BOS-2 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0-3 8 0
NYY-0 1 2 0 3 1 0 0 X-7 11 1

WP-Mussina (6-1) LP-Schilling (5-2) Sv-none

Mussina turned in his league leading eighth quality start despite giving up two home runs in the first two frames. Aside from Mike Lowell's solo home runs in the second inning, David Ortiz comprised the rest of Boston's offense. Mike Mussina held Boston in check, allowing three runs on seven hits while striking out five and pitching into the seventh inning. Scott Proctor struck out Manny Ramirez with two on to end the seventh inning and continued to pitch a perfect eighth. Mariano Rivera finished off the game. Giambi, Posada and Rodriguez each had 2-for-4 nights that included home runs off Curt Schilling. Melky Cabrera didn't record a hit, but had a perfect sacrifice bunt and walked in three plate appearances. My favorite Boston player to see go hitless (other than Papi) is Jason Varitek. And he rewarded me with another 0-for-4 night. The rubber game is tomorrow afternoon, pitting Tim Wakefield (2-4) against Shawn Chacon (4-1).

BOSTON
HR: Ortiz (12), Lowell (3)
RBI: Ortiz 2(30), Lowell (20)

NEW YORK
HR: Giambi (12), ARodriguez (7), Posada (4)
RBI: Giambi 2(34), ARodriguez (25), Damon (20), Posada 2(16), Williams (12)

Complete Box Score

BOS-0 0 3 4 3 1 0 0 3-14 16 0
NYY-2 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0-3 7 3

Three errors led to a long and ugly night. Alex Rodriguez topped off an 0-for-3 night with two errors at third, doubling his season total. Melky Cabrera misjudged a fly ball that allowed two runs to score in his first game this year. Cabrera also misjudged Trot Nixon's line drive last season which lead to an in the park home run. Cabrera did go 2-for-3 tonight with an RBI single off Josh Beckett. Randy Johnson's struggles continued to the tune of seven runs in 3 1/3 innings with five walks and two wild pitches. Tanyon Sturtze took one more step to unemployment by allowing three runs in the ninth.

BOSTON
HR: Ramirez (6), AGonzalez (1)
RBI: Lowell (19), Ramirez 2(18), Nixon (17), Varitek (15), Loretta 2(11), Gonzalez 3(11)

NEW YORK
HR: Giambi (11)
RBI: Giambi 2(32), Cabrera (1)

Complete Box Score

Can I Get Some Relief?
-Scott Edmonds

The major concern for the Yankees right now is the bullpen. While pitching well most nights, there have too many hiccups. The Yankees one loss on this road trip, to Boston, was sealed by poor relief pitching. Two games later a potential blow-out was turned in to a nail-biter in one head-scratcher of an inning. Some in Yankeeland are ready to hit the panic button. There are reasons to be concerned, but not overly so.

By far the biggest concern is with Tanyon Sturtze- who has yet to pitch well for any stretch this year. Once a reliable part of the famous ‘bridge to Rivera’, Yankees fans now collectively groan at the sight of him warming up in the bullpen. The organization’s line on Sturtze is that the stuff is there, but he doesn’t trust it. I have no idea what that really means, but something needs to change soon.

Mariano Rivera hasn’t quite yet seemed himself. In both Mike Mussina’s big game in Texas and tonight’s sweep clincher, he got hit and allowed runs to score. More importantly, in both cases he closed things down when they needed to.

Aaron Small never looks that good to me out of the pen- and this might really prove to be an issue soon as Wright is pitching well and Pavano is rumored to be coming back toward the end of the month.

The rest of the relievers- Farnsworth, Myers, Proctor and Villone are generally taking care of business. Dotel is on the way back, which could make the Yankees relief core even more stable.

Start Me Up
-Nate Ballance
For every subpar relief effort, the Yankees get three effective starts from the rotation. True, Chien Ming Wang didn’t look great against Boston, but he didn’t look all that bad either. Randy Johnson has been less than the Unit usually is, but the offense continues to pick him up. Mike Mussina and Shawn Chacon are on both cruising of late. Mussina is off to the best start as a Yankee since 2003 - spotting his pitches, changing speeds and throwing his fastball more effectively. He has been the true ace of the staff thus far.

