NEW YORK -- Bobby Abreu hit a three-run homer and a
three-run double in the first inning against Tampa Bay on Tuesday
night, becoming the first New York Yankees player with six RBIs in
an inning in 55 years.
Abreu homered off starter Tim Corcoran for a 3-0 lead, a drive
off an advertisement board attached to the bottom of the upper deck
in right field. Coming to the plate as the 12th batter of the
inning, he doubled off reliever Brian Stokes, the ball going just
over the outstretched glove of left fielder Carl Crawford deep in
the left-center gap. That boosted the lead to 9-0.
Abreu added a bases-loaded sacrifice fly in the third to set a
career high for RBIs in a game with seven -- on Aug. 24, 1999, he
hit a pair of three-run homers in Philadelphia's 18-2 rout of San
Diego. Batting for the final time with the bases loaded again in
the fourth, he flied to Delmon Young, who was just in front of the
right-field wall.
He was replaced by pinch-hitter Kevin Thompson in the seventh.
Abreu became the first Yankees player with six RBIs in an inning
since Gil McDougald in the ninth on May 3, 1951, at the St. Louis
Browns, according to the Elias Sports Bureau, and the first major
leaguer with six RBIs in the first since Oakland's Matt Stairs had
a grand slam and a two-run single against the California Angels on
July 5, 1996.
New York had not scored nine runs in the first inning since June
5, 1988, when it won 9-2 at Baltimore.