Round 4: Going for the Knockout Punch

YANKEES (68-42)
1. Jeter SS
2. Damon LF
3. Teixeira 1B
4. Rodriguez DH
5. Posada C
6. Swisher RF
7. Cano 2B
8. Cabrera CF
9. Hairston 3B

Pitching: LHP Andy Pettitte (9-6, 4.35).

RED SOX (62-47)
1. Ellsbury CF
2. Pedroia 2B
3. Martinez 1B
4. Youkilis 3B
5. Bay LF
6. Drew RF
7. Lowell DH
8. Varitek C
9. Green C

Pitching: LHP Jon Lester (9-7, 3.79).

From Buster Olney:

The Yankees have a 5½-game lead in the AL East now, after shutting down the Red Sox again. To put that into perspective, Boston has never, in its entire history, overcome a 5½-game deficit to the Yankees to win either the American League title up until 1969, or the AL East from 1969 onward

The Red Sox have been held scoreless for 24 innings, the longest stretch since a 27-inning streak in 1993. If this streak gets to 28 innings, it would be the longest since a 29-inning stretch in 1983.

The Yankees have consecutive shutouts against the Red Sox for the first time since 2002 (two straight). It's the third time in the past 55 years the Yankees shut out the Red Sox in back-to-back games, with the other instance being in 1963.

CC Sabathia won in August; nothing new for him. He has the second-best winning percentage in August among major league pitchers (.769, 30-9).

Some good information there. More later.

Update 8:05 PM: Some good Twitter information:

@nyp_joelsherman: Losses by #Angels and #Ddogers means #Yankees are now only MLB team playing .600-or-better ball.

And two huge ones which may predict a fight tonight:

@AmyKNelson: In talking to some Red Sox players, I get the sense there could be more inside pitching, and as one person on team told me...

@AmyKNelson: when i asked about possibility of a fight, "well, usually when we're losing, that stuff is more likely to happen" so we'll see...

This could be a rough one. Red Sox may need to feel like they need to make a statement. Yankees don't want to get anyone hurt now. If the Yankees get a big lead, this could get ugly

Update 8:10 PM: Could be another low scoring game. Steve Phillips just let us know that the home plate umpire Bill Miller (sp?) is a pitcher's umpire.

The New York Times' Jack Curry wrote a great article about the Yankees zeroing in on the sweep courtesy of CC Sabathia's great outing (picture next to lineups from that article).

The past two games by AJ and CC are what the Yankees shelled out all that money for in the off-season. When I spoke to my dad before the game, we said that 8 innings, with 2 runs would be huge for the Yankees. He did better: 7 2/3, 0 runs, 2 hits, 2 BB, 9 K. He was a horse and dominated and you really couldn't have asked for anything more.

Update 8:18 PM: 25 scoreless inning streak for the Red Sox. Unfortuantely, they're bound to break out at some point. I'm just hoping it's when they leave town.

Buster Olney also pointed out today that the Red Sox had morphed into the 2005 Yankees: big hitters, but slow, and too many guys who should be DH'ing. I think the Red Sox need to make a change and put Victor Martinez more at DH and keep Kevin Youkilis at 1B where he is best. That would mean sitting David Ortiz, though, and the Red Sox seem like they'd rather honor his "legacy" than get the most out of that lineup

Update 8:19 PM: What a difference from a year ago when the Yankees couldn't touch lefties at times. ESPN just put up a graphic that the Yankees are ranked first in batting average, OBP, SLG, RBIs, and are second in wins when facing a lefty starter.

The biggest difference in replacing Abreu and Giambi (lefties) with Swisher and Teixeira (switch hitters), and getting better production against lefties from Cano, Matsui, and Damon. Also, Jorge Posada has been healthy a lot more and he gives them some more depth from the right side (as a switch hitter as well). And this is all without Xavier Nady who they acquired at the trade deadline last year to make the team more affective against lefties.

Update 8:27 PM: A Jayson Stark stat alert:

@jaysonst: Just so you know, Yankees haven't thrown 3 straight ShO since June 6-8, 1962. Ralph Terry, Bill Stafford, Whitey Ford started those 3 games

Wow.

Update 8:50 PM: 26 innings. These teams have to be tired by the end of this series.

Added the two pictures of the two pitchers (from the AP via ESPN). I see a lot of similarities between the two and they've had two very similar innings so far. Will be adding a few pictures from ESPN's Photos for the game. Thanks to them for having some great pics.

