By Tim Britton / MLB.com NEW YORK -- Following two days that ranged in emotion from the touching tributes to two late legends to A.J. Burnett's fight with a set of clubhouse doors, the Yankees yearned Sunday for a return to normalcy. There was very little, however, that could be described as normal on Sunday. A pair of All-Star pitchers allowed more runs than innings pitched. A Yankees starter departed in the third inning for the second consecutive day, and a setup man appeared to get him out of a jam. Indeed, it turns out the only thing normal in the Bronx was the end result: a 9-5 Yankees' win in a critical rubber game against the Rays. Andy Pettitte's departure in the third inning prevented events from transpiring as smoothly as the Yankees may have initially hoped. Their already overtaxed bullpen was stretched further. But, bent as it was, it never broke. The Yankees' offense supplied the pop, pummeling David Price for a career-high seven earned runs on seven hits in five innings. "Great win for us today, for the guys to battle the way they did after I put us in the hole early," said Pettitte, who exited with one out in the third after suffering a Grade 1 strain of his left groin. "This has been a tough week for all of us," manager Joe Girardi said. "There were a lot of emotions this week, but our guys toughed it out. Today's [hot weather] conditions weren't easy either ... but we came out on top." The Rays jumped on Pettitte on Carlos Pena's three-run first-inning homer, the second time Tampa Bay had scored three off the southpaw in the first this season. But the Yankees rebutted quickly off the American League's All-Star starting pitcher in Price, scoring twice in the bottom of the frame on a two-out, opposite-field triple from Robinson Cano. "The bounce-back inning, when we get two in the bottom of the first, just changed the feeling of the game," Girardi said. "When you get those two, the game has a different feeling all of a sudden." After tying the game on a Mark Teixeira single in the third, the Yankees broke it open off Price in a long fifth inning. Derek Jeter and Alex Rodriguez each delivered RBI singles before Jorge Posada rapped a two-run double into left-center for a 7-3 lead. The last three runs of the inning scored after two outs, and six of the Yankees' nine runs on the afternoon crossed the plate with two away. Price had never allowed more than six earned runs in a Major League game, and the seven he surrendered on Sunday equaled the total he gave up in four April starts. Prior to his fifth loss of the year on Sunday, Price's two worst starts this season had yielded only eight earned runs combined. "If you would have told me at the end of the first inning that there'd be five runs scored off of those two guys, I'd have told you you were crazy," said Nick Swisher, who doubled in the first and connected on his own two-out RBI single in the sixth. "We were making [Price] work a little bit, and his pitches started getting up in the zone." Those four fifth-inning runs were enough to put the game away for the Yankees' bullpen, which contributed 6 1/3 sterling innings in emergency relief of Pettitte. David Robertson pitched the biggest of those innings and much earlier than usual. Robertson, who appeared on the verge of getting more setup opportunities after striking out the side in the eighth on Friday, found himself thrown into a bases-loaded, one-out jam in the third when he replaced Pettitte. He was able to extricate himself without allowing a run by inducing a popup from Sean Rodriguez and a long fly ball from B.J. Upton. "When [Girardi] sent in Robertson, that was a bold move, and it paid off," said Alex Rodriguez, who provided some insurance with his 598th career home run in the seventh. "Those were the two most important outs of the game." The embattled Chan Ho Park picked up the win, retiring all five batters he faced -- even if Kelly Shoppach reached following a dropped third strike. Abnormal as it was, the victory extended the Yankees' division lead to three games. They won their fourth consecutive series and seventh in the past eight. Still, Tampa Bay manager Joe Maddon expects the race in the AL East to remain competitive all season. "Absolutely, I'm convinced," Maddon said. "Today was just one game in July. I don't get worked up over one loss, personally. You just have to move it along."
