Swisher homers twice as Yankees beat Rays

ST. PETERSBURG, Florida (Reuters) - Nick Swisher homered twice in the New York Yankees' 11-4 pounding of the Tampa Bay Rays on Monday, their 10th victory in 11 games.

A.J. Burnett (10-4) held the Rays to two hits and one run over seven innings. He struck out five and walked two in gaining his fifth consecutive win.

"I didn't really feel overpowering," Burnett told reporters after beating the American League champions. "Obviously, when you're on a roll, you're more confident than when you're not."

Swisher said Burnett gave the Yankees a boost whenever he pitched.

"He's one of those guys that you hate facing, but you love him on your team," the New York outfielder said. "He's a gamer. Everybody sees how he goes about his business.

"On game day, you don't even talk to him. He's just completely focused all day, and tonight, he went out there and did an awesome job for us."

Tampa Bay's Evan Longoria, who was hitless in three at bats, agreed.

"He didn't really give us many opportunities to score," Longoria said. "He's tough. He throws to both sides of the plate and throws hard."

The victory kept New York 2 games ahead of the Boston Red Sox in the American League East. The third-placed Rays dropped to 7 games back.

Robinson Cano and Swisher hit back to back home runs to stake the Yankees to a 5-0 lead in the sixth inning.

The margin grew to 11-3 in a four-run ninth inning when Swisher added a solo home run and three batters later Johnny Damon smacked a three-run homer to right field.

"It's good to beat the Rays, because they're going to be in this thing until the very end," Damon said. "They can pitch, they can field. Any time we can get some wins against them, it's going to be huge."

The Yankees tagged loser James Shields for nine of their 15 hits and five runs in five-plus innings.

New York scored three runs off Shields in the second inning on a double by Jorge Posada, Cano's triple and Swisher's ground out.

The Yankees added two more on the homers by Cano and Swisher in the sixth and took a 7-1 lead in the eighth when Alex Rodriguez celebrated his 34th birthday with a two-run double.

(Reporting by Gene Cherry in Raleigh, North Carolina; Editing by Greg Stutchbury)