It was straight up Chac on Chac action today as Shawn Chacon took the hill for the Yankees with Gustavo Chacin going fo the Blue Jays. It would be a pitchers duel. The lone run in the game coming on a Bernie Williams RBI single (scoring Posada) in the 2nd. The Yankees finished with a total of 10 hits and 1 walk with the Blue Jays putting together 6 hits and 1 walk. Posada was 3 for 4, Bernie was 2 for 4 and Jeter, Giambi, Sheffield, Matsui and Sierra had a hit apiece. The 2nd (A-Rod) and 9th (Cano) were the only spots hitless.

Chacon was dynamite, going 8 innings and allowing no runs on just 4 hits and 1 walk. With a 1 run lead going into the 9th, who do we go to? Mo. No, wait... not Mo. He'd gone for 3 straight days, pitching a total and 3 and 1/3 innings. We were able to give him a day off and STILL win. Yay! Mr. Flash Gordon picked up the slack, but it was close. He allowed 2 singles to start the 9th before striking out Corey Koskie and inducing a game ending double play ball off the bat of Shea Hillenbrand. Still, nice work by the Flashman.

This marked the 3rd game this year in which the Yankees won by a score of 1-0 - the second time this month. The Yankees end the week 6-0.

Tomorrow will pit a current Yankee against a former Yankee as Jaret Wright (5-2, 5.37 or 3-0, 3.38 since returning from the DL) faces Ted Lilly (8-10, 5.61). Boston and Cleveland both play tonightat 7:05 Eastern.

For Randy Johnson, it was not meant to be. After allowing 3 runs in the 1st, he was tossed out for arguing balls and strikes in the 2nd inning with 2 outs. It was his shortest start in more than a decade.

The Yankees did all of their damage in innings 1 through 4. Giambi doubled in A-Rod in the 1st. Flaherty doubled in Cano in the 2nd. The 3rd and 4th innings are where the Yankees really did their damage. Cano hit a 3 run shot, bringing in Giambi and Matsui. And then Flaherty homers. Yes, Flaherty. His 2nd home run of the year and his 12th in 131 games with the Yankees. In the 4th, A-Rod would hit a 2 run homer, bringing Jeter around. With Giambi at 3rd and Sheffield at 1st, Matsui grounded into a fielders choice - Sheffield out, but Giambi safe at home. Cano brought him around on his second home run of the day.

Proctor relieved Johnson in the 2nd retired the first batter he faced with a runner on second. He would be solid in the 3rd and 4th innings, as well, failing to allow a runner to score. So, entering the bottom of the 5th, it was Yankees 11, Blue Jays 3. However, the Blue Jays refused to go quietly into the night.

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ESPN has named Mariano Rivera's 23 consecutive postseason saves as one of the 12 greatest pitching feats of the last 25 years.

The Yankees are playing like it is September, which is good to see, as they swept the Tampa Bay Devil Rays (did I ever think I would say "Devil Rays" and "sweep" in the same sentence this year??) on the road and picked up another game on the losing Boston Red Sox.

Aarron Small (8-0) pitched good enough to win in his worst start of the year. He gave up five runs on seven hits in 6 2/3 innings. Regardless, the Yankee bats were smoking last night.

Bubba Crosby, playing right field, went 3-5 with 2 RBI's and Robinson Cano went 3-5 with 6 RBI's. Both were at the bottom of the order, and did the damage that was enough to overcome Small's bad performance.

The Yankees are now 1 1/5 games behind Boston for the AL East lead. Shilling was drilled last night in their game against Oakland. They are also only a half a game behind the Cleveland Indians as they were idle last night. All of this amounts to some interesting baseball in the next few weeks.

Tonight Randy Johnson (14-8, 3.91 ERA) is on the mound for the visiting Yankees. They take on Toronto with their pitcher Dave Bush (5-8, 4.00 ERA). Game time is 7:07pm ET at the Rogers Centre.

Steve Lombardi reminded me of a post I made nearly a couple weeks ago.

Anyway, when Mike Vento got into the game, he became player number 51 and set the record.

The Yankees have actually won a series against the Devil Rays, as they won a back and forth 6-5 contest at Tropicana Field. The bullpen was very sharp as they gave us 2 and 2/3 innings without giving up a run. Chien-Ming Wang struggled a bit, going 6 and 1/3 and giving up 5 runs on 9 hits. The Indians and Red Sox both won, so the Yankees did not gain any ground on either race. However, the A's loss to the Indians puts them 2.5 games behind the Yankees in the standings.

