The New York Yankees have defeated the Miami Marlins 9-4 tonight at Yankee Stadium in the Bronx, NY. In the game Alex Rodriguez collected his 2,998th and 2,999th career base hits. The Yankees fans cheered Rodriguez when he came up in the eighth with a chance for 3,000. However, the cheers turned to boos and the boos turned to expletives as Sam Dyson would walk Rodriguez robbing the fans of a chance to witness 3,000 career hits.

Earlier in the day Rodriguez joined Comissioner Rob Manfred for a new MLB campaign called “Play Ball”, trying to get kids to play more baseball. Manfred and Rodriguez were joined by Yankees closer Dellin Betances and Miami Marlins stars Giancarlo Stanton and Dee Gordon.

The Yankees got on the board first, in the bottom of the first when Alex Rodriguez hit number 2,998 to center field bringing home Brett Gardner. The Marlins tied it up at one in the fourth when Christian Yelich grounded out to Stephen Drew at second base and Dee Gordon scored. In the bottom of the fifth the Marlins took the lead off the bat off Jeff Mathis who hit a sac-fly to center scoring Jeff Baker to make it a 2-1 game in favor of the Marlins. 

Giancarlo Stanton’s MLB leading 25th homerun in the sixth put the Marlins up 3-1. In the bottom of the sixth Brett Gardner would respond whe he hit a two-run shot to right center off Mat Latos to tie it up at three. That ended up being Mat Latos’ last pitch of the night. Latos finished the evening going 5.2 innings allowing three runs on nine hits, while walking two batters and striking out six.

C.C. Sabathia pitched for the Yankees opposite Latos. Sabathia put together a very solid outing despite not factoring in the decision. The veteran lefty went six innings allowing three runs on five hits. The key to Sabathia's success tonight was striking out seven batters without giving up a free pass. His only mistake came to Stanton when he launched a ball over 400 feet in the left field bleachers. 

Latos would be replaced by left-handed middle reliever Mike Dunn. Carlos Beltran greeted Dunn with a two-run homer in the seventh inning breaking the tie and giving the Yankees a 5-3 lead. After the walk, Brian McCann singled to right center, scoring Chase Headley and moving Rodriguez over to third to make it a 6-3 game. In the next at-bat Sam Dyson threw a wild pitch, scoring A-Rod. In the same at-bat Chris Young hit a double to left, scoring Brian McCann to make it a whopping 8-3 score.

After that Sam Dyson was replaced by Vin Mazzarro, when Dyson was walking to the dugout he was serenaded by the Yankees fans. On the Yankees broadcast Michael Kay said, “They are showing him some love.”

After a Gregorious single, Stephen Drew hit a sac fly, scoring Chris Young making it a 9-3 ball game. In the top of the ninth the Yankees sent reliever Chris Martin to the mound, not the singer for Coldplay, and he would go on to give up three singles and a fielder’s choice, making it a 9-4 game. Martin would get out of the inning but manager Joe Girardi did get Dellin Betances up in the bullpen just in case it got out of hand.

The Yankees and Marlins split the series with both teams winning their two home games. Alex Rodriguez looks to get his 3,000th hit tomorrow night at Yankee Stadium against Justin Verlander, who was scheduled to pitch tonight but the Tigers-Reds game was postponed tonight due to weather. Tommorow’s pitching matchup for the Yankees and Tigers is Justin Verlander and Adam Warren. The winning pitcher tonight was left-handed reliever Chasen Shreve and the losing pitcher was left-hander Mike Dunn.