My thought at the start of the season still holds…the key to the Yankees playoff hopes is AJ Burnett. Todd Drew’s boy. The guy Rich Lederer sold me on. AJ Burnett: an uneven pitcher with a golden arm.

The Yanks are cruising to October now, so naturally, I’m starting to get worried, cause that’s how neurotics roll. Are they using up all of their mojo? Can this last? You know the line of thinking. But really, I think it all comes down to Burnett. If he pitches like an ace, the Yankees will be awfully tough to handle. But if he’s a bust, well then, nothing is certain.

The man, and this team, still have something to prove.

I looked up from my book this morning to see where we were. The subway is crowded again, kids are back to school. In the row across from me, almost everyone was reading–the newspaper, a magazine, a novel, a textbook, their blackberries. Sometimes people ask me if I mind commuting on the subway. I look at them like they are crazy. When else would I have time to read?

There was an engaging piece last week in the Times by Alexis Mainland about reading on the subway. Dig:

The middle-aged woman with the black cardigan around her shoulders had assumed a meticulously calibrated posture: feet shoulder-width apart, arms slightly bent, fists loosely clenched, muscles relaxed yet alert.

She was not preparing for a tae kwon do bout, but performing her personal version of the underground battle engaged in daily by millions of New Yorkers: reading, intently, on a sardine-can D train heading swiftly toward Brooklyn in the evening rush. Without holding on.

“I am a New Yorker,” the woman, Robin Kornhaber, 54, told me as if those five crisp words explained everything. “I can do anything on the subway.”

Joba Chamberlain’s third start under the new spring-training-style Joba Rules didn’t start terribly well. Jason Bartlett led off by smacking a 2-1 pitch over the wall in left for a homer. (After the game Joba said it was the pitch he wanted to make and pointed out that Bartlett was having a great year; Joe Girardi said the pitch was “a mistake.”) Carl Crawford followed with a single, moved to second on a wild third-strike to Evan Longoria, stole third while Chamberlain was in the process of walking Ben Zobrist, then scored on a Pat Burrell single.

After that, the Yankee shortstop went to the mound and gave Chamberlain a quick verbal kick in the pants. Chamberlain struck out the next two batters on nine pitches and retired the side in order in the second and third innings. Because Chamberlain’s night ended there (due, I assume, to the 32 pitches he had thrown in the first), it’s difficult to say if that is likely to have been a meaningful turnaround in Joba’s performance going forward, but it was the most encouraging performance Chamberlain has had since his final start in July, which also came against the Rays.

Tampa Bay starter Jeff Niemann, a 6-foot-9 righty who bears a slight resemblance to the actor Jeff Daniels and is having a fine rookie season five years after being drafted fourth overall in the 2004 draft, made those two runs stand up for seven innings, stranding runners in every frame while striking out eight. Meanwhile, the Yankee bullpen matched Niemann by following Chamberlain with six hitless innings, including three from Alfredo Aceves and two from Jonathan Albaladejo.

Alex Rodriguez led off the bottom of the eighth by singling up the middle on Niemann’s 110th pitch, driving the tall 26-year-old from the game. Joe Maddon curiously chose righty Lance Cormier over lefty Brian Shouse to face Hideki Matsui. Matsui singled, sending Rodriguez to third, and Chris Richards threw Nick Swisher’s ensuing grounder into left field while attempting to start a 3-6-3 double play, sending Alex home and pinch-runner Jerry Hairston Jr. to third. Maddon then went to Shouse, who struck out Robinson Cano for the first out of the inning.

With one out, the tying run on third and the go-ahead run on first, Girardi sent Jorge Posada up to bat for Brett Gardner. Gardner made a spectacular, game-saving play in Monday’s day game, but has been struggling to rediscover his stroke since coming off the disabled list, going a combined 1-for-18 since starting his rehab assignment. Maddon countered with hard-throwing Aussie Grant Balfour, flipping Posada around to the left side. Posada worked the count full, fouling off the two strikes, then launched the next pitch into the seats in right for a game-changing three-run home run.

And that was that. Protecting a two-run lead, Brian Bruney typically walked the first man he faced in the ninth on four pitches, but got the next two out on three more tosses before yielding to Phil Coke, who got the final out and a cheap save. The 4-2 win was the 24th game the Yankees have won in their final at-bat this season, a total which leads the major leagues. On the season, the Yankees are averaging more than two runs scored per game in the final three innings and 1.2 runs score per game in extra innings, when one is usually enough to win it.

