Rays' Souza Jr. celebrates birthday with 2-HR afternoon
Go enjoy your banana kaboom, Steven Souza Jr.
It was a very happy 27th birthday for the Tampa Bay Rays right fielder, who celebrated the occasion by hitting a pair of home runs in his team's 8-1 rout of the New York Yankees.
Souza Jr. first connected off Michael Pineda as part of the Rays' five-run first inning. It was the second two-run blast of the frame for Tampa Bay, and one of five Rays homers on the afternoon.
His second dinger was a frozen rope to right field, also off Pineda, and gave the Rays a 7-1 lead.
Souza Jr. became the 12th Rays player to go yard on his birthday, and the first player to have a multi-homer birthday game since Minnesota's Trevor Plouffe in 2012. He also joined Justin Morneau and Bernie Williams as the only players to hit two homers on their birthdays at either version of Yankee Stadium.
His teammates knew of the special occasion, of course, and celebrated both the win and Souza Jr.'s milestone appropriately.
Win and 2 HR at Yankee Stadium for @SouzaJr on his birthday: "Better than the Ninja Turtles I got as a kid." #RaysUp pic.twitter.com/XTlyxpO81E
— Tampa Bay Rays (@RaysBaseball) April 24, 2016
(Videos courtesy: MLB.com)