Rocket’s Road To Ruin!
Roger Clemens indicted for lying under oath to Congress

The nightmare began over 2-1/2 years ago. On December 13, 2007 Ex-senator George Mitchell, who had been authorized by Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig to look into the severity of the steroid/HGH problem in baseball, filed the report on his findings. It was entitled, “REPORT TO THE COMMISSIONER OF BASEBALL OF AN INDEPENDENT INVESTIGATION INTO THE ILLEGAL USE OF STEROIDS AND OTHER PERFORMANCE ENHANCING SUBSTANCES BY PLAYERS IN MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL.”

The report was 409 pages long and it capped an approximate 21-month investigation. Eighty-six players were named in the report. The team with players most often named was the New York Yankees, which led the field with 22 names associated with the club. They were followed by the Baltimore Orioles (18), Anaheim/Los Angeles Angels (16), New York Mets (15), Los Angeles Dodgers (15) and the Texas Rangers (15).

Right smack in the middle of the report, on page 167, appeared the biggest name of all – Roger Clemens.

It all started with the Federal Government’s investigation of convicted steroid peddler Kurt Radomski. In connection with the investigation Federal agents questioned Clemens personal trainer Brian McNamee. McNamee, a former New York police officer, agreed to cooperate with the U.S. Attorney’s Office as part of their investigation of Radomski. Additionally, it was agreed to that McNamee would not be charged with any crime if he gave truthful answers. However, any false answers would mean McNamee could and would face charges.

Mitchell piggybacked onto the Federal investigation and was allowed to question McNamee about any involvement he had in distributing performance enhancing drugs to any major league players. McNamee told Mitchell he became professionally involved with Clemens in 1998 and over a three year period from 1998 through 2001 McNamee said he injected Clemens several times with various PEDs.

According to McNamee after the 2001 season Clemens never asked him to inject him with performance enhancing drugs again. However, McNamee stated that he continued as a personal trainer for Clemens as well as picking up Andy Pettitte and Chuck Knoblauch. Radomski indicated in the report that when asked how Pettitte or Knoblauch was doing McNamee would indicate, “they are on the program.” Radomski took it to mean they were using PEDs, but admitted McNamee never directly said so.

The Mitchell Report also indicated Clemens remained a source of income through 2007.

On December 23, 2007, after the report was made public, Clemens went on the defensive and made a YouTube video, running a minute and forty-eight seconds, and categorically denying ever having used or being injected with performance enhancing drugs by McNamee or anyone else.

Clemens next stop was the studios of CBS’s “60 Minutes” news program. Clemens was interviewed by veteran report Mike Wallace. The interview was broadcast on Sunday, January 6, 2008. Once again Clemens denied ever using any performance enhancing drugs.

Sunday night, in Harris County District Court in Texas, Clemens filed suit against McNamee listing 15 alleged statements McNamee made to the baseball drug investigator George Mitchell. Clemens stated the statements were "untrue and defamatory."

At the same time it was learned that McNamee called Clemens on the Friday before the 60 Minutes interview and had a 17-minute phone conversation, which began with Clemens inquiring about McNamee’s ailing son.

Later in the conversation the talk turned to the allegations McNamee made. Clemens told McNamee, “I didn’t do it.” McNamee replied, “Tell me what you want me to do. I'll go to jail. I'll do whatever you want." Clemens never told McNamee to recant his allegations and say he was lying. He only said he wanted someone to tell the truth. Afterward, Clemens’ attorney Rusty Hardin told the press he said Clemens could have said more, but didn’t because he had instructed Clemens not to threaten McNamee or make it sound like he was intimidating a potential Federal witness.

As McNamee’s and Clemens’ attorney’s played word war games in the press the United States Congress stepped into the fray and wanted both men, along with Pettitte and Knoblauch to testify before them as to their alleged PED usage and whatever else they knew, which would help the problem of performance enhancing drugs in Baseball.

On February 5, 2008 Clemens told federal investigators he had never taken any form of performing enhancing drugs.

