Are you sitting down? Good. Brace yourself now. Carl Pavano took the hill tonight against Yankee killer A.J. Burnett. And we won. Yes, we beat A.J. Burnett. And Carl Pavano got the win.

It's not like Burnett didn't turn in his usual performance, though. He did. He threw an 8 inning complete game (seeing as the Yankees didn't have to hit in the 9th), allowing 2 earned runs on 7 hits and 1 walk while striking out 8 after 108 pitches.

It took us 6 pitchers, but we outdueled him and it all started with Pavano, who threw 72 pitches over 6 innings, allowing 1 earned run on 3 hits, 1 walk and 1 strikeout.

Girardi got a little fancy with the pen over the final 3 innings. First, he went to Brian Bruney, who retired one batter. Then, he went to Damaso Marte, who had no problem with the final 2 batters in the 7th.

In the 8th, he turned to Jose Veras. Veras put runners on 1st and 2nd with no outs and Girardi went to Edwar Ramirez to face Travis Snider, who was making his MLB debut today. Edwar struck him out. Not quite done tinkering, Girardi submitted Mariano, who elicited a ground ball for the second out, before striking out Marco Scutaro to close out the eighth.

In the 9th, Mariano allowed a single, but retired everyone else, nailing down save number 32. Bobby Abreu doubled home Johnny Damon and then Jason Giambi hit a sacrifice fly, scoring Giambi.

The Yankees won't be gaining any games tonight, with Boston already claiming a big victory and the Rays up by 10 late. But, Darrell Rasner (5-9, 5.03) will get the start tomorrow against John Parrish (1-0, 4.05). For what it's worth, Rasner is 1-0 againt the Blue Jays in two starts, with a 3.09 ERA, 1.03 WHIP and .222 BAA.

All of the Yankees offense came in one inning, the fourth.