On Tuesday night, after 6 innings, Darrell Rasner had a nice line and the Yankees were only down by a run, 2-1, with the lone run coming on an A-Rod homer. But, to start the seventh, he went right into trouble, allowing a single and hitting a batter. Damaso Marte was brought in to stop the bleeding, but was ineffective, allowing a single, double and double, before making an out and going on to retire the Orioles. After all was said and done? 6-1, Orioles.

Veras threw a 1-2-3 inning with 2 strikeouts in the top of the 8th and the Yankees chipped away at the Orioles lead with a 2 spot in the bottom half of the inning. Cano drove in both runs, scoring A-Rod and Abreu on an RBI single. Unfortunately, with Jason Giambi on second, Wilson Betemit, Melky Cabrera and Xavier Nady went down in order, leaving the 'Stache stranded. That would come back to bite them.

Mariano pitched the ninth and yet again, in a non save situation, he allowed a run. He gave up a lead off homer to Aubrey Huff in the 9th. This run would also come back to bite the Yanks.

Heading into the bottom of the 9th, the Yankees were down, 7-6. They got off to a quick start with a Johnny Damon single, Derek Jeter walk and Bobby Abreu RBI double scoring Damon. A-Rod made the first out with a strike out.

Jason Giambi came through with a single, scoring both Jeter and Abreu and putting the Yankees down a run with a man on first and 1 out. Justin Christian pinch ran for Giambi and stole second. The tying run was at second base with Cano and Betemit due up. Both of them struck out and the game was over.

Joba Chamberlain (3-3, 2.30) will pitch against Dennis Sarfate (4-1, 3.78 ERA) tomorrow at 1:05 PM ET in the final game of the 3 game set with the O's.

Monday night was not a fun night at the Bronx if you are a Yankee fan, as Mike Mussina was knocked around by the Orioles in a game reminiscent of their brutal loss on May 20. After winning eight in a row, the Yankees have now been outscored by a total of 16 runs in their last two games. The Red Sox and Rays both lost, however, so the Yankees didn't lose any ground on either of the division or wild card races.

Mussina had another forgettable outing against his former team, as he was tattooed early and often. Moose went only five innings, allowing 8 runs on 6 hits. His E.R.A. jumped 30 points from 3.26 to 3.56.

The one bright spot of the game came in the 7th inning, when Xavier Nady broke an 0-9 slump since becoming a Yankee with his first home run in pinstripes. Johnny Damon also homered in the inning. It was Damon's first home run since May 27.

Well, I guess it's no harm done since both Boston and Tampa Bay lost. Time to get out there tonight and hopefully make last night a distant memory. Darrell Rasner will be taking the mound tonight and his counterpart will be the Orioles' Daniel Cabrera. Game starts at 7:05 ET.

Tonight, Phil Hughes and Carl Pavano (!) will both be making rehab appearances tonight for Single-A Charleston. I have a friend who will be attending the game and he'll be making a special guest post here afterwards. So, check back late tonight or early tomorrow for that.

The unfortunate likelihood has become a reality: Jorge Posada will have season ending surgery to fix his his right shoulder.

I really didn't want to put together a write-up for this game. Suffice it to say that this game proved everyone's thoughts on Sidney Ponson. He is doing it with smoke and mirrors and it was only a matter of time before his luck ran out. Sir Sidney gave up runs in the first, second, third, and fourth (3,1,1,2)...notice a pattern? Dan Geise came in and did a good job, going 4 innings and giving up 2 runs while saving the rest of the pen.

It's not like the Yankees didn't hit Lester though...they just didn't capitalize on the opportunities they had. In the third, with runners on first and second and nobody out, Derek Jeter grounded into a double play. In the fourth, A-Rod doubled to start off the inning but didn't score. Continuing the futility of the offense...in the fifth, the Yankees loaded the bases with none out and after scoring two (Jeter single and Abreu walk to load em up again), scored nothing else. A-Rod lined out, Nady flew out and Cano grounded back to the pitcher.

