Tampa Wins 5th-Straight; Completes Sweep of Florida

TAMPA, Fla. - Just like in the series-opener on Saturday, an eighth-inning home run by Tim Lynch proved to be the difference in a win for the Yankees. Tampa completed a sweep of the Florida Fire Frogs (9-14, 34-55) with a 3-2 victory on Monday night at George M. Steinbrenner Field.
Tampa (13-9, 52-40) improved to 10-0 in the season-series against Florida while extending its winning streak to five games.
Erik Swanson (W, 2-2) made an efficient start for the T-Yanks, scattering five singles, a walk and a hit-batter across five and two-third scoreless innings. The right-hander tied a season-high with six strikeouts and threw 54 of 79 pitches for strikes.
The Yankees pushed across a couple of runs in the fifth with help from a pair of throwing errors by Fire Frogs' third baseman Andrew Daniel.
Sharif Othman and Jeff Hendrix hit back-to-back, one-out singles before Daniel Barrios grounded a ball to third. Daniel forced out Othman at the bag and made a wild throw into the first base dugout. The error put both runners into scoring position and both crossed the plate when Daniel made a second wild throw after fielding a slow roller off the bat of Nick Solak , giving Tampa a 2-0 lead.
Oriel Caicedo (L, 0-1) made a quality start for Florida, holding the Yankees to two unearned runs on six hits and a hit-batter in six innings. The southpaw tallied four strikeouts without issuing a walk and threw 59 of 84 pitches for strikes.
Florida put the tying runs aboard against Swanson with two outs in the sixth. LHP James Reeves (H, 3) entered in relief and struck out Justin Ellison to escape the jam.
After retiring four-straight batters, Reeves ran into trouble in the eighth. Alejandro Salazar led off with a single, followed by an Alay Lago double. A strikeout later, Salazar scored as Braxton Davidson reached on a fielder's choice. Reeves limited the damage by striking out Brett Cumberland to end the inning.
Lynch revived the two-run lead in the home half of the eighth by crushing a solo home run over the Outfield Bar in right field off RHP Sean McLaughlin. It was Lynch's second homer of the series and fourth in 24 games with Tampa.
The Yankees brought in RHP Jose Pena (SV, 1) for the final three outs in the ninth, but the Fire Frogs did not go down easily. Daniel lined a one-out single into right and Ray-Patrick Didder pulled a two-hit hit into left, placing runners on the corners. A passed ball scored Daniel before Pena struck out Salazar to close the game.
Hendrix (2-for-4, R) logged his third-straight multi-hit game and extended his hitting streak to seven games, batting .414 (12-for-29) in that span. Barrios (2-for-4, R) and Trey Amburgey (2-for-4, 2B) also had multi-hit games.
Up next, the T-Yanks travel to Port Charlotte to play four games against the Stone Crabs. A doubleheader on Tuesday at 5:00 p.m. will feature the resumption of a game on June 29th, with Charlotte leading Tampa, 2-0, in the bottom of the fourth. A seven-inning game will follow, marking the start of the originally scheduled three game series. The latter game will feature RHP Brian Keller (0-1, 5.40 ERA) and LHP Brock Burke (0-3, 6.35 ERA).
The Yankees return home on Tuesday, July 25th, to begin a four-game series with the Palm Beach Cardinals at 7:00 p.m. On BOGO Burgers Tuesday, fans can enjoy a "buy one, get one free" deal on burgers all night. For tickets and promotional information, call (813) 673-3055 or visit www.tybaseball.com.