The next day McNamee and his team revealed they had given investigators several needles and gauze with Clemens blood and traces of PEDs on them to prove Clemens had injected illegal substances.

The hearing was set for February 13, 2008 in Washington, DC. It went off as scheduled, but the most important witness in the matter wasn’t even at the hearing.

Andy Pettitte, who was Clemens’ friend and teammate on both the Yankees and later Houston Astros, admitted receiving HGH shots from McNamee in 2002 to help speed up the healing process of tendinitis in his throwing elbow. A condition that landed Pettitte on the disabled list. In his affidavit Pettitte said in 1999 he had a conversation with Clemens while training with him where Clemens admitted to him he had taken Human Growth Hormone. Later Clemens denied using HGH and when Pettitte confronted Clemens about the discrepancy Clemens said he wasn’t talking about his usage, but his wife, Debbie.

In the hearing Clemens told the congressional committee that Pettitte mistaken their conversation.

"I think Andy has misheard. I think he misremembers," Clemens said.

In McNamee’s deposition before the congressional committee a week before the hearing McNamee stated that he had injected Debbie Clemens with HGH to get her to look good for a pose on a Sports Illustrated cover. As had been the cycle throughout the “he said, he said” ordeal the details surrounding this shot were disputed.

Clemens said McNamee told Debbie about the advantages of using HGH and that she injected herself and McNamee claimed he gave Mrs. Clemens the injection in the Clemens’ bedroom in Roger Clemens presence.

In another deposition former major leaguer and ex-teammate of Clemens and Pettitte, Chuck Knoblauch, said in his sworn statement that McNamee, while training him when with the New York Yankees, had injected him with HGH 7 to 9 times in 2002.

At the end of the hearing things were not looking good for Clemens. McNamee was apparently truthful in his statements about Pettitte, Knoblauch and Debbie Clemens. How is it that these three witnesses corroborated McNamee’s claims, but Clemens is saying McNamee is lying about him? Clemens veracity was clearly in question.

Late in February, 2008 the congressional committee requested the U.S. Justice Department begin an investigation to determine if Clemens had lied to Congress under oath.

Eleven months later the Federal Grand Jury convened to review testimony and evidence to determine if Clemens should be prosecuted for lying under oath to Congress.

In February of 2009 tests conducted on the items turned over to Federal investigators indicate Clemens’ DNA is in the syringes McNamee claims he use to inject the pitcher with performance enhancing drugs. Approximately one month later investigators discover evidence of performance enhancing drugs on the items provided by McNamee.

On August 28 the Federal court in Houston, Texas dismissed Clemens defamation suit against McNamee. He later lost an appeal to have it reinstated. Meanwhile, McNamee filed his own defamation suit in Brooklyn, New York. Advantage McNamee.

Now comes the indictment against the man who was arguably hailed as the greatest pitcher in the history of baseball. Two World Series rings, seven Cy Young Awards, an MVP, All-star selections, etc. etc. We may be finding out why now. Remember when, in 1997, ex-GM Dan Duquette said Clemens was in the “twilight of his career” and the Boston Red Sox let him go to Toronto? Maybe Duquette had a better sense of Clemens abilities than he was given credit for.

On top of all of this Clemens secret personal life came to light as well. Always depicted as a family man who loved his wife dearly Clemens was discovered to have had many trysts during his career. Everything from an underage ex-country singer to a porn star. Clemens first denied any of it, but later apologized for personal mistakes to his wife and family, but never said what he was apologizing for.

Roger Clemens is up the proverbial “bleep” creek without a paddle. His life as he knew it is crumbling around him. The next few months to years ahead Clemens may be trading in his Yankee pinstripes for another kind of uniform with stripes. No matter what the outcome of any future trial may indicate Clemens will be tried and convicted in the court of public opinion.

Admittedly, each tidbit mentioned here, by themselves, would hardly condemn anyone, but taken in mass and as a whole this chronology of alleged lies and evidence can be quite damning to Clemens, his future and his legacy.

There is no honor, no glory and no Hall of Fame in Clemens future as it appears now. How does he look his kids in their faces or his wife’s and say, “It ain’t so?”

