Eight runs, eight wins in a row

Rumor had it that the A's were sending their ace to the mound tonight.

Well, the Yankees were sending their bats, and they would not be denied.

First it was a modest 2-1 lead, then it built. 3-1 in the fifth. 4-1 in the sixth.

Then, in the bottom of the eighth, when the Yankees could have hung their cleats and let Mo come in to finish off the Non-Athletics, New York ripped it open to lead 8-1.

Eight runs, eight wins in a row.

With the 8-3 win, New York kept its edge in the American League East as the Red Sox slipped past the Orioles 3-1 tonight. (Tampa Bay and Toronto, never satisfied to let a game go a mere nine innings, went into the 10th before the Rays won 4-2.)

The Yankees knocked out A's ace Brett Anderson, who was scoreless in 21 innings and hadn't lost in his past six starts. The Bombers countered with a sharp pitcher of their own, the recently surging Joba Chamberlain, who went into the eighth inning with a new durability that wasn't present earlier in the season.

Joba let a first-inning run score then shut down Oakland the rest of the way.

Derek Jeter went 3-for-5 with 2 RBI, and Johnny Damon's one hit sent home three runs. Melky Cabrera was 3-for-4, Robinson Cano went 2-for-3, and Jorge Posada continued to break out of his recent hitting slump with a four-bag dinger for the second time in three games.

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