ST. PETERSBURG, Fla., May 24 (UPI) -- Lyle Overbay, Brett Gardner and Jayson Nix all drove in two runs over the first five innings Friday, sending the New York Yankees to a 9-4 win over Tampa Bay.
The Yankees ended a two-game skid with an 11-hit attack that gave David Phelps enough of a cushion to pick up the victory.
Phelps (3-2) gave up six hits and four runs in 7 2/3 innings, but had to leave the game after being hit on his right arm by a line drive off the bat of Ben Zobrist.
New York outfielder Curtis Granderson suffered a fractured knuckle on the little finger of his left hand when he was hit in the fifth inning by a pitch from Cesar Ramos.
Although Granderson stayed in the game and eventually scored in the inning, he was replaced in the bottom of the frame.
New York took an 8-0 lead through five innings. Overbay doubled in two runs in the second, Gardner hit a two-run homer in the fourth and Nix had RBIs with a single in the second and a bases-loaded walk in the fifth that delivered Granderson.
Roberto Hernandez (2-5) suffered the loss, surrendering five runs on six hits in four innings.
New York avoided what would have been its first three-game losing streak of the season.
