NEW YORK -- Rookie Tyler Austin hit a solo homer in the bottom of the ninth inning to give the New York Yankees their season-high fifth straight victory, 5-4 over the Tampa Bay Rays on Thursday night.Brian McCann hit two homers for the Yankees, who moved a season-high nine games over .500 (74-65).Austin homered off Erasmo Ramirez (7-11) on a 3-2 pitch for his third homer since being called up Aug. 13. Teammates met him at home plate by dousing him with water in a raucous celebration.After blowing three leads during the first six innings, New York moved within two games of Baltimore for the second AL wild card and four games of AL East-leading Boston. Resurgent New York plays 20 of its remaining 23 games against division opponents, putting it in position to compete despite selling off key pieces at the Aug. 1 deadline.Tommy Layne (2-1) entered and struck out pinch-hitter Logan Morrison to end the ninth.The pesky Rays kept erasing leads, getting two homers each from Kevin Kiermaier and Steven Souza by the sixth. This was the first game this season in which three players had multiple homers, per the Elias Sports Bureau.New York had to use five relievers on a night when its bullpen was already short-handed. Manager Joe Girardi said before the game he hoped to avoid using Dellin Betances, Tyler Clippard, Adam Warren and Luis Severino, so he had to dig deep in the bullpen when CC Sabathia went just four innings, allowing three homers while throwing 87 pitches.McCanns first homer led off the second inning and landed in the luxury suites just below the third deck in right field. His second put the Yankees up 4-3 in the fourth, giving him 19 for the season. He ripped a hard single to center in the sixth.McCann entered on a 3-for-20 slide and had hit just .232 with two homers since Aug. 1 -- one of those homers came Tuesday against Toronto. The left-handed slugger is one shy of his ninth straight 20-homer season and 10th overall.Kiermaier homered twice in the first three innings, setting a career high with his 11th homer in the third. Hes hit safely in a career-best 12 straight games, the longest streak by a Ray this season.The Yankees went ahead 2-1 in the first when Alex Cobbs pickoff attempt to first hit Didi Gregorius as he dived back safely. The ball skidded away from first baseman Brad Miller, allowing Jacoby Ellsbury to score from third.Souza had his third multihomer game of the season, and second at Yankee Stadium. After hitting a solo homer to right-center in the second, he crushed a ball 430 feet off the glass sports bar beyond center field in the sixth.Souza had been in a 5-for-40 slump without a home run.Cobb made his second start since having Tommy John surgery in 2015. He allowed four runs -- three earned -- over six innings. He gave up two homers and threw 89 pitches.The Rays trailed three times during a 7-6 win over Baltimore on Wednesday.The paid attendance was 27,631, under 30,000 for just the second time at Yankee Stadium -- the first was 27,532 on Tuesday. That was the first time under 30,000 since 2004.TRAINING ROOMRays: SS Matt Duffy will have surgery Friday on his left heel. Dr. Bob Anderson, team orthopedist for the NFLs Carolina Panthers, will perform the operation. ... RHP Chase Whitley is expected to return following Tommy John surgery in one of the next three games. Whitley pitched for the Yankees in 2014 and `15 but was placed on waivers and claimed by Tampa Bay last November while recovering from the surgery.UP NEXTRays: Rookie LHP Blake Snell (5-7, 3.39) starts vs. New York on Friday night. He struck out seven over six innings of one-run ball in a win against Toronto last time out and has a 2.61 ERA in two starts against New York this season.Yankees: RHP Michael Pineda (6-11, 5.10) pitches against Tampa Bay. Pineda is 0-1 with a 7.04 ERA over his past three starts. wholesale jerseys cheap authentic . You can watch the game live on TSN at 7:30pm et/4:30pm pt. The Flyers had won seven of eight before dropping their last two outings on consecutive days over the weekend. Philadelphia was handed a 6-3 loss by the visiting Tampa Bay Lightning on Saturday afternoon before dropping a 4-1 decision to the Rangers the following night in New York City. wholesale nfl jerseys . It was the kind of score that might make everyone else wonder which course he was playing. Except that Graeme McDowell saw the whole thing. Crouched behind the 10th green at Sheshan International, McDowell looked over at the powerful American and said, "Ive probably seen 18 of the best drives Ive seen all year in the last two days. http://www.wholesalejerseysnflauthentic.com/ .C. -- Todd Fiddler scored a hat trick, including the overtime goal, as the Prince George Cougars survived an 8-7 win against the Kamloops Blazers in Western Hockey League play Sunday. soccer jerseys wholesale . PETERSBURG, Fla. china jerseys cheap . - Connor McDavid scored 53 seconds into overtime as the Erie Otters came from behind to defeat the visiting Guelph Storm 4-3 on Saturday in Ontario Hockey League action. NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- Two men who helped integrate college basketball came back to Vanderbilt University this week to share provocative views on