For their sakes and his I hope he’s right.

© 2010 Yankees Talk Shop @ yuku.com.
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Yankees Split For Home

Bombers go disappointing 3-3 on road trip

The old adage is win at home and play .500 on the road and your team will have a good fortune. Well, that formula usually works, but not always.

One week ago the Yankees had just finished a four-game weekend, wrap around series with the Boston Red Sox. The Yankees split that series 2-2 leaving them 1.5 games ahead of the second place Tampa Bay Rays and six games ahead of the BoSox. With a chance to put the Red Sox as many as ten games behind them in the standings the Yankees took their foot off Boston’s throat and allowed them to live to fight another day.

They hit the road for Texas and Kansas City and if you believe in win-loss records the Yankees should be returning home on the heels of a successful, winning road trip.
Shoulda, coulda, woulda.

The Yankees started out their roady with a two-game set against the Texas Rangers in Arlington. In the past New York has had the better of the Rangers. This time, however, Texas was having none of that. With temperatures in triple digits the Yankees and Rangers went hammer and tong for two straight nights.

On Tuesday night A.J. Burnett faced off against C.J. Wilson and it was a pitcher’s duel. Burnett gave up only three runs on six hits in seven innings of work. Wilson was nearly as dominant surrendering only two runs on five hits during a 5.1 inning stint. The difference in the game was the 10th inning appearance by Mariano Rivera who loaded the bases by surrendering two straight singles and an intentional walk. The only out recorded was made by Vladimir Guerrero who grounded out to third. Rivera then gave up a third single to David Murphy plating Michael Young for a 4-3 win.

The following night the Yankees returned the favor coming back from a 6-1 shortfall against lefty ace Cliff Lee. The Bombers scored six runs in the final four innings winning the game 7-6 on Marcus Thames tie-breaking single to score Brett Gardner.

Landing in Kansas City for a four game series against the Royals, and with the top of their rotation ready to go, the Yankees had every expectation of either sweeping or at least taking this series away from K.C.
Shoulda, Coulda, Woulda.

Thursday’s contest pitted C.C. Sabathia against journeyman lefty Bruce Chen. Sabathia wasn’t sharp, but he battled. He went 8.2 innings and gave up just three runs on ten hits, striking out three and walking two. Chen wasn’t terrific either. He allowed three runs on eight hits while fanning two and walking two in five innings of work. Chen did what he needed to do and kept his team in the game.

Sabathia took a 4-1 lead into the bottom of the ninth and after getting the first out surrendered two singles before getting the second out. With two on and two out manager Joe Girardi replaced Sabathia with Dave Robertson who gave up a two run double before getting catcher Jason Kendall to strike out to end the game.

Kansas City returned the favor the following night beating Dustin Moseley and the Yankees 4-3.

On Saturday Phil Hughes went up against Sean O’Sullivan and the AWOL Yankees’ offense finally showed up. Led by Alex Rodriguez’s 3-home run night New York knocked out five home runs (Jorge Posada and Curtis Granderson hit the other two) and collected 14 hits on the evening to take the game 8-3, giving Hughes his 14th win on the season.

This afternoon’s game had Burnett facing never before seen right-handed pitcher Bryan Bullington. Bullington, who was baseball’s No. 1 draft pick eight years ago, had an 0-7 lifetime record. He was 0-2 this season losing in his last appearance against the Los Angeles Angels 3-1. Bullington threw six innings and allowed all three runs on five hits. He struck out four and walked one.

Burnett, on the other hand, was also coming off a loss, but had pitched very well against the always tough Rangers. The edge should have been to the Yankees.

Both pitchers dug in early and late, but it was Burnett who surrendered the only run of the day. In the first inning Willie Bloomquist hit a one out single to right, then stole second and later scored on a single to center by Billy Butler. After that Burnett bore down and kept the Royals from scoring another run. Burnett went the distance in a losing effort by striking out six and walking three. The three hits in the first inning was all the offense the Royals produced for the remainder of the game.

