Giambi hit a grand slam and drove in a season-best six runs and Alex Rodriguez added a three-run shot to move another notch up the career home run list as New York pounded the Texas Rangers 18-7 Wednesday night to avoid a three-game series sweep.
The Yankees had been struggling at the plate, scoring seven runs and batting .172 in losing three of their last four games, prompting the club’s co-chairman to say things were “getting ridiculous.”
“We’ve got to start hitting,” Steinbrenner said earlier in the day in Tampa, Fla. “They’ve got to start waking up.”
Rodriguez scored four times, the last coming on his line-drive homer to right during the Yankees’ season-high nine-run seventh inning. It was Rodriguez’s 535th homer, moving him past Jimmie Foxx for 14th on the career list and within one of Yankees Hall of Famer Mickey Mantle.
So did Steinbrenner’s edict spark the scoring outburst?
“I wish,” Giambi said. “They could yell at us every day for all I care.”
Milton Bradley and Chris Davis each hit a two-run homer for the Rangers, who are 0-7 after taking the first two games of a three-game series. Josh Hamilton drove in a pair of runs.
Edwar Ramirez (2-0) won in relief for the Yankees, whose bullpen pitched four scoreless innings after the Rangers chased former teammate Sidney Ponson.
Derek Jeter’s run-scoring single in the eighth gave every Yankees starter a hit. Seven players in pinstripes drove in runs, including Brett Gardner with his first career hit during New York’s big seventh.
“All of a sudden their bats just woke up and we had nothing to neutralize them,” Rangers manager Ron Washington said.
In the third, Johnny Damon was aboard with a one-out single when second baseman Ian Kinsler botched a fielder’s choice grounder by Jeter. A-Rod walked to load the bases, and Giambi drove a 2-1 pitch from Luis Mendoza into the upper deck in right to give the Yankees a 5-3 lead. It was Giambi’s 18th homer of the year and 13th career grand slam.
Bradley and Davis put the Rangers ahead in the sixth with their two-run homers, knocking Ponson out and giving Texas a 7-6 lead.
Rangers relievers had given up just nine earned runs in their last 27 1/3 innings, but they gave up that many in the seventh inning alone. Bobby Abreu doubled and the next four batters also reached off Warner Madrigal (0-1). By the time Gardner drove in Robinson Cano, the Yankees led 11-7.
Gardner swiped second and scored on Damon’s hit. Abreu walked, and A-Rod lined a shot to right that never got much higher than the outfield wall.
