Laird homers twice in Triple-A debut
The 22-year-old third base prospect went 4-for-4 with a pair of solo home runs to help Scranton/Wilkes-Barre edge host Syracuse, 6-5. He scored three times.
A 27th-round pick by the Yankees in the 2007 Draft, Laird led the Double-A Eastern League with 90 RBIs and ranked second with 23 home runs in 107 games with Trenton before his promotion. He leads the Yankees system in both categories.
Facing Major League veteran Jason Marquis with one out in the second inning, Laird took a strike, then drove the second Triple-A pitch he saw over the right-field wall.
He led off the fourth with a single up the middle and opened the seventh with a liner to left off reliever Dan Leatherman, later scoring on Chad Huffman's sixth homer.
With two out in the eighth, Laird homered to left on an 0-1 pitch by Syracuse left-hander Atahualpa Severino to give the Yankees a 5-4 lead.
Chad Moeller and Kevin Russo smacked back-to-back doubles off veteran reliever Ron Villone in the ninth that put the Yankees ahead for good, 6-5. Moeller also doubled in the seventh.
Yankees reliever Romulo Sanchez (8-8) earned the win after yielding one run on three hits over two innings. Closer Jonathan Albaladejo notched his Minor League-leading 36th save with a scoreless ninth. He has blown just one save opportunity this season -- in a game he went on to win -- and has an ERA of 0.87 over 52 innings.
Villone (2-4) took the loss for Syracuse, allowing one run on two hits while fanning one in one inning.
Scranton/Wilkes-Barre maintained a 6 1/2-game lead over second-place Buffalo in the International League North, while Syracuse slipped into third place, one game behind Buffalo.