The win gave the Yankees an unexpected four-game sweep of the rival Rays, who are now a shocking 18.5 games out in the division, and ran the Yankees’ second-half record to 40-13, good for a .755 winning percentage. If they can keep that up through the final 20 games, it will stand as the third-best post-break mark since the All-Star Game began in 1933.

(more…)

Joba’s on the hill tonight as the Yanks look to sweep the Rays.

The kid needs a good outing. Here’s hoping he comes through this evening.

Let’s Go Yan-Kees.

Todd Drew’s seats from Yankee Stadium II. Now resting comfortably on Marsha Drew’s deck down south.

I am honored to announce that Todd Drew’s Lasting Yankee Stadium Memory has been selected by Leigh Montville to be in The Best American Sports Writing 2009 (due out next month). This is only the second blog entry that has ever been included in the series (Derek Zumsted’s piece on Bugs Bunny was the first).

We have enjoyed many fine moments here at Bronx Banter since the blog began in late 2002, but no single moment has made me prouder. It is a moment laced with sadness because Todd is no longer with us. However, I’m certain that he would not want us to dwell on that. I’m not sure that it would be easy for him to be the center of attention either, but I do know that he worked hard on his writing and cared deeply about good writing. To be included in this series–one that he adored to no end–would have knocked him on his ass.

I like to think of him as bursting with pride right about now.

Quick story about this piece. Todd’s first draft was written in the second person. When I first read it, I intended to end the series with it because it was so strong (for various reasons, having nothing to do with the article, that didn’t happen). But there is something about the second person that generally rubs me the wrong way. So I asked Todd if he would be willing to try it in the first person. He was more than happy to oblige, as Todd was always looking to improve his work, try something new. A few days later, he sent me the article, now in the first person.

And he had it right the first time. It was meant to be in the second person. Which is the version that appeared on the blog and will now be in the company of the other great work in The Best American Sports Writing 2009.

So join me in a toast, to Todd Drew.

This is a great moment for us all, the entire Banter community. I’m thrilled to share it with you.

Should Joba Chamberlain go back to the pen for the playoffs?

Rob Neyer tackles this loaded question over at ESPN.

I say, yeah, put the big fella back in the pen for now. Why not have Hughes and Chamberlain in the bullpen?

Nope, it doesn’t get old. The Yanks are gorging themselves on the Rays and just about everyone else they face. And it sure feels good.

*

David Price pitched a wonderful game for the Rays, allowing a solo home run to Nick Swisher and an RBI single to Alex Rodriguez. Chad Gaudin was more efficient, allowing just one run (homer to Evan Longoria). Phil Hughes coughed up the 2-1 lead by giving up a solo shot to Jason Bartlett in the eighth but Mariano Rivera pitched a scoreless ninth and then Swisher planted a line drive into the first row of the right field bleachers in the bottom of the inning. Cue Sinatra, AJ and his pie, with the hugging and mugging and jumping at home plate. It was Swisher’s 26th dinger of the season, just his fifth at home.

Final Score: Yanks 3, Rays 2.

Derek Jeter struck out three times and went 0-4 but got plenty of cheers regardless.

That makes 90 wins for the Yanks, and for the moment, life is good in the Bronx.

* Here’s where Steely Dan got the intro bit…

Just got in the door from Vermont, lugging bags up from the car, schvitzin’, hungry, cranky.

But just in time to put up a game thread, relax and watch the Yanks.

Heard something about a visit to Dr. J. Andrews for David Robertson which is not a good sign.

Otherwise, life is good and Let’s Go Yan-Kees!

There was one kid who stood out among all the others. The one a coach is always hoping he’ll see: the kid who went after ground balls with a kind of liquid grace, whose hands were sure, who listened. Ernies Alemais was the coach doing the talking. First he talked to the kid and found out he had played four years of Little League but now, at 11, had no team to call his own and said he didn’t have the time to look for one. And then, when the fielding, throwing and hitting drills were done and a six-on-six Whiffle Ball game was, too, Ernies talked to the kid’s grandmother about a better tomorrow.

