers (0-1), Igawa fell behind in the third when Jason Michaels and Travis Hafner hit consecutive RBI singles.
New York then chased Sowers in a five-run third, and Igawa appeared to relax.
He lost his glove leaping for Ryan Garko's flare in the third inning. Second baseman Robinson Cano came in, got the ball and made a shovel pass to shortstop Derek Jeter, who scooped the ball and threw to first for the double play. Igawa started an inning-ending double play on Casey Blake's comebacker in the sixth.
Sowers lasted just 2 2-3 innings, giving up six runs and nine hits. New York pummeled him for seven hits in the third, when Abreu hit a tying single, Giambi pulled a go-ahead double to right, and Cano, Josh Phelps and Johnny Damon hit RBI singles.
Giambi's home run off Aaron Fultz gave New York consecutive homers for the first time this year.
Copyright 2007 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.