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ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. -- Hiroki Kuroda got a couple extra days between starts and it looked as if it paid off. Kuroda pitched neatly into the seventh inning, Brett Gardner drove in two runs and the New York Yankees beat the Tampa Bay Rays 4-2 on Sunday. Kuroda (8-8) retired 17 straight batters after allowing consecutive one-out singles to Ben Zobrist and Matt Joyce in the first. "I was able to physically get refreshed as well as mentally," Kuroda said through a translator. Kuroda gave up two runs and four hits in 6 2-3 innings. After Shawn Kelley and Dellin Betances combined for 1 1-3 scoreless innings, David Robertson closed for his 33rd save. "He had everything in his arsenal today," New York manager Joe Girardi said of Kuroda, who lasted just 4 2-3 innings in his previous start. New York has won two in a row after losing five straight. "We won our last two, and hopefully go home and win five or six and keep on going," Gardner said. Jeremy Hellickson (1-2) didnt allow a hit until there were two outs in the fifth. After a walk to Stephen Drew, Martin Prado doubled and Gardner followed with a two-run single. Jacoby Ellsbury, hitless in his previous 17 at-bats during a five-game road trip, made it 3-1 with an RBI single on New Yorks fourth straight hit. "The walk to Drew really set the game the other way," Rays manager Joe Maddon said. Hellickson made his sixth start after right elbow surgery in January. He left after the fifth. Mark Teixeira reached 20 homers for the 11th time in his career with a solo shot in the Yankees eighth. The slugger tied Joe DiMaggio for 80th place on the all-time list with 361. Evan Longoria had two RBIs for the Rays. He hit a run-scoring grounder in the first and drove in Joyce with a seventh-inning single that pulled Tampa Bay within 3-2. Prado also made several strong defensive plays at second base during Kurodas long run of consecutive outs. Tampa Bay had its club record of holding opponents to three runs or less end at 12 consecutive games. The Rays were just 7-5 over the stretch. "Thats like mid-60s baseball," Maddon said. "Wed like to take a little more advantage than 7-5." TRAINERS ROOM Yankees: Derek Jeter was the DH for the second straight game and sixth time this season. Jeter fouled a ball off his lower left leg Saturday, but Girardi said giving Jeter a break from the turf at Tropicana Field was behind the decision. ... C Brian McCann was hitless in four at-bats in his return after missing six games with a concussion. Rays: RF Wil Myers (broken right wrist) could return this week. OF David DeJesus (broken left hand) will not play in a rehab game Monday due to hand soreness. KURODAS HOMEWORK Joyce is 9 for 23 with three homers off Kuroda, which is something the right-hander has taken notice of. "If I knew what causes it, Im sure Id be able to get him out," Kuroda said. "Thats something that I have to take home and study." UP NEXT Yankees: LHP Chris Capuano (1-3) is scheduled to start against Houston LHP Brett Oberholtzer (4-8) Tuesday night. Rays: Tampa Bay and Detroit begin a three-game series Tuesday night at Tropicana Field. Former Rays ace David Price is scheduled to face Tampa Bay for the first time Thursday. Cheap Yeezy Australia . -- Canadas Nicole Vandermade won the Four Winds Invitational on Sunday for her first Symetra Tour title, closing with a 4-under 68 for a one-stroke victory. Cheap Yeezy Shoes For Sale . Basketball fans around the globe will be watching as Kobe Bryant makes his season debut - 240 days after tearing his left Achilles - against Toronto, a team he has used as his own personal punching bag. http://www.cheapyeezyaustralia.com/. - The Jacksonville Jaguars are leaning more toward playing injured quarterback Blake Bortles against Tennessee on Thursday night. Yeezy Wholesale Authentic .5 million. University officials released the term sheet signed by Harsin Wednesday, the day the former Broncos walk-on player and Boise native was named the successor to Chris Petersen, who left for Washington last week. Cheap Yeezys Real . Notes on Bergeron, Marchand, Gorges, Vanek, Gaborik, Doughty, Hiller and more. BRUINS STORM BACK TO TAKE GAME TWO The Boston Bruins rallied from a 3-1 deficit, scoring four unanswered goals, to win Game Two, 5-3 over the Montreal Canadiens. PRETORIA, South Africa -- The judge in the murder trial of Oscar Pistorius said