On the patch of Bronx real estate where he runs the Uptown Sports Complex between a funeral home and an OTB parlor, Ernies told her of the talent he had seen in her boy and how that talent could keep him in school and maybe someday take him to college. The kid’s grandmother smiled as if she had just been thrown a life preserver. Then she dipped into her purse and offered Ernies a tip.

He smiled and put his hand on hers. “I don’t want a tip,” he said. “I want your boy to come back.”

The words were the kind Ernies Alemais lives to speak, and the kind he never heard when he was a kid himself. To look at him now at 35—well-scrubbed, meticulously casual in sandals, jeans and T-shirt, a Dominican Matthew McConaughey—it is hard to believe he never heard someone preach the gospel he lives by. But he was that rare Dominican kid who grew up without baseball.

There were no places like the Uptown Sports Complex when Ernies was growing up. His father wasn’t around either, though he gave him the first name with the odd spelling after seeing it on a bodega. But there was no time to teach Ernies baseball.

“I asked my dad a few years ago why he didn’t teach the game to me,” said Ernies recently, standing next to one of the hitting cages in the Complex. “He had no words for me. No words. He was sorry.”

That was enough for Ernies, an achiever who was the captain of the football team and class president at John F Kennedy in the Bronx during his senior year when it won the city championship. He was too small to play D-1 football, so six months after he graduated, Ernies got a job in building maintenance where he would remain for the next sixteen years. His aversion to school was in no small part because of his lifelong struggles with dyslexia.

“I got left back in third grade and they wanted to put me in Special Ed but my mother wouldn’t have it,” he said. “In junior high, I had Resource, which was between regular school and Special Ed.”

Ernies has always been bothered by his dyslexia, something he likes to keep private. But when he realized his dyslexia was going to come out in this post, he told me, “Well, if it’ll help one person who has dyslexia realize they can achieve things despite this handicap then go ahead and put it in. I’m not ashamed of it. I’ve compensated for my lack of book smarts with charisma,” he says.

“He isn’t cocky,” says longtime friend Jesse Garcia (also known around these parts as “Dimelo”), who was a year behind Ernies at JFK. “If he doesn’t know something he’ll ask. He doesn’t have a problem saying ‘I don’t know.’ I was reading about Derek Jeter the other day and the article said he feels that he’ll never fail. That’s like Ernie. He might fail but he always acts like there will be a successful outcome.”

Ernies is a featured player in a long essay I’ve got on summer sports in New York City over at SI.com:

It’s not that sports matter more to New Yorkers than they do to Philadelphians or Angelinos. What distinguishes sports here is New York’s quintessential diversity. In any given area of town, you will find any number of games being played by any number of nationalities, side-by-side.

Take Van Cortlandt. On this Sunday afternoon, I saw over a dozen soccer games, three cricket matches and six softball games being played at once in the open field on the west side of the park. A group of proud, hard-looking black and Spanish women trudged across the great field after a softball game just as a collection of dapper-looking West Indian and Pakistani teenagers convened for a cricket match.

Next to the field is the oldest public golf course in the country; and next to that are the riding stables. Below both are public pools, a cross-country track, tennis and basketball courts and more baseball fields. A couple of blocks away, tucked off 240th Street, is Gaelic Park, a treasure shared by Manhattan College and the Gaelic Athletic Association.

In the summer, off-the-boat Irish boys, strong, pink necked and pale legged, play terrific games of such primordial Viking sports as Gaelic football and hurling (think of field hockey, lacrosse, and baseball mashed together). Young women play football too, and then pound beers over by the picnic table. The field comes equipped with a bar. When I visited, a few hundred people sat in the bleachers. Across the field in the small press box, an old-timer fixed himself a cup of Barry’s tea and spread butter on a thick slice of Irish Soda Bread. “They ran out of scones today,” he said. A thin man in front of him packed up his laptop, having just finished an article on the women’s football match, and changed into shorts and spikes as he prepared to referee the hurling match.

“We multi-task,” he said.

I also saw a bunch of street basketball, at 145 and Lenox, at the Rucker and at Dyckman. And I got to meet Ruth Payne, a fascinating woman and double dutch coach who helped double dutch become an official varsity sport in the New York City school system. The fifteenth of eighteen kids, Payne never married and doesn’t have any children of her own. But early in her life she became the designated family babysitter and subsequently has been a mentor to dozens of children from her neighborhood of Bed Stuy, Brooklyn. Like Alemais, she is one of the good ones.