In any case, the Yankees had to lose sometime, no? It still felt like a bad loss...and Ponson's BAA (over 5 starts) is .322/.378/.469/.847. Umm, yeah, that's not good. Honestly, I wanted Darrell Rasner to be better...I really did, but yeah, not so much. .338/.400/.517/.917 over 9 starts. Help can't come soon enough...and speaking of help, anyone have any idea what happened to Washburn between May 10th and May 21st? Was he hurt or something? Because those two starts HAMMERED his ERA...but he has been lights out since then (2.82 ERA over 71 IP).

Dan Angell of The Trentonian spoke with Phil Coke and George Kontos in relation to reports that one of them had labrum damage.

Coke says that he hasn't had a physical since spring training. While Kontos simple says that his labrum is fine.

Thanks Joe for the tip.

Will Carroll reported on Saturday that Phil Coke failed a physical, leading to the Nady/Marte deal leading to the deal being adjusted.

However, in relation to Carroll's report, Mike Ashmore says that he'd be surprised if the Yankees would keep throwing an injured pitcher and noted that neither Trenton Manager Tony Franklin, nor Coke, have any idea as to why Coke was taken out of the deal.

Yesterday, a Pittsburgh paper had reported that the reason that the recent trade between the Yankees and the Pirates was adjusted, to remove pitchers Phil Coke and George Kontos, was because one of the pitchers had labrum damage.

But, according to Peter Abraham, Coke struck out three batters in one inning of work on Friday and Kontos threw six innings, yesterday. So, they both might be OK.

Ken Davidoff reports on the Yankees efforts to get Bernie back to the Stadium, before it closes, so that the fans can thank him. He was invited to Old Timers Day, but apparently has a long planned vacation with his family.

Via Steve.

The Yankees just keep rolling, this time clobbering the Red Sox by a score of 10-3 en route to their 8th straight victory against teams who started the break ahead of them in the wild card race. The Yanks closed to within one game of the Sox in the A.L. wild card race, and remained three games behind the Rays, who won in Kansas City.

Andy Pettitte was pretty solid after a rough first inning in which he allowed two runs. Pettitte more or less cruised through the next five innings, as aside from a home run by J.D. Drew in the 6th, he did not allow a runner to reach third base. He finished with a line of three runs off five hits in six innings.

The lineup did a good job against Tim Wakefield and took advantage of a mediocre Red Sox bullpen. Robinson Cano just continues to rake, as he went 3-4, including a game-tying home run in the 4th. He's now got his average up to .270. Alex Rodriguez was on base four times, including a scary moment where he was drilled in the arm by a fastball from Craig Hansen in the 8th. Rodriguez did leave the game, but the Yanks said it was just precautionary and doesn't seem major. Xavier Nady was 0-3 with a walk in his Yankees' debut.

The bullpen pitched yet another three scoreless innings, and this time Damaso Marte was in on the action. Marte was brought in to face one batter, and he got the job done as he struck out David Ortiz swinging in the bottom of the 7th. Jose Veras, Edwar Ramirez and David Robertson all had scoreless outings as well, and all three have earned run averages under 3.00.

If I told you I wouldn't have been a little surprised if the Yankees would finish out this 9-game stretch after the All-Star break against Oakland, Minnesota and Boston tied for the wild card lead, I'd probably be lying. All three teams were ahead of them when their series with them began, and the Yankees have mowed through all of them so far, and can catch Boston in the standings with a win tonight. There is one problem however: the pitching matchup for tonight is Sidney Ponson against Jon Lester. Ponson will have to cut down on his mistakes and retire some leadoff hitters for once, as he isn't going to get himself out of every jam against this lineup the way he's done it against the Mets, Rays and Twins. It will be a very intriguing game to watch, and could be a major turning point in this season. Game starts at 8:05 ET and will be carried on ESPN.