As good as Burnett was Bullington was better. He shut down one of the best lineups in baseball for eight innings. Bullington gave up only two hits while striking out five and walking one. Closer Joakim Soria pitched a perfect ninth to preserve the shutout.

The Yankees now head home for a seven game home stand against the Detroit Tigers and Seattle Mariners; two teams who are having plenty of troubles. Both clubs are playing below .500 ball and the Yankees know they should be flying home to face them with a winning road record. Instead, they are landing in New York after splitting their last two series.

Seventeen of the next twenty-three games the Yankees play will be played in the Bronx where they have a .649 winning percentage; best in the American League. This is the time for the Yankees to take advantage of this part of the schedule and put some sustained winning streaks together. September is fast approaching and the Yankees have a brutal schedule facing the Rangers, Toronto Blue Jays, the newly improved Baltimore Orioles, Red Sox and Rays. Their final seven games of the season are on the road with four in Tampa and three in Boston.

The Yankees destiny is in their own hands. Win and they go to the playoffs. Lose and face the possibility of not being able to defend their World Series championship in October.

Losing is not an option.

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The one that got away!
Yankees fail to bury Red Sox in 4-game split

There were no winners and no real losers. The Boston Red Sox came into this weekend’s wrap around series at Yankee Stadium trailing the New York Yankees by six games. They left the Bronx after Monday’s game trailing by the same six game margin by virtue of a four game split. The Yankees, on the other hand, fared a little better. Although not able to gain ground on the Red Sox they did pull further ahead of the Tampa Bay Rays. The Rays are in action tonight against the Detroit Tigers. A win would pull the Rays within a 1-1/2 games of the division leaders and a loss would put them 2-1/2 games behind.

Sox starter Jon Lester was absolutely dominating in the early and middle innings of the contest. He didn’t allow a hit until the bottom of the fifth inning. He went seven innings, surrendering only four hits and no runs while striking out six and walking three. He threw 99 pitches before turning the ball over to reliever Daniel Bard in the eighth inning.

Phil Hughes pitched a doozy himself. Even though he wasn’t quite as dominant as Lester Hughes threw six strong innings and only allowed two runs, all in the second inning, on six hits. He struck out three and walked one in the loss.

The pitchers were the story of the day, but the story of the weekend was the Yankees failure to take advantage of playing this series at home. If the Yankees had won the series or had swept the Sox they could’ve taken a commanding eight to nine game lead in the division race. As it is Boston remained six games behind the Yankees and depending upon what the Rays do are within striking distance of the wild card slot.

The Red Sox took the lead in the game in the second on a throwing error by catcher Jorge Posada. LF Ryan Kadish hit a one out single to right and then stole second to set himself up into scoring position. Posada threw the ball wide of the bag and into the outfield. Kadish popped up and took third. He scored the first run on 2B Bill Hall’s infield hit to shortstop. CF Jacoby Ellsbury followed with a single to shallow center field allowing Hall to go to third. Hall scored on RF J.D. Drew’s grounder to Robinson Cano at second. Hughes got catcher Victor Martinez to ground out to end the inning.

Lester kept the Yankees off balance by mixing his pitches all afternoon. The Bombers best chance came in the bottom of the seventh when Posada led off with a single. DH Marcus Thames doubled to deep right, narrowly missing a game tying home run, but the slow-footed Posada could only make it to third. Lester then hit LF Austin Kearns to load the bases with no one out. Boston manager Terry Francona kept Lester in the game to face CF Curtis Granderson and Lester rewarded Francona by striking Granderson out on three pitches out of the strike zone.

Francona made a pitching change bringing in the hard throwing Daniel Bard to face SS Derek Jeter and RF Nick Swisher. Bard struck both of the Yankee hitters out leaving the bases full of Yankees and nothing to show for it.

The Yankee had one more shot at winning the game in the bottom of the eighth when 1B Mark Teixeira led off with a long solo shot into the second deck in right field off Bard. 3B Alex Rodriguez followed with a single and he was replaced on the bases by the speedy Brett Gardner. Gardner moved to second on a ground out by Cano. Posada walked, but neither runner advanced as pinch hitter Lance Berkman popped out to left. Berkman ran off the field to a chorus of boos.