Chacon's starts are never pretty, but he is stringing together solid outings and getting the job done. When he has control, he gets outs and is stingy with baserunners. But he often walks batters and puts men on base, tantalizing the other team until he gets the third out, often in the glove of a sprinting outfielder. Even the much maligned Jaret Wright has given the Bombers back-to-back decent starts. If Johnson can return to his early-season dominance and Wang can gain some consistency, the Yankees will have pretty fearsome starting rotation.

Back-to-Back Brooms
-Nate Ballance

After watching a close game get away from them in Boston - the Yankees finished their road trip with 5 consecutive wins. They took a pair from new nemisis Tampa Bay, with Jaret Wright taking a big step toward securing a rotation spot, delivering six innings of two-run ball. Randy Johnson was hit hard, but the Yankees hit the Tampa pitching harder in the second game. Mussina took on the offensive juggernaut Texas team (which was on a 6 game winning streak) and shut them down for 7 innings - the game the pen almost gave away. Chacon followed that with a 1 run, 5 hit start - and the Yankees got homeruns from Giambi and Rodriguez to lead the Yankees to a 6-1 win. Wang came in and looked good through 6 innings - giving up only one run. He clearly tired in the 7th, leaving pitches up in the zone and giving up hard hit balls. The pen came in and closed the game off.

Congratulations to Joe
-Scott Edmonds

The back-to-back sweeps culminated in Joe Torre’s 1000th win as a Yankee manager. Only Joe McCarthy (1,460), Casey Stengel (1,149) and Miller Huggins (1,067) have more wins as Yankee manager. Not bad for a guy dubbed ‘Clueless Joe’ by the New York Post when he was hired before the 1996 season. Too bad he didn’t reach that milestone in front of the home town fans.

Massacre Boston!
-Scott Edmonds

The Yankees have a day off and then host the Red Sox for 3 games. Johnson goes up against Josh Beckett in the first game on Tuesday night. This game is really big for Johnson- who was absolutely dominant against the Sox last year. He has only looked good in one of his last 4 starts, and the Yankees need him to come up big once again. Wednesday sees the battle of the aces as Mike Mussina faces off against Curt Shilling. Both pitchers are off to Cy Young type starts. This could be a true pitching gem, or not as often seems the case in these situations. The final game sees Chacon go up against Wakefield. Can Chacon shut down Boston’s big bats and can the Yankees get any solid wood on Wakefield’s knucklers?

The teams start the sit in a virtual tie in the AL East, so whichever team takes the series will be alone atop the division. Right now I feel good about this team. They have their first bona-fide winning streak, and are performing well in all areas of the game most of the time. Boston’s first trip to the Bronx this year sees both teams playing well. Bring on Boston. I love being a Yankee fan.

Andy Phillips Situation
-Nate Ballance

His job is to fill in when Giambi needs a day at DH, and to provide solid defense in the late innings. He's not expected to put up the monster numbers he did in AAA, so there isn't really any pressure for him. Right? Wrong. Phillips has made two errors thus far (the same as Giambi) but in half the chances. He's hit only one home run and is batting under .200 for the season. Many of his at bats are unproductive and he looks overmatched at times. With Carlos Pena tuning his skills in AAA, the era of Andy Phillips may be over. Phillips would be better off in my opinion traded to a team where he could see regular playing time (Atlanta comes to mind with their current first-base predicament). But he's clearly not getting the job done here. Minor league numbers are great and all, but if you can't carry that success over into the majors, you're not worth much to your team. Pena has an option to opt out of his contract if he wasn't called up by May 1, so the longer the Yankees try to find some magic in Phillips' bat, the less likely it is that they'll be able to convince Pena to stick around. Phillips has had his shot, it didn't work out. Now it's time for him to step aside and let someone else have a go.

