The night did not start off well for the Bronx Bombers. Roger Clemens was ineffective through 2 1/3 and left with his team behind 2-0 and a runner on second. Phil Hughes relieved and Jhonny Peralta hit a fly ball double down the right field line to extend the lead to 3-0.

The Yankees fought back to make it 3-1 on an RBI single from Damon. Phil Hughes held off the Tribe for 3 2/3 and the Yankee bats erupted in the fifth. After one out, Matsui singled to left and that was followed by a fly ball double down the left field line by Cano. Melky then singled to left to make the score 3-2 and set the stage for Johnny Damon. Damon delivered with a three run homer to right to give the Yankees the lead at 5-3.

In the next inning, the Yankees got three more on a two run single from Robinson Cano and help from Trot Nixon who overran the ball allowing another run to score.

Joba Chamberlain followed Hughes and was awesome in the seventh setting the side down in order. In the eighth, he tired a bit and allowed a run before getting Casey Blake to fly to deep right with two runners on.

Rivera finished up with a perfect ninth to preserve an 8-4 Yankee win.

The report on Clemens was a strained hamstring and tonight could be the last time Clemens' pitches for his career.

The series resumes tomorrow night with Paul Byrd facing Chien Ming-Wang coming back on three days rest.

Phil Hughes just saved the Yankees bacon. Even the doubters...give it up for the kid. He was clutch with a capital C.

One game at a time. Yankee starter to be named later (probably Mussina...which scares me to death) and basically every pitcher on the team (except maybe Joba) versus Paul Byrd.

Byrd versus Yankees. 1-4 in 8 starts (48.2 IP - that's a solid 6 IP per start). 4.44 ERA with a 1.50 WHIP (.290/.339/.495/.834 batting line againt).

19.5 hours until the next game. Let's get it on.

All is forgiven.

We apologize for anything bad that we might have said about you.

All the best,

Yankees fans all over the world

P.S. If the Yanks win this game, Derek Jeter would like to personally thank you for picking up your teammate.

From Ian O'Connor:


Via Peter Abraham.

You know you're a Yankees fan... when the team enters your dreams. Seriously, I had a dream last night that Phil Hughes had been named the game 4 starter. Not sure why I dreamed that, of all things. I suppose that may have meant that, in my dream, we had won game 3 to force a game 4. Hopefully, that part of the dream comes true.

Back in May, I talked about the striketwo.net team blog rankings. I mentioned how I'd never seen the Yankees at number one and, at the time of writing, the Mets blogs were first with 417.7 posts per week and we were second with 389.0. If my memory serves, we actually fell to 3rd and perhaps farther, after I wrote that. But, as of this moment, we're first with 361.2 posts with the Red Sox second at 339.3 and Mets third at 322.7. So, for whatever short period of time, we're first.

The top 10 Yankees bloggers/blogs contributing to that figure are Peter Abraham (42.7) Mike, Ben and Joseph (42.7), Steve (41.3), us (27.1), Pinstripe Alley (19.1), Replacement Level Yankees Weblog (17.3), The Bronx Block (16.6), My Pinstripes (16.6), Alex and Cliff (16.3) and Andrew Fletcher (15.9). Nicely done to those and everyone else. :)

I was just logging into eBay to check how much an item had cost when I noticed a featured auction on their homepage for Joe DiMaggio's passport. Bidding currently stands at $5,433.00 with 1 day and 9 hours to go.

How to take this quote?


This is the big leagues? Was your at bat in the 10th the big leagues, too?

Bryan Hoch reports that, due to a bronchial infection, Bob Sheppard will miss the ALDS, breaking a streak of 121 consecutive home postseason games called. The streak dates back to game 1 of the 1951 World Series! The lineups that day included DiMaggio, Rizzuto, Berra and rookies Mantle and Mays. Wow. Get well soon, Mr. Sheppard.

A great pitching performance from Andy Pettitte was wasted. He went 6 1/3 and left with a 1-0 lead. Joba Chamberlain relieved and got out of the seventh OK with a strike out and fly out but faltered a little bit in the eighth.

Grady Sizemore walked and Joba threw a wild pitch to send him to second. Cabrera bunted him to third for the first out. Hafner hit a rope to Mientkiewicz for the second out. With Martinez at bat and Canadian Soldier insects flying all over Joba, he uncorked another wild pitch and Sizemore scored to tie the game at one. He ended the inning without any further scoring and was relieved by Mo.

Rivera worked two scoreless innings and had some trouble in the tenth but struck out Jhonny Peralta with the bases loaded to end the threat. The Yankees couldn't muster anything against Rafael Perez for the second night in a row.

In the bottom of the eleventh, Lofton walked and Gutierrez failed to sacrifice but eventually singled to left to put runners on first and second with no outs. Casey Blake bunted them to second and third and Grady Sizemore was intentionally walked to load the bases. Cabrera popped out for the second out. However, on a 2-2 pitch Hafner lined the ball over second for a game winning walk off single.

The win puts the Tribe up 2-0 with the series headed to New York for a Sunday tilt. The Yankees only run was on a homer from Melky Cabrera. A-Rod, Matsui and Posada are a combined 0-17 in the series.