At this point Francona went to his stopper Jonathan Papelbon to record the final out of the inning. He did so on one pitch as Kearns swung at the first pitch and grounded out to second.

Papelbon returned in the ninth to close out the game. He struck out Granderson, Swisher and Teixeira to put the final stamp on an afternoon of terrific pitching.

"Give them credit because they made the big pitch when they needed to," Teixeira told reporters after the game. "It was kind of a bend but we don't break attitude for them today, and we just couldn't come up with the big hit."

Manager Joe Girardi said the Yankees had their chances to score, but the Sox bullpen kept the Yankees at bay.

"We missed a lot of opportunities in the last three innings," Girardi said to the media. "We had some chances to score some runs. Obviously they have a good back end of the bullpen, but we had our shots."

Hopefully for the Yankees they won’t look back on this series as the season winds down to wonder what if? The next meeting between the two clubs won’t be until September 24, and they might be the most important games of all.

"We know that there's still a lot of baseball and we have to continue to try and win series," Girardi stated. "I'm going to say it again and you probably get tired of hearing it. No one said it was going to be easy."

The Yankees take their show on the road as they fly to Texas to take on the Rangers in a 2-game series in Arlington before moving onto Kansas City to face the Royals in a 4-game set. The Red Sox head to Toronto to play three against the always tough Blue Jays, and then follow the Yankees down to Texas to face the Rangers in a 3-game series.

© 2010 Yankees Talk Shop @ yuku.com.
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Moseley Mows Down Red Sox
Unsung pitcher shuts down Boston bats

What a coming out party for young right-handed pitcher Dustin Moseley. Moseley, who gained the attention of Joe Girardi and company after mopping up a poorly pitched game by Sergio Mitre on July 24 against the Kansas City Royals, entered last night’s game with no other expectations than try and hold the line.

Under the lights at Yankee Stadium and showcasing his stuff on the nationally televised game for ESPN Sunday Night Baseball Moseley did more than that. He completely slammed the door on the Boston Red Sox for nearly seven innings.

Moseley entered Sunday’s game with a 1-1 record. His previous outing was on August 3 against the Toronto Blue Jays and the Jays knocked Moseley around like George Foreman knocked around Joe Frazier. Moseley lasted 7-1/3 innings, but have up 9 hits, including 2 home runs, and 5 earned runs. So against a dangerous team like the Red Sox who are fighting for their playoff lives no one could predict how Moseley would do in a game between the greatest rivals and sports and on national T.V.

Moseley didn’t disappoint.

The Red Sox, currently in 3rd place in the AL East, had their ace facing Moseley and the Yankees. Josh Beckett had just come off the disabled list and pitched a tremendous game against the Cleveland Indians, going 8 innings and just allowing one earned run on 3 hits. That said, observers said they wanted to see how Beckett would fare against an elite team before proclaiming he was all the way back.

If you were taking bets in Las Vegas the smart money would have been on Beckett over Moseley. Apparently, Moseley didn’t read the morning line.

Moseley went right after the Red Sox hitters. In 6-1/3 innings Moseley allowed only 2 earned runs on six hits, while striking out five and walking one batter. He threw 87 pitches, 52 for strikes and only second baseman Bill Hall managed to get more than one hit in the game. He did the most damage against Moseley when he hit a solo home run to open the 5th inning. The home run didn’t dampen Moseley’s spirits as he retired the next three hitters to maintain a 2-1 Yankees’ lead.

The Yankees got on the board first when in the bottom of the second inning, with DH Lance Berkman standing on second, LF Brett Gardner hit a grounder up the middle and to the left of Hall. Hall snagged the ball as Berkman made his way to third, but made a costly error trying to throw out the speedy Gardner at first. Hall threw the ball wide allowing Berkman to score the Yankees first run.

Gardner, doing what he does best stole second base to set up another run scoring opportunity. Shortstop and Yankee captain Derek Jeter as he often does lined a single up the middle scoring Gardner to make it 2-0. That hit was Jeter’s 2,874th to move him past Babe Ruth into 39th place on the career hits list.