NYY-0 1 0 5 0 1 1 0 0-8 12 2
TEX-0 0 1 0 0 2 1 0 1-5 9 0

WP-Wang (2-1) LP-Tejada (1-1) Sv-none

Shoddy defense was not enough to do the Yankees in as the won their fifth in a row and Joe Torre's 1,000th career victory in Pinstripes. The Yankees made two errors which led to a pair of unearned runs, but the game was never really close. Hideki Matsui homered and drove in three runs while Wang pitched six effective innings allowing three runs. Tanyon Sturtze was again horrible, and Scott Proctor again bailed him out with minimal damage. Rivera allowed an unearned run in the ninth courtesy of Andy Phillips error. Giambi's defensive replacement now has the same amount of errors as Giambi in half the chances. The top 3 batter for the Yankees were a combined 1-for-13, but the bottom six were 11-for-24 with 7 RBIs. The Yankees are off Monday before heading home to play Boston.

New York
HR: Matsui (5)
RBI: Matsui 3(19), Damon (19), Williams 2(11), Stinnett 2(2)

Texas
HR: none
RBI: Blalock 2(24), Young (20), Laird (3), Brown (2)

NYY-1 0 0 0 0 5 0 0 0-6 10 0
TEX-1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0-1 7 1

WP-Chacon (4-1) LP-Loe (1-3) Sv-none

Another solid starting performance from Shawn Chacon coupled with a five-run sixth inning gave the Yankees their fourth straight win on the road. Alex Rodriguez drove in three runs for the second consecutive night and Jason Giambi hit his team leading tenth home run. Chacon pitched 6 1/3 innings and allowed one run on five hits and four walks. He worked out of the stretch most of the night and was twice saved by running catches by Johnny Damon in centerfield. The Yankees managed just two hits in the first five innings off Texas starter Kameron Loe (one being the Giambi homer), but the first four batters of the sixth inning reached base and scored before an out was made. Tanyon Strutze and Scott Proctor finished off the game with a much more solid performance than last night's bullpen work. The Yankees send Chien Ming Wang out in the series finale before heading home to host Boston.

New York
HR: Giambi (10), ARodriguez (6)
RBI: Giambi (30), ARodriguez 3(24), Jeter (23), Crosby (1)

Texas
HR: none
RBI: Blalock (22)

NYY-2 0 0 5 1 0 0 0 0-8 9 1
TEX-0 0 1 0 0 0 0 6 0-7 10 2

WP-Mussina (5-1) LP-Padilla (3-2) Sv-Rivera (6)

Yikes. I was watching the game with my good buddy Scott, when I went to the bathroom. It was 8-1 in favor of the boys in blue. I came back eight minutes later and it was 8-5 and Texas wasn't done. So I am no longer going to the bathroom during Yankee games. The New York bullpen managed to save another outstanding effort by Mike Mussina and won 8-7. But it wasn't pretty. Mussina pitched seven innings allowing only two runs on three hits and struck out 5. But starting with a leadoff single by Kevin Mench in the eighth, Texas strung together seven singles, a walk, a hit by pitch and a fielders choice to cut the deficit to one. Rivera recoded the last four outs for a save but not before allowing a pair of run-scoring singles. The Yankees scored eight runs without hitting a home run. Gary Sheffield went 0-for-5 in his return to the starting lineup and left seven men on base. As a team, the Yankees stranded ten runners.

New York
HR: none
RBI: Giambi (29), Jeter 2(22), ARodriguez 3(21), Damon (18), Posada (14)

Texas
HR: none
RBI: Mench 2(25), Nevin (24), Blalock 2(21), Barajas 2(9), DeRosa (7)

NYY-0 1 0 0 3 0 2 4 0-10 10 0
TBD-1 0 2 0 2 0 0 0 0-5 9 1

WP-Johnson (5-2) LP-Orvella (1-2) Sv-none

Randy Johnson wasn't great, but he was good enough to get the job done. Then again, just about anything would have been enough to win as the New York offense exploded late for another double digit night. Hideki Matsui ended a 78 at-bat homerless streak and Johnny Damon connected for a grand slam directly after an intentional pass was given to Gary Sheffield. The bullpen was solid again, even Tanyon Sturtze had a scoreless outing (although it only lasted five pitches and one out). Proctor and Myers each issued a walk and a single, but kept Tampa Bay from scoring. Rodriguez was 0-4, but frove in the go-ahead run when he was hit by a pitch on the left arm.

