Tampa Bay Rays Rally to Beat New York Yankees 4-3

So many times over the past few months, the Rays have been the ones making the crucial late mistake that cost them a game. Monday, they were happily and, given the sound of their postgame celebration, noisily on the other side, taking advantage of a rare error by Yankees first baseman Mark Teixeira to score a much-needed 4-3 win in front of 21,742. In reality, it was a ground ball hit by Elliot Johnson that bounced past Teixeira, allowing Brooks Conrad, who had just pinch-doubled in the tying run, to race home and put the Rays ahead to stay in the seventh. "I just missed it," Teixeira, a four-time Gold Glover, said of his first error of the season. "I don't know what happened. The ball obviously didn't do what I expected it to do." But in theory, or at least Rays manager Joe Maddon's theory, it was the reward for perseverance and the beginning of a long-overdue evening out.

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