Emma Span helped out with reporting on this project and the accompanying videos were produced, shot, and edited by Collin Orcott, a talented J-school student who interned at SI this past summer. We put a ton of work into the assignment and I’m pleased with how it turned out.

Hope you enjoy.

Today’s news is powered by U.K. national treasures Stephen Fry and Hugh Laurie, from season one of  “A Bit of Fry & Laurie” (1987) :

• Brett Gardner returns from the DL.
• Tyler Kepner wonders if the team all-time hits record will be Jeter’s biggest achievement.
• Could Jeter top not only Gehrig, but Rose too?.
• A nice profile of Lou Gehrig, on the eve of his Yankee all-time hits record being surpassed.
• On this date in 1919, Babe Ruth hits HR No. 26 off Jack Quinn in New York, breaking Buck Freeman’s 1899 HR mark of 25.
• On this date in 1978, New York continues its rampage of Boston by scoring two runs in the 1st inning and six more in the 2nd inning. Boston makes seven errors to ease the Yankees to a 13 – 2 romp. Reggie Jackson hits a 3-run homer and Lou Piniella adds a double, triple and homer to back Jim Beattie’s pitching. Dwight Evans and Carlton Fisk both make a pair of errors. New York is now two games in back.
• On this date in 1983, Yankees OF Steve Kemp will miss the rest of the season with a fractured cheekbone after being struck in the face by an Omar Moreno line drive during batting practice in Milwaukee. Kemp hit just .242 with 12 home run and 49 RBI in the first year of his 5-year, $5.45 million contract. New York wins today, 6 – 5.
• On this date in 1992, Yankees OF Danny Tartabull goes 5 – for – 5 with two homers and a double, and drives in nine runs as New York defeats Baltimore, 16 – 4. Scott Sanderson is the winner.
• On this date in 2000, the Yankees beat the Red Sox, 4-0, behind Roger Clemens. A scary moment occurs in the 9th inning when Boston P Bryce Florie is hit in the face with a line drive off the bat of Ryan Thompson. The Red Sox hurler never loses consciousness and leaves the field with blood streaming down his face. Florie suffers a fractured cheekbone and a fracture of the orbital socket, the bone that surrounds the eye, and retinal damage. He will undergo surgery.
• On this date in 2007, Alex Rodríguez homers twice off of Brian Bannister. The first of the homers is his 49th of the year and breaks the record for homers by a third baseman. Previously, Mike Schmidt (48 in 1980) and Rodriguez (2005) had shared the record.  Rodriguez had already held the single-season record for shortstops, giving him the highwater mark at two positions.

I’m back on Friday (at Yankee game Tuesday night, and Met game the next night).

The Yanks swept the Rays yesterday at the Stadium. First game was a close one until the Yanks pulled away in the eighth. Final score: 4-1. Then, they blew the Rays out in the second game, 11-1. The gives the Yanks 89 wins on the season and a robust nine game lead on the Red Sox.

My how life am grand.

The Rays arrive in the Bronx today for a Labor Day doubleheader and resultant four-game series trailing the Red Sox by seven games in the Wild Card standings. The Yankees, meanwhile, hold a 7.5-game lead over Boston in the division. It’s thus fair to say that, as secure as the Yankees’ division lead feels, that’s how unlikely it is that the Rays are going to return to the post season.

Put more simply: the Rays are out of the race.

That doesn’t make the remaining seven games between the two teams meaningless (though the three in Tampa in October most likely will be by then), and it doesn’t make the Rays any less competitive. It does, however, deflate the excitement most had expected this September series between division rivals to bring.

Make no mistake, the Rays are rivals. They won the division last year and the two teams are roughly split in their season series to this point, the Yankees taking 6 of 11,but the Rays having scored one more run (60 to 59). Home field hasn’t been much advantage thus far, as the two teams have split six games in Tampa with the Yanks taking three of five in the Bronx. That said, the series has slowly tilted the Yankees way as the season has progressed, with the Rays taking three of the first five and the Yankees four of the last six.

