Not a bad series. The Rangers were riding a winning streak heading into the series, and the Yankees summarily started a new losing streak for them. Unfortunately, despite the Yankees winning five straight, the Red Sox have kept pace and we’re still tied with our sparring partner heading into a three game series.
Not all games can be blowouts, and Friday the Yankees provided a little drama. The Yankees took an 8-1 lead into the bottom of the seventh when Joe Torre made the mistake of going to the pen after Mike Mussina gave up a run. Aaron Small and Kyle Farnsworth were then beaten down to the tune of five more runs, and just like that, the Yankees had only a one run game. Mariano Rivera did his job though, and he got the final batter out in that eighth inning and pitched a shutout ninth to notch his sixth save of the season.
Mussina picked up the win and he’s now 5-1. Alex Rodriguez drove in three runs and Derek Jeter drove in two and scored twice in the 8-7 win.
Things went a lot more smoothly on Saturday. The game was tied 1-1 until the Yankees scored fivei in the sixth inning to open the game up. Shawn Chacon settled down nicely after giving up a run in the first inning and he improved to 4-1 on the season. A-Rod hit his sixth homerun of the season and Jason Giambi went yard for the tenth time this year.
The Yankees finished up the sweep yesterday. A five run fourth inning was the difference in the game. Hideki Matsui went two for two with a homerun, three RBIs and two runs in the 8-5 win. Bernie Williams drove in two runs and A-Rod scored twice. Chien-Ming Wang improved to 2-1 on the season. He gave up three runs on seven hits in six innings of work.
The Yankees host the Red Sox at majestic Yankee Stadium beginning on Tuesday. Whoever comes out on top in this series will be in first place heading into the weekend, so it doesn’t get much more important than this.