the pace of change, take up matters they rarely dared to address as students, and describe the racism they encountered on their journey -- indignities they once endured in silence on the Southern campus.The return of Perry Wallace and Godfrey Dillard, part of a candid conversation unfolding this year at Vanderbilt, marks the latest milestone in the schools long, sometimes painful history with race relations.It had been 50 years since Wallace and Dillard huddled together in the locker room at halftime of a freshman game in Starkville, Mississippi, holding hands and trembling after rival fans spat, yelled slurs and threw things at them on the court.Like many Southern universities a half-century ago, Vanderbilt had few black students and faculty members. Those who did enroll were excluded from fraternities, sororities, clubs and religious organizations, and often faced segregation at hotels and restaurants when traveling away from campus.Today, as campuses across the nation see a resurgence of activism and try to come to terms with institutional racism, the wide lawns and stately buildings at Vanderbilt could not be called a hotbed of protest. But the school has more black faculty members and students, who say theyre sometimes the only faces of color in a class but have more people to talk to about their experiences.In recent years, university officials have made clear that diverse opinions are part of Vanderbilts fabric -- a point they made once again by inviting Wallace and Dillard back to campus.Wallace, the first black basketball player in the Southeastern Conference, had been back to his alma mater occasionally. But Vanderbilt had never invited Dillard to return, in part because his time at the elite private school ended early in his junior year.Both men say Dillards activism led to his demotion from the basketball team. As campuses nationwide roiled with unrest, Wallace, who grew up in Nashville, said his teammate from Detroit didnt know how to be a slave. Dillard, who was president of the Afro-American Student Association, pushed for more black professors and students and for better pay for campus workers.Things began to thaw for Wallace and Dillard at Vanderbilt after Strong Inside, a 2014 book by Andrew Maraniss, brought their story back to the forefront. It became required reading for incoming freshmen. An art exhibit on race, sports and Vanderbilt opened last week.This week, Wallace and Dillard joined Maraniss for the James Lawson lecture, named for a black civil rights icon with his own Vanderbilt story. Lawson was expelled from Vanderbilts divinity school inn 1960 for teaching the art of nonviolent protest.dddddddddddd He later was welcomed back as a distinguished professor and alumnus.Meeting with mostly minority students during a Tuesday luncheon at the Bishop Joseph Johnson Black Cultural Center, Wallace called it a shame that current black students still have some of the same concerns he and Dillard did.Devastated by his demotion, Dillard went home to Detroit. He finished college at Eastern Michigan University, earned a law degree from the University of Michigan, and went on to become a civil rights lawyer. When his turn came to speak, he struggled for composure.This is the first time in 50 years that this school has invited me back, he told the students. Ive been invisible for a long time.Chancellor Nicholas Zeppos extolled Vanderbilts pioneering role in integrating SEC basketball but said things could have been handled better.We always want to be more inclusive, more diverse, to ask hard questions, Zeppos said. But we cant go forward without understanding our history.Athletic Director David Williams, who is black and also from Detroit, pushed to invite Dillard back. He noted that Zeppos recently pushed a pay increase through for university staff but said more progress is needed.During the Lawson lecture, attended by the entire freshman class, Wallace, an American University law professor, encouraged subversive thinking, advising the students to steal away to a place where they could form their own opinions.Dillard, who successfully defended race-based admissions at the University of Michigan in a case decided by the U.S. Supreme Court, called the diverse assortment of students faces in Langford Auditorium a beautiful sight. Fewer than two dozen black students were enrolled when he was at Vanderbilt. Now, about 13 percent of faculty and 17 percent of undergraduate students are minorities.If it wasnt for their sacrifices, I wouldnt have it as easy here and couldnt focus on academics and feel comfortable on campus, said Tuzo Mwarumba, a black freshman from Stillwater, Oklahoma. Things are definitely improving, and Im glad Vanderbilt has taken the time to focus on inclusion. And Im grateful that they recognize that theres work here still to be done.The shared experience of being a minority student at Vanderbilt and the need to not go it alone bridged a 50-year divide. That became clear at the luncheon, when Dillard thanked Wallace for making sure he was invited back.Nobody wants to go to war alone, Dillard said. You always want to have one person with you -- so if you dont make it, at least the other person can tell what happened. ' ' '