Some accused the Rays of giving up on the season when the traded Scott Kazmir. I’m not entirely sure that’s the case, but the trade was clearly a hedge; Andrew Friedman didn’t want to get stuck without a playoff berth and the remainder of Kazmir’s contract ($20 million the next two years plus an option with a $2.5 million buyout) given the arrival of young, talented, team-controlled arms such as Jeff Niemann (12-5, 3.67 in his first full season), and 23-year-olds David Price and Wade Davis (7 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 1 BB, 9 K in his major league debut last night).

The Rays proved they were going for it when they benched Dioner Navarro and his .221/.252/.331 line and replace him via trade with Gregg Zaun, who has since hit .311/.333/.508. Unfortunately, it wasn’t enough. Look at the lineup at the end of this post for a clue as to why.

The last time the Yankees saw the Rays, B.J. Upton was leading off and Evan Longoria was hitting third. Now they’re hitting sixth (Longoria) and ninth (Upton). Save for a hot June, Upton has been punchless all year, and has hit just .225/.276/.335 with 2 homers and 12 walks since July 1. Longoria, meanwhile, got out to a big start, then did very little in June, July, and August, though he has turned it on of late, hitting .441 and slugging .853 during an active eight-game hitting streak.

All-Star Ben Zobrist replaces Longoria in the three-hole, but he seems to have run out of pixie dust. Since snapping a 12-game hitting streak on July 23, he’s hit a very ordinary .243/.357/.407, and with Akinori Iwamura back from an ACL injury, Zobrist is now a corner outfielder again, making that production all the less useful (though it’s a smidge more than the Rays were getting from Gabe Gross). New leadoff man Jason Bartlett seemed to be out of magic as well in July, but silenced doubters with a .357/.443/.577 August, though he’s cooled off again over his last ten games.

As for today’s double header, the Yankees have stacked the deck, throwing CC Sabathia in Game 1 and A.J. Burnett in the nightcap. Sabathia’s numbers over his last six starts are eyepopping: 5-0, 1.83 ERA, 0.90 WHIP, 10.76 K/9, 7.57 K/BB. The Yankees have won his last seven starts, his last loss coming against the Rays on July 28.

CC goes against Matt Garza, who has spiked his strikeout rate this year and leads the league in fewest hits per nine innings (7.8), but the latter is due to an abnormally low .268 BABIP (though he was at .271 last year), and his home run rate has also spiked, giving him a higher ERA than he had a year ago. Garza’s allowed just 3 runs in 12 innings against the Yanks this year, but has posted a 6.00 ERA over his last five starts.

As for Burnett, everyone keeps talking about the fact that he hasn’t won a game since July 27, a stretch of seven starts, but the Yankees have won three of those starts and A.J. has four quality starts in that stretch, which includes his dominant outing against the Red Sox in that 15-inning scoreless affair on August 7. Still, two of his last three have been awful. With his first playoff start looming roughly a month away, he needs to use his remaining starts to rediscover that groove he had in July lest he become what I’d always feared he’d be, the 2009 version of Randy Johnson, who blew a pair of crucial ALDS Game 3s in his only two Yankee playoff appearances.

Facing Burnett will be Andy Sonnanstine, who initially looked like Kazmir’s replacement down the stretch until Davis announced his presence with authority last night. Not that it really matters. Though Sonnanstine spent all of July and August in the minors, the Yankees have already seen him thrice this year. Sonnanstine got the better of the Yanks the first two times (though without earning a decision either time), but the Yanks touched him up for four homers (by Tex, Swisher, Damon, and Jeter) on June 8, marking his career high for a single game.

Brett Gardner returns for today’s action. He’s playing center and batting ninth in the opener, with Melky in left, Hinske at DH, and Damon and Matsui on the bench. Nick Swisher bats second, Robinson Cano moves up to fifth, and Hinske, Melky, and Gardner, in that order, make up the bottom three.

I’m going to be car shopping today (my 12-year-old Saturn was totaled by a tree branch a month ago and I’ve been too busy in the interim to get to the dealers), so this post will have to serve game threads for both games. I’ll be back late tonight to wrap it all up.

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Those of you who chose to do something other than watch the Yankees’ series finale in Toronto on a beautiful Labor Day weekend Sunday made the right choice as the Yankees lost perhaps the ugliest game they’ve played all year by a score of 14-8. The four errors in the Yankees’ line doesn’t even begin to capture how poorly they played. Sergio Mitre gave up 11 runs (nine earned) in 4 1/3 innings, but after the game, Joe Girardi said Mitre had really gotten 21 outs out there. He wasn’t far off.