After the Red Sox had cut the Yankees lead in half on Hall’s bomb the Yankees went to work on Beckett. First baseman Mark Teixeira, who had never hit a home run in 31 previous at bats against Beckett, led off the bottom of the 5th and hit a 91 mph 2-seam fastball over the right field fence to make the tally 3-1.

Beckett’s nightmare didn’t end there. He walked Alex Rodriguez and hit Robinson Cano with a pitch to put runners on first and second. After striking out Jorge Posada Beckett surrendered a run scoring double to Berkman. With Cano on third and Berkman occupying second Beckett walked Curtis Granderson to load the bases. As Gardner struck out swinging catcher Kevin Cash tried a pickoff throw to third in an attempt to get Cano. The ball bounced off a diving Cano’s helmet and went into left field. Cano scored and both Berkman and Granderson moved up 90 feet. That brought up Jeter.

Jeter drove a 1-1 cutter into the right-center field gap for a double and scored both Berkman and Granderson. That was the end of Beckett’s night. Reliever Manny Del Carmen came on and struck out Nick Swisher to end the inning. The damage was done as the Yankees took a 7-1 lead.

In the meantime Moseley held the line in the 6th. After David Ortiz singled to start the inning Moseley popped out Victor Martinez and got J.D. Drew to ground into an inning ending double play.

In the 7th inning Moseley surrendered a double to Adrian Beltre and, after striking out Ryan Kalish, he gave up a soft ground single to Hall to put runners at first and third. Manager Joe Girardi made a pitching change and brought in the inconsistent Joba Chamberlain. Chamberlain allowed a single to Mike Lowell scoring Beltre and putting runners at first and second. He got OF Jacoby Ellsbury to fly out to left before walking shortstop Marco Scutaro to load the bases and that brought up Ortiz. Girardi had seen enough. He replaced Chamberlain with left specialist Boone Logan who induced Ortiz to ground out to Cano to end the inning and the threat.

The rest of the game went without any drama and Moseley had earned himself a well deserved victory.

The Yankees and Red Sox face off today in the Bronx at 2:05 p.m. to close out their 4-game series. A Yankees win would put the Bombers 8 full games ahead of the Red Sox. A Red Sox victory would allow them to leave New York the same 6 games behind they were when they arrived on Friday.

Today’s starters pits Boston’s Jon Lester (11-7, 3.07) against New York’s Phil Hughes (13-4, 3.96) Lifetime Lester is 4-1 with a 4.01 ERA against the Yankees and Hughes 1-2 with a 6.48 ERA against the Red Sox.

Notes: In four starts against the Yankees this season Josh Beckett has surrendered 24 earned runs in 19-1/3 innings of work. That calculates out to an 11.31 ERA against the Bombers. Alex Rodriguez was removed from the game before the 9th inning due to his sore left shin stiffening up. Before that A-Rod became only the third player in MLB history to record at least 600 home runs and 300 stolen bases. Willie Mays and Barry Bonds are the other two.

© 2010 Yankees Talk Shop @ yuku.com.
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Si, Si, Sabathia Was Terrific!
Lefty throws blanket over Sox in 5-2 win

Other than a hiccup in the second inning of the New York Yankees 5-2 win over the visiting Boston Red Sox Saturday afternoon in the Bronx lefty starter C.C. Sabathia gave a pitching lesson the rest of the Bombers starting rotation should try and emulate. Especially, since the other guy who uses his initials as a first name has been an inconsistent question mark all season long. A.J. Burnett starts Sunday night’s game against the Sox.

Sabathia went eight strong innings, throwing 101 pitches along the way and out-dueled his opposite number, right-handed pitcher, John Lackey to earn his 14th win in 19 decisions. Sabathia struck out four and walked one, and after giving up a solo home run to catcher Victor Martinez and an RBI double to third baseman Adrian Beltre scoring first baseman Mike Lowell in the second, pretty well shut down the Red Sox offense the rest of the way. In fact, three of his four K’s was against Boston’s designated hitter David Ortiz. Ortiz was not a fan of home plate umpire Jerry Layne; questioning Layne on the expanse of his strike zone on a few occasions.

