The Yanks won another nail-biter this afternoon, the one, 4-2. They scored three runs in the first and then were shut down by Henderson Alvarez. Meanwhile, Andy Pettitte had more than a little rust on him but worked out of three jams and pitched five scoreless innings.

Ichiro had a big day for the Yanks with three hits and Nick Swisher had a huge RBI base hit in the eighth. It was critical because the game almost slipped away in the top of the inning. The Jays greeted Dave Robertson with three straight hits (double, single, single) and after a strike out, Omar Vizquel hit a double that put runners on second and third, score, 3-2. One out.

Then Robertson got another strike out–killing us softly in the process–before being lifted for Rafael Soriano.

Who walked the number nine hitter to load the bases. Yeah, it was one of those. He got Raja Davis to line out and after the insurance run worked a 1-2-3 ninth for the save. He earned this one.

No style points on this one, plenty of sweaty moments for us, but I ain’t complaining as the win is the thing.

[Photo Credit: Story Road; Jason Szenes/Getty Images]