The Yankees led 2-0 in the top of the 4th before the Devil Rays tied the score at two in the bottom of the inning. The Yankees regained a two-run lead in the 5th, but the D'Rays tied the score yet again in the bottom of the 5th. In the 7th, Derek Jeter launched a single into right field with the bases loaded and two outs to give the Bombers a 6-4 lead. The Yankees were finally able to hold that lead as Tampa Bay scored only once in the 7th and did not score again throughout. The Yankees used four relievers to hold the lead (Tanyon Sturtze threw only one pitch) and Mariano Rivera recorded his 38th save of the season.

Tonight Aaron Small will take his 7-0 record to the mound as he will face Seth McClung. McClung is 6-9 with a 6.32 E.R.A. in 31 appearances this season. He has made only 14 starts.

As it stood, we had only 20 games left to play. Down a game in the wild card standings and 3.5 behind the Red Sox, the Yankees entered Tampa Bay for what very well could be their toughest series remaining considering how they have played against the Devil Rays this season. The Yanks opened this series last night with a complete thrashing of the Rays, as they scored 5 in the 1st, 5 in the 2nd, and 7 runs in the 6th inning en route to a 17-3 victory. Bernie Williams had three hits on his birthday, Gary Sheffield made his return, and Jason Giambi launched his 30th home run before Joe Torre brought in a few bench players and September callups. Jaret Wright was solid after a rough first inning, giving up 3 runs on 5 hits in 7 innings.

The Red Sox, on the other hand, were the victims of a blowout at the hands of the Toronto Blue Jays, so the Yankees' victory allowed them to gain a game on Boston in the standings as they are now 2.5 games back. The Indians won over the Athletics, meaning they remain one game ahead of the Yankees for the wild card (tied in the loss column). However, Oakland's loss put them 1.5 games behind the Yankees in the standings.

One Yankee who did not have the greatest game of his career (or perhaps it will be) was rookie Mike Vento. In his Major League debut, he let a ball roll under his legs in right field and he also forgot how many outs there were, as he reached on a fielder's choice with one out, but began to head back into the dugout thinking that was the third out. Vento was tagged out before he could get back to first. Fortunately though for Vento and for the Yankees, the game was pretty much over before he entered and Derek Jeter was able to calm him down a bit and joke around with him in the dugout.

What is unfortunate for the Yankees, however, is that those 17 runs are not accumulative over the entire series, meaning they'll have to start over again tonight as Chien-Ming Wang goes up against Mark Hendrickson, who has become a nemesis of sorts for the Yankees. Perhaps we should send some sort of letter or petition to him asking him to reconsider resuming his basketball career.

Updating a previous entry, Derek Jeter was voted by the fans as the Marvin Miller Man of the Year Award finalist for the American League East. The other finalists are Mike Sweeney, Barry Zito, Andruw Jones, Albert Pujols and Todd Helton.

Major leaguers will select the winner - voting ends on Wednesday.

Via Brian MacMillan.

AL tie-breaker sites determined:


So, if we tie with Boston for the division or Oakland for the wild card, we'll have home field advantage in the tie breaker game. If we tie with Cleveland for the wild card, we'll have to go to Cleveland.

Via Steve Lombardi.

I'll be honest and admit that I didn't get a chance to see much of todays game. But, you can rest assured, it will be one that I'll definitely watch tomorrow on mlb.tv archive. What a great game, and much needed. They needed today's gutsy performance from the Unit and they got it, and then some.

Giambi's lone homer in the first was all that it took from the Yankees offense to get the win. A statement that is rare as they come these days with the Yanks pitching in constant shuffle. The long ball that Jason Giambi hit was just barely fair as it hooked the right field foul pole. Wakefield, had a career day himself striking out 12 Yankee bats.

Johnson himself struck out 8, walked 2 and gave up just one hit. He was replaced by Gordon in the eighth, and Rivera closed out the game for his 37th save. It marked 32 saves for Rivera against Boston in his career, the most saves against Boston in their history.

Tuesday night the Yankees hit the road and travel to Tampa to play the Devil Rays. Jaret Wright (4-2, 5.76 ERA) takes on Doug Waechter (5-9, 5.04 ERA). It has already been decided that the Yanks will have a losing record this season against the Devil Rays. What hasn't be decided is how the Yankees will play the remainder of their games against Tampa. Let's hope they come out with the same intensity as they do against Boston. Game time is 7:05pm ET at Tropicana field.