Meanwhile, Lackey, who has had past success while a member of the Los Angeles (Anaheim) Angels, didn’t fare as well. Lackey threw 116 pitches in six innings of work, giving up 5 earned runs on 8 hits, while walking three and striking out seven. Lackey’s downfall came in the 5th inning when the Yankees scored twice to break a 2-2 tie.

With two outs and Yankees at first and third on singles by Nick Swisher and Mark Teixeira Robinson Cano singled to right field scoring Swisher. Catcher Jorge Posada followed with a single of his own scoring Cano. Posada stole second to set up a second and third, but DH Lance Berkman hit a weak grounder to Lackey who threw Berkman out at first to end the inning.

The Yankees cashed in another run in the 6th when Curtis Granderson singled to right, stole second and later scored on a one out single by Ramiro Pena to right to make the score 5-2.

Sabathia put up zeroes in the 7th and 8th innings bridging the gap to Mariano Rivera to close out the 9th.

Rivera threw an 8 pitch inning getting catcher Victor Martinez to ground out to Teixeira at first, Beltre to fly out to right and Lowell to fly out to Granderson in center to earn his 23rd save of the season.

After the game several Yankees spoke to the press about Sabathia’s performance.

Said manager Joe Girardi referring to Sabathia’s dominating outing, “Tremendous,” Girardi said, “It was what we needed.” Specifically, because the Yankees dropped 2-of-3 to the Toronto Blue Jays before dropping the first game of the four game set against the Red Sox during the Yankees seven game home stand.

Sabathia’s battery mate Posada put it this way. “You have your horse on the mound and you want to win when he's on the mound. It's important."

Sabathia played for two milestones in this game. On Thursday he and his wife welcomed their fourth child, Carter Child, into the family and Sabathia’s victory was the 150th win of his career. In a twist of irony for the Yankees Sabathia notched his 14th win of the season tying him for the American League lead in victories with David Price of the Tampa Bay Rays and you won’t believe it, Carl Pavano of the Minnesota Twins.

Yeah, THAT Pavano who couldn't find his way to a Yankees mound for 4 years and $40 million dollars.

Another couple of statistics about Sabathia is that he hasn’t lost in his last 18 starts at Yankee Stadium and is 13-0 over that span. Additionally, Sabathia is 3-0 with a .091 ERA against the Sox in his last four starts.

Sunday’s contest between the Yankees and Red Sox pits the beleaguered Burnett against Josh Beckett. Burnett’s record over the past 10 starts would indicate he has been erratic. In those starts Burnett has allowed no runs in three and over six in four others, including his last start against the Toronto Blue Jays where he allowed eight earned runs.

On the other hand, Beckett since coming off the disabled list on July 23 has seemingly bounced back. In his last start against the Cleveland Indians Beckett allowed only one run and three hits in eight innings of work. However, in his 2010 starts against the Yankees he is 0-1 with a 10.43 ERA.

Miracle or mirage?

Sunday night’s contest, broadcast nationally on ESPN, should answer a lot of questions. Is Burnett the pitcher the Yankees paid $82.5 million over 5 years and is Beckett all the way back from a string of seemingly endless injuries?

Stay tuned.

Notes: New York Yankees third baseman Alex Rodriguez was injured during Saturday’s batting practice when Lance Berkman lined a ball at Rodriguez, which stuck him on the left shin sending him to the ground in pain. A-Rod walked off the field under his own power and initial x-rays proved negative for an extensive injury. Rodriguez has been listed as day-to-day.

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Another Boston Massacre in the Making?
Yanks need to bury long time rivals this weekend in the Bronx

By virtue of a day off and a late rally by the Minnesota Twins yesterday down in Tampa Bay the Yankees, find themselves atop of the AL Eastern Division today by a slim ½ game over the Tampa Bay Rays. They also lead the Boston Red Sox by 6 games going into this weekend’s wrap around series against the boys from Beantown.