Friday that she will give a verdict on Sept. 11, bringing closer to an end a globally televised five-month trial that has transfixed South Africans and others around the globe. Judge Thokozile Masipa made the announcement after the prosecution and defence ended their final arguments. Masipa will decide with the help of two legal assistants if the double-amputee athlete faces prison for killing Reeva Steenkamp on Valentines Day last year in his home. If found guilty of premeditated murder, Pistorius could face 25 years and up to life in prison. Pistorius said he mistakenly shot Steenkamp through the closed door of a toilet cubicle, thinking there was an intruder in his home. The prosecution alleges the world-famous runner intentionally killed her after an argument. "The accused intended to kill a human being," chief prosecutor Gerrie Nel said at the very end of closing arguments. "There must be consequences." Nel has urged the judge to dismiss Pistorius entire story as an elaborate lie and to convict him of premeditated murder. South Africa does not have trial by jury, nor does it have the death penalty. Pistorius could also be convicted of a lesser murder charge or negligent killing, both of which call for years in jail. Judge Masipa could acquit him if she believes he only made a tragic error. In the prosecutions final arguments, Nel accused the once-celebrated Paralympic champion of being an "appalling witness" who was constantly "deceitful" during his testimony to try to cover up a murder after a fight between the couple. Pistorius, 27, sat on the bench Friday behind his lawyer, the same place he has spent every one of the 41 days of proceedings. He wore glasses, mostly looking straight ahead. Chief defence lawyer Barry Roux argued the killing was an accident and said Pistorius disability had made him particularly vulnerable and anxious about crime over the years, comparing him to a victim of abuse who kills an abuser after a long period of suffering. Pistorius had his lower legs amputated as a baby, and Roux said that the athletes long-held fear of being attacked with the disability played a central role in the shooting on Feb. 14, 2013. At one point Frriday, Roux slammed his hand down onto a desk in the Pretoria courtroom to mimic a sudden sound he says the disabled athlete heard during the fatal night, startling him and causing him to fire four shots.dddddddddddd "Youre anxious. Youre trained as an athlete to react ... He stands now with his finger on the trigger ready to fire," Roux said, describing the highly fearful mindset he says Pistorius was in when he killed Steenkamp by mistake thinking she was a dangerous intruder. "He stands there and ..." Roux continued before suddenly hitting the wood surface in front of him to create a loud thump sound, arguing Pistorius fired on "reflex." The judge watched from her seat up on a dais. Pistorius pleaded not guilty to the main murder charge and also three separate firearm charges. Roux, however, conceded that he was guilty in one of those firearm charges, of negligently firing a gun in a public place in an incident in a restaurant weeks before the killing. Prosecutors have used those firearm charges to paint Pistorius as a hothead who was obsessed with guns, not the vulnerable figure his defence puts forward. Referring to some of the defences arguments already submitted to the court in a 243-page document, Roux said there were contradictions in testimony by some neighbours who said they heard a woman screaming on the night that Pistorius shot Steenkamp, suggesting a fight. Roux said high-pitched screams came from Pistorius as he called for help after the shooting, and that the athletes timeline of the sequence of events, including telephone calls, on the night of the shooting matched the testimony of key trial witnesses. Roux also alleged that items in Pistorius bedroom, near the bathroom where he killed Steenkamp, may have been moved around by investigating officers, repeating the defences allegation that police tampered with evidence, albeit unintentionally. "There was no respect for the scene," Roux said of the police investigation. The positioning of bedroom items, including a fan, a bedcover and a pair of Steenkamps jeans, are important because, in police photographs, they were not in the places where Pistorius said they were before the shooting. Prosecutors have used this to argue Pistorius is lying to hide a murder. ' ' '