Tampa Bay
HR: Wigginton (9)
RBI: Wigginton 3(29), Gomes (24), Crawford (13)

New York
HR: Damon (4), Matsui (4)
RBI: Giambi (28), Rodriguez (18), Damon 4(17), Matsui (16), Cano (12), Williams 2(9)

Complete Box Score

NYY-0 0 0 0 0 0 2 0 0 2-4 9 0
TBD-0 0 0 0 2 0 0 0 0 0-2-5 0

WP-Farnsworth (1-0) LP-Walker (0-3) Sv-none

Hopefully thier RBI singles in the tenth inning will break both Rodriguez and Matsui out of their respective slumps. Joe Torre used his vast managerial knowledge to knot the game at 2 in the seventh with situational pinch hitters. Posada and Cairo both drove in a run in the seventh to get Wright off the hook, who pitched pretty well. With Pavano's return looming in the near future, I expect Jaret Wright to take his game up a little in hopes of hanging onto his rotation spot. The New York bullpen, was once again brilliant, pitching the last four innings and allowing only two baserunners. Farnworth struck out two in earning his first win of the year and Rivera settled down for a 1-2-3 inning and his fifth save.

New York
HR: none
RBI: Rodriguez (17), Matsui (15), Posada (13), Cairo (3)

Tampa Bay
HR: Perez (2)
RBI: Perez 2(6)

TOR-0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0-1 9 0
NYY-0 0 0 0 2 0 2 0 X-4 9 0

WP-Mussina (4-1) LP-Chacin (4-1) Sv-Rivera (4)

Joe Torre got ejected. Doesn't happen very often, but it worked to the Yankees advantage today. Torre was ejected after the fifth inning for arguing balls and strikes with yet another umpire that seemed out to ensure the Yankees lose. But the young umpire seemed to try and make up for his bad calls against the Yankees by giving the Yankees the close ones in the sixth. Damon doubled in the fifth, stole third and waited patiently while Chacin walked Jeter, Giambi and Rodriguez to force in the go ahead run. Andy Phillips hit his first homer leading off the fifth and Giambi added a two run homer following Jeter's double in the seventh to provide some insurance. But the pitchers didn't need it. Mussina continued his masterful work throwing six innings allowing one run and striking out seven. Farnsworth pitched one and two-third innings and Rivera got the last four outs easily for his fourth save.

Toronto
HR: none
RBI: Catalanatto (10)

New York
HR: Giambi (9), Phillips (1)
RBI: Giambi 2(27), ARodriguez (16), Phillips (2)

Boston looms for the Yankees, who will match Chien-Ming Wang against Tim Wakefield in the first game of a short, two-game stop in Boston. The Yankees moved into first place by percentage points in the AL East with their win coupled with Boston's 5-4 loss to Tampa Bay.

New York 13-10 -
Boston 14-11 1
Toronto 12-11 1
Baltimore 13-13 1.5
Tampa Bay 11-14 3

TOR-2 0 3 0 1 0 0 0 0-6 6 2
NYY-4 1 2 2 3 1 3 1 X-17 15 1

WP-Johnson (4-2) LP-Towers (0-5) Sv-none

Ofense. Offense. Offense. And some more offense. There was plenty of it this afternoon to support a less than stellar performance by Randy Johnson. Giambi and Posada each hit a homer and Damon went yard twice. Gary Sheffield left in the sixth inning with a minor injury and is reported as day to day. Tanyon Sturtze, Ron Villone and Matt Smith combined for four perfect innings after Johnson left. Cano began a new hitting streak and Jeter ended his. Rodriguez continued to struggle, failing to record a hit in four at bats, but scored three times, two fewer than Damon who scored a career high five times.

Toronto
HR: none
RBI: Wells 2(25), Glaus 2(18), Hillenbrand (12), Zaun (9)

New York
HR: Giambi (8), Damon 2(3), Posada (3)
RBI: Giambi 4(25), Damon 3(13), Posada 2(12), Sheffield 2(18), Jeter (20), ARodriguez (15), Matsui (13), Cano (9), Cairo (2)