The Yankees need to make the most of their opportunity in the next four days and make a statement, because, quite frankly, other than their head-to-head record against the Baltimore Orioles the Bombers fortunes against their AL East opponents aren’t all that great.

So far this season the Yankees are 5-6 against the Rays, 5-3 against the Red Sox and 4-5 against the fourth place Blue Jays. That gives them a 14-14 record facing teams not named the Orioles. That, too, may change, because the New Yorkers have six more games down the road against the O’s and they’re going to face them with a new manager in the dugout by the name of Buck Showalter.

Just ask the Angels how they fared against the Orioles these past 3 days. Under Showalter the Orioles are 3-0 and all three victories came at the expense of the Halos who were swept out of Baltimore, basically ending any realistic run they may have had to the playoffs. They trail the Texas Rangers by 10 games.

The Yankees can do the same to the Red Sox by winning this weekend’s series. The Sox just found out they lost another key piece to their team as Kevin Youkilis was placed on the disabled list with a torn right thumb requiring season ending surgery. They are still without Dustin Pedroia, Mike Cameron and their emotional leader Jason Varitek. That said, the Red Sox have played all year without various players in their clubhouse. At some point in time they have had to do without the services of Jacoby Ellsbury, Daisuke Matsuzaka, Josh Beckett and Mike Lowell to name a few. Despite all the setbacks the Sox refuse to go away.

If the Yankees aren’t careful they just may give Boston the idea they can supplant the Bombers for one of the coveted playoff slots. They are like a very dangerous, wounded animal. You can’t let them get too close.

Both the Red Sox and Yankees have scheduling problems as well. Starting tonight they face each other for four games. Then Boston goes on the road to play three in Toronto, followed by three in Texas before returning home to face the Angels, Blue Jays and the Seattle Mariners. Then they hit the road again to face Tampa Bay (3 games) and Baltimore (3 games). September-October is going to be tough as they face Chicago White Sox (3-home, 4-away), Tampa Bay (3-home), Oakland Athletics (3-away), Seattle (3-away), Toronto (3-home) and the Yankees (3-away, 3-home). Those six teams have a combined winning average .535.

The Yankees remaining August games pits them against the Red Sox (4-home), Rangers (2-away, Kansas City Royals (4-away), Detroit Tigers (4-home), Mariners (3-home), Blue Jays (3-home), White Sox (3-away) and Oakland (4-home).

Their September-October schedule gets brutal after that. The Yankees face the Blue Jays (3-home, 3-away), Orioles (3-home, 3-away), Rangers (3-away), Rays (3-away, 4-home) and Red Sox (3-home, 3-away).

Throw out Baltimore and the Yankees are playing the teams with the second, third, fourth, and sixth best records in the American League in the last month of the season. Those four teams are a combined 506-185 for a .732 winning percentage. With the Orioles it’s still .523 YIKES!

The team with, arguably, the easiest road to the playoffs is the Rays. For the remainder of August they face Blue Jays (3-away, 3-home), Tigers (3-away), Orioles (3-home), Rangers (3-home), Athletics (4-away), Angels (3-away) and Red Sox (3-home). In September-October the Rays get it on with the Orioles (3-away, 3-home), Red Sox (3-away), Blue Jays (3-away), Angels (3-home), Yankees (3-home, 4-away), Mariners (3-home) and the Royals (4-away). Those teams combine for a .474 winning percentage.

The Rays are going to be watching this weekend’s series between Boston and New York with keen interest. They have to take on the Blue Jays on the road, and they have to watch out and not stub their toes in Toronto. Even if the Rays sweep the Jays the Yankees can eliminate one of their competitors by taking at least 3-of-4 from Boston. Lose the series or split it and the Red Sox are still in business with a number of their walking wounded returning for the final weeks of the season.

Make no mistake this weekend’s series is important to both teams. However, it’s probably more important to Boston, because their season is going to live or die by how they do this weekend in the Bronx.

Do the Yankees have another Boston Massacre in their bag of tricks? They better hope so.

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