After the Yankees stranded two in the top of the first, the very first batter Mitre faced hit a grounder to third, where Jerry Hairston Jr. was giving Alex Rodriguez a day off. Hairston let the ball play him, fielding it back on his heels and firing high to first base, inducing a collision between Mark Teixeira and the runner (neither was hurt). That set the tone.

Aaron Hill doubled home the run on the next pitch as the Jays went on to score three in the first. The first batter in the bottom of the second hit a soft grounder to Robinson Cano, but Cano dropped the ball on the transfer for the second Yankee error in as many innings. Amazingly, the Jays failed to score in that frame.

The Yankees tied the game in the third, then with one out in the bottom of the third, Nick Swisher lost a fly ball in the sun on a cloudless day in Toronto, turning an out into a double. Mark Teixeira then got eaten up by a grounder that scored the run on what was ruled an error. Mitre worked a 1-2-3 fourth, and the Yankees took a brief lead on a two-run Swisher homer in the fifth, but then everything fell apart.

With one on and one out in the bottom of the fifth, Mitre struck out Edwin Encarnacion on a nasty pitch that dove down and away from the righty, hit off Jose Molina’s glove, and ricocheted back the other way, allowing Encarnacion to reach base. That opened the door for an eight-run inning. After the next two batters singled, putting the Jays up 6-5 and leaving men on the corners with still just one out, Mitre induced a chopper to third, but Hairston couldn’t make up his mind whether to throw home or first and, after finally choosing first, threw too late to get the runner on what was ruled an infield hit (the run scored from third anyway). After another single, Mitre walked in a run and got the hook.

Mark Melancon came on and walked in another run on four pitches. After getting the second out, he then let two more in on an infield single and another walk, passing the ball to ex-Jay Josh Towers. Towers got ahead of Bronx native Randy Ruiz 0-2, then hit Ruiz in the face with a 90 mph fastball, bloodying his lip and forcing in another run. (Ruiz came out of the game, but suffered no serious injury.)

At this point it was 12-5, Jays, but the Yankees weren’t done. In the sixth, Ramiro Peña, in as a sub for Derek Jeter, bounced a throw past Mark Teixeira to let in another run in the sixth. Immediately following, Johnny Damon and Melky Cabrera collided while chasing a fly in left-center, though neither was hurt and Melky held on for the third out. The next inning, the Yankee infield consisted of Eric Hinske at third base, Hairston at shorstop, Peña at second, Molina at first, and Francisco Cervelli behind the plate, but that combination fielded it’s only two chances (a pop up to Peña and a grounder to Molina) cleanly.

So to wrap that all up: four errors (Hairston, Cano, Teixeira, Peña), two outs played into hits (Swisher & Hairston), two collisions (at first base and in left field), a bloodied opponent (Ruiz), a rally started by a strikeout, three runs forced in by walks (one by Mitre, two by Melancon), and another forced in by a hit-by-pitch (Towers).

As for Mitre, he officially recorded 13 outs, but if you give him credit for inducing outs on the three errors and two misplays behind him and the strikeout Molina couldn’t corral (ruled a wild pitch), he really got 19 outs, the equivalent of 6 1/3 innings. I’m not saying he pitched well, or that I think he should be a candidate for the postseason roster (he shouldn’t), but he didn’t pitch as poorly as his line suggests (note his five Ks, and that the walk that forced in a run and got him pulled was just his second of the game). Given all that went wrong and his tenuous hold on his job, Mitre did a good job of not showing up his teammates on the field or to the press afterwords.

Me, I spent the day at a local park with my wife, three-month-old daughter, and dog. We had a nice picnic and a walk, played some frisbee with the dog, and took a collective nap (dog and cat included) on the couch after we got home. I then zipped through the game on fast-forward on the DVR. I’m hoping most of you saw as little or less of it and have an equally pleasant Labour Day tomorrow.

It’s thus far been a beautiful Labor Day weekend in the tri-state area, and with a double-header against the third-place Rays coming tomorrow, watching Sergio Mitre and Brian Tallet face off on artificial turf in Toronto’s half-empty concrete behemoth of a ballpark might not seem like the best way to spend your Sunday afternoon. Still, there’s a bit of intrigue as the Yankees are looking to win the series. If they do, they’ll have won 14 of 16 second-half sets. As it stands, the Yanks have won eight of their last nine games and should have Mariano Rivera available to close again today.

