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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24-7 (and 10)

The Yankees beat the Oakland Athletics 6-3 Thursday night on Mark Teixeira's 24th home run of the season, making it New York's 7th win in a row, with CC Sabathia becoming the first Yankee to 10 wins as he notched a W.

Teixeira is now in a three-way tie for the home run lead in the American League (never mind that Albert Pujols and his 34 homers in the National League). New York is 2-and-a-half games up in the American League East.

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Joba's back

Joba Chamberlain was back today, pitching a gem to lead the Yankees past Detroit in another National League-like 2-1 win. Joba had eight strikeouts, with five of them being the last five batters he faced. He went well into the game, too (six and two-thirds innings), and notched his first win since June 24.

The bullpen helped New York the rest of the way, with Phil Hughes throwing another solid inning (2 Ks) and Mariano Rivera closing it out the third day in a row for his 26th save in 27 chances this season.

(Side note: whether it's Hughes or Joba, I really like having a guy with starting pitcher-quality firepower anchoring the eighth inning. It's the missing link in a bullpen that was blowing huge leads earlier this season.)

Offensively, only two guys showed up for New York, and it was the two guys with the most green in their pockets: Mark Teixeira and Alex Rodriguez. Both went 2-for-4 with an RBI on solo home run shots. Teixeira also had a double.

The Yankees now sit just one game back from the division-leading Boston Red Sox.

The Bombers host the Baltimore Orioles, a division foe, for the next three games before welcoming the Oakland A's for a series.

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