NEW YORK: Ichiro Suzuki stole the show from dueling Japanese pitchers Yu Darvish and Hiroki Kuroda with a walk-off home run that gave the New York Yankees a 4-3 victory over the Texas Rangers yesterday.
The Rangers’ Darvish went 5 1/3 innings, giving up three homers and striking out six, while the Yankees’ Kuroda also struck out six and surrendered two home runs during his 6 2/3 innings of work. Both pitchers had no-decisions.
New York’s Suzuki broke open a 3-3 tie in the final inning with the Yankees’ fourth home run of the game.
Yankees closer Mariano Rivera worked the top of the ninth to record the win and snap the Rangers’ (44-33) five-game win streak.
In Tampa Bay, Matt Moore endured a wild day on the mound yet recorded his 10th win of the season in the Rays’ 5-1 victory over Toronto.
The young left-hander struck out 11 batters but walked six during six roller-coaster innings.
Yunel Escobar and James Loney each had three hits while rookie Wil Myers had an RBI to give him eight in just nine games in the Majors.
Nine-game winners Jason Marquis (San Diego) and Justin Masterson (Cleveland) both failed to reach their 10th win.
Marquis gave up six runs in the Padres’ 6-2 defeat to Philadelphia as he fell to 9-3.
Masterson also surrendered six runs. REUTERS