There’s also the fact that, since Chien-Ming Wang went back on the disabled list, the Yankees are 8-2 in games started by their fifth starter (be it Mitre, Chad Gaudin, or Alfredo Aceves). Mitre is coming off a legitimately dominant outing against the White Sox (0 R, 1 H, 1 BB, 11 of 19 outs on the ground) that was ended after 6 1/3 innings when he was hit on the pitching elbow by a comebacker. Mitre pitched that game on seven-day’s rest and is pitching today having had another seven day’s off.

Tallet has made two starts since July 25 and has a 10.07 ERA over his last four starts. He does, however, have two quality starts against the Yankees this year, both of them Blue Jays loses.

Alex Rodriguez and Jorge Posada get the day off. Jerry Hairston Jr. plays third and bats seventh ahead of Melky and Jose Molina.

Robbie Cano drives me crazy sometimes – you guys know the deal: he rarely walks, sometimes he doesn’t exactly bust it down to first, and once in a while he falls so in love with one of his own home runs, Manny-style, that you can practically see steam coming out of the opposing pitcher’s ears. Today he didn’t cover second base for what should have been the last out of the fifth inning. But he also homered, and doubled, and singled and even walked, and then he’s got that smile. I think it’s bigger than Marco Scutaro’s entire body. How do you stay mad?

Anyway, Andy Pettitte came back to earth a bit this afternoon, and the Yankees didn’t exactly play their tightest game in the field, but it was good enough and they beat the Blue Jays 6-4. “I thought it was a real important game for us to win,” said Girardi after the game. Sure, Joe. It was a slow lazy afternoon game on the last real weekend of summer, and it didn’t really have any effect on anything except maybe Cito Gaston’s indigestion. But winning, as a wise man once said, it’s like, you know, better than losing.

The Yankees scored first, on Melky Cabrera’s RBI single in the second and then Robinson Cano’s fourth-inning homer, but the Jays promptly tied it up in the bottom of that inning. That lasted all of two pitches, as New York got out ahead again in the fifth thanks to Mark Teixeira’s solo shot,  tacked on two more in the sixth with RBI singles from A-Rod and Posada, and added one to grow on in the ninth as Melky plated Cano. Pettitte left after six, having allowed four earned-ish runs on four hits and an unfortunate five walks, but with a slim lead, and the bullpen made it hold up. Phil Hughes continues to be an aburdist work of art in relief and retired all four batters he faced with very little muss and zero fuss.

The Yankees’ division lead is now at eight and a half, and they haven’t lost three games in a row in almost two months (that was against the Angels, of course). Enjoy the long weekend, gang – and don’t forget, Monday night is Hand Sanitizer Keychain Giveaway Day at the Stadium for the first 18,000 fans 21 and older, so be sure to get to the game early! God.

The steam-rollin’ Yanks were shut out by one of the game’s best last night, ending a seven-game winning streak. The boys are back at it again this afternoon as they aim to start a new one. I won’t be able to catch it, but Emma will and she’ll be back later on with a re-cap. And our boy Dimelo is up in Toronto with crew reppin’ NYC and the Banter.

Meanwhile, it is gorgeous up here in Vermont, so I’m a cool out with Emily’s family–it’s reunion weekend don’t ya know?–and try not to peak at the score on my blackberry too much. Helps have a seven-and-a-half game lead, don’t it?

So Roy Halladay wasn’t going to be bump forever and he turned in a beaut, a one-hit shutout as the Jays rolled 6-0. According to Jonathan Abrams, writing in for the New York Times:

Johnny Damon veered straight into the clubhouse after Friday’s game. Not in anger, but in amazement. He confirmed what his eyes had just seen but his mind could still not quite grasp.

Just as in his previous three at-bats, the ball came out of Roy Halladay’s hand in the eighth inning with the velocity of a fastball and the zigzag movement of a changeup. Damon had struck out on three pitches in his fourth and final at-bat. Now, he smiled.

“Just making sure that it wasn’t just me that thought that pitch was impossible to hit,” he said.

I’m up in Vermont with the wife’s family this weekend so I missed the game. But it doesn’t take too much to imagine how last night’s game panned-out. Fortunately, the Red Sox also lost so New York’s lead remains at seven-and-a-half. Turn the page and keep it movin’.

