ST. PETERSBURG — Rays rookie Allan Dykstra thought he added another victorious memory to a momentous week for his family, with a three-run, go-ahead home run against the Yankees on Friday night.
Alex Rodriguez had other plans.
The 39-year-old Yankees slugger hit two home runs for the first time in almost three years and hit the winning RBI single to hand the Rays a 5-4 loss.
"Tonight he killed us," reliever Kevin Jepsen said.
And he did it early, in front of an announced crowd of 15,752.
Rays starter Nathan Karns left a fastball up in the zone on the second pitch of the second inning. Rodriguez blasted it 471 feet to left-centerfield, according to MLB Statcast, for the longest home run in the majors this year. It also moved him past Yankees great Derek Jeter for ninth place on MLB's all-time runs scored list (1,924).
Karns ran into trouble again in the fourth for the Rays (6-5), getting two outs before Stephen Drew sent a 3-and-2 fastball into the right-centerfield seats for his 100th career home run.
The rest of Karns' night was solid. He wiggled out of a first-inning jam and finished with four walks and seven strikeouts.
"At the end of the day, he gave us a chance," manager Kevin Cash said.
So did Dykstra. Four days after getting his first big-league hit, and two days after his younger brother threw a no-hitter in the minors, Dykstra capped off the week in style.
Evan Longoria started a one-out rally in the fourth by legging out an infield single and showing no lingering effects from a bruised left hip he sustained Thursday in Toronto. Yankees starter Adam Warren then walked Desmond Jennings to bring up Dykstra.
The 27-year-old — brought up because of James Loney's strained oblique — made the most of his opportunity. He smashed a three-run homer that hit the rightfield foul pole to give the Rays a 3-2 lead and marked the team's sixth home run from a rookie in the first 11 games.
"The timing of it was definitely awesome," Dykstra said.
Third baseman Logan Forsythe padded the lead immediately by sending Warren's cutter over the centerfield wall for the Rays' first back-to-back home runs since Sept. 7.
But Rodriguez made the comeback meaningless.
He tied the score in the sixth by hitting a two-run homer to left off of Ernesto Frieri for his fourth of the season and 658th of his career. It was Rodriguez's 61st career multi-home run game and his first since May 2012.
"What he did tonight, he's done for a lot of years," Cash said.
Rodriguez capped it off in the eighth, after Carlos Beltran singled and pinch-runner Brett Gardner stole second. With first base open, Cash allowed Jepsen to pitch to Rodriguez, who was 0-for-10 previously against the reliever.
"He's gotten me out plenty in his career," Rodriguez said.
But this time Rodriguez singled to center on a 3-and-2 pitch to bring home the winning run and drop the Rays to 1-3 at home.
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