Slow day here at the Banter. Yanks have to deal with Roy Halladay tonight and he’s been less than his regular stellar self of late. Figure he should have a strong start. Let’s see what Joba Ranks has in store for us.

Nevermind the comfortable lead:

Let’s Go Yan-Kees!

Let’s file this in the category of “taking nothing for granted.” Even with a sizeable lead over the Red Sox, I’m happy to see that the Yankees haven’t waited for Scranton’s Triple-A playoff season to end before bringing some reinforcements to New York. Francisco Cervelli, Ramiro Pena, Mark Melancon, Edwar Ramirez, Mike Dunn, and Jon Albaladejo represent the first wave of call-ups, giving Joe Girardi additional options for the final month of the regular season. As painful as it is for fans of the minor league affiliates to hear, the priorities and needs of the major league team should always come first. Given the frequent rest needed by Jorge Posada and the semi-ludicrous pitching limitations being placed on Joba Chamberlain, the Yankees can use some bolstering in the areas of pitching and catching depth.

Once Scranton’s postseason run is complete, the Yankees should then promote their two best everyday players at Triple-A: Austin “Ajax” Jackson and Shelley “Slam” Duncan. If nothing else, both players deserve to be rewarded for fine seasons in Triple-A; minor league players need to know that they will be promoted if they produce at lower levels. Jackson still has flaws in his game (including a surprising lack of power and too many strikeouts), but did well enough to be named the International League’s Rookie of the Year. Duncan has had nothing less than a terrific season for Scranton-Wilkes Barre, leading the league in home runs, RBIs, and slugging percentage. Hopefully, the Yankees will be able to put an early clinch on the AL East and give Duncan some at-bats in which to impress opposing scouts. He could help any one of a number of teams, including the Indians, A’s, Diamondbacks, and Pirates. Heck, he’d be a good fit for the cross-town Mets, who probably won’t be re-signing Carlos Delgado and desperately need an infusion of power and enthusiasm. If someone gives Duncan a chance, they might just get some Dave Kingman-type numbers in return, with slightly better defense and significantly better attitude…

In pioneering the oversized S100 helmet made by Rawlings, David Wright has started me thinking about the history of batting helmets. Former Yankee great Phil Rizzuto is generally acknowledged as the first major leaguer to wear a full batting helmet in a game. “The Scooter” made the move from cap to hard hat in 1951, one year before the Pirates outfitted all of their players with helmets and a full 20 years before helmets became mandatory throughout the major leagues. Rizzuto wasn’t just a great shortstop and a funny broadcaster; he was a smart guy who realized the value of protecting oneself in an era when most pitchers felt comfortable pitching high and tight.

As much of a pioneer as Rizzuto was, he was not the first professional ballplayer to don a helmet in a game. That honor belongs to another Hall of Fame shortstop—longtime Negro Leagues great Willie “El Diablo” Wells. After being beaned and knocked unconscious in a 1942 game, the Newark Eagles’ legend returned to action wearing a workman’s helmet, which he found at a New Jersey construction site. Deciding that the construction helmet would work at bat, Wells donned the hard hat in his next game. El Diablo might have looked a little odd, but who could have blamed him?

Speaking of Wright, his use of the S100 helmet has conjured images of two of Hollywood’s beloved characters: The Great Gazoo from “The Flintstones” and the laughable Dark Helmet from Mel Brooks’ Spaceballs. So whom do you think Wright more closely resembles? It’s a close call, but I’ll place my vote with Gazoo, as portrayed by the brilliant Harvey Korman. In the immortal words of Gazoo, “Goodbye dum-dums.”…

Finally, has anyone else noticed how much Alfredo Aceves looks like former Yankee Jim Leyritz? Every time I see Aceves take the mound, I have to remind myself that “The King” is no longer playing. I had similar flashbacks when Bobby Abreu played for the Yankees; he always reminded me of former Yankee outfielder Matty Alou, at least in terms of their facial resemblance. Then again, maybe I’ve just been looking at too many old Topps baseball cards.

Bruce Markusen writes “Cooperstown Confidential” for The Hardball Times.

1961 was a good year for the Yankees. However, they were not a great Yankee team, according to Steven Goldman.

Discuss.