Since all the games are over, I went to ESPN and checked out the standings:

AMERICAN	W	L	PCT	GB	HOME	ROAD	RS	RA	DIFF	STRK	L10
NY Yankees	68	42	.618	-	38-17	30-25	614	523	+91	Won 6	7-3
LA Angels	65	44	.596	2.5	33-22	32-22	614	548	+66	Lost 1	6-4
Boston	62	47	.569	5.5	35-17	27-30	560	482	+78	Lost 5	4-6
Texas	62	48	.564	6	37-21	25-27	532	483	+49	Won 1	5-5
Tampa Bay	61	50	.550	7.5	36-18	25-32	582	501	+81	Lost 1	6-4
Detroit	59	51	.536	9	36-18	23-33	513	499	+14	Won 1	6-4
Seattle	58	53	.523	10.5	29-23	29-30	447	490	-43	Won 1	5-5
Chicago Sox	57	55	.509	12	33-27	24-28	522	514	+8	Lost 1	6-4
Minnesota	54	57	.486	14.5	31-23	23-34	549	540	+9	Lost 1	3-7

Amazing. The Yankees are now two games ahead of the Dodgers as well and 26 games over .500. Let's hope they continue like this.

Update 9:00 PM: 27 innings. Most since 1993. Wow.

Luis Tiant should do the Subway commercials with CC & Johan Santana because he speaks English like those two. I can just hear it now "bigger than WHO big?"

Update 9:12 PM: That Luis Tiant interview was BRUTAL. I didn't understand a thing he said. Thanks for the self-promotion ESPN. Can we get back to the game now?

Update 9:23 PM: Joel Sherman just tweeted that Bay is now the first Red Sox runner to reach 3rd base since Friday night.

I feel like a run is coming now. Andy is laboring and shvitzing out there like no other

Update 9:27 PM: Johnny Damon gave me a heart attack, but that is now 28 innings without a run. Most for the Red Sox since 1983.

Update 9:32 PM: Yankees have had some chances to score and have had trouble themselves. 7 runs in the equivalent of 3 games (27 innings). That's 2.3 runs per game. Not exactly the Bronx Bombers.

Update 9:38 PM: Have to say I'm a sucker for those MLB commercials and that one with Joba Chamberlain was great. Need to see if I can find that for the blog.

Yankees killing me on offense right now. Have a chance to step on the neck of the Red Sox.

Update 9:57 PM: All the talk about the Yankees new stadium yielding so many runs and the great offenses and we've had 3 pitching duels in a row. Pettitte has gotten lucky his last two starts with ground balls. But better to be lucky that good.

Update 10:08 PM: Both pitchers dealing nastiness. Pitcher's umpire, tired hitters and two good pitchers can do that. Some links:

• Peter Abraham on how A-Rod has become clutch(-er)
• MLBTradeRumors has the updated Elias Rankings. I'll look at that later but wanted to post them here.
• The New York Post on the Yankees who have cleared waivers so far
• Mark Feinsand talks about the Yankees going for another Boston Massacre and Robinson Cano's hot streak.
• AOL FanHouse talks about Nick Green's medical exemption for ADD and how hard that was to get (H/T Baseball Musings). Good to see MLB isn't just letting people get by with doing drugs with a crack doctor's note.
• Baseball Musings on the sad note that this is the 15th anniversary of the start of the 1994 baseball strike. I was at camp at the time and remember how sad I was as a young lad. One of the worst summers.
• Tyler Kepner on Friday night's game for the ages
• Dan Shaughnessy talks about the Red Sox coming out on the short end of a long Friday night
• Yahoo! Sports' Gordon Edes on Friday night's christening of the new stadium
• Steven Goldman with some thoughts on a classic Friday night and Steven Goldman with some thoughts on CC Sabathia and his workload

Update 10:21 PM: An A-Bomb, From A-Rod! What Slump? Who is Clutch? Love it!

What a blast to center. Big hit against a very tough pitcher

Update 10:25 PM: You have to love A-Rod breaking the Sports Guy as Big Papi plays like Big Poopy

@sportsguy33: Countdown to me breaking out the 2004 Playoffs DVD to make myself feel better in 10... 9... 8... 7...

Update 10:39 PM: Crap. This is why Coke should not face anyone but lefties.

Update 10:42 PM: Here are the righties in the bullpen for the Yankees: Rivera, Bruney, Robertson, Gaudin, Aceves, and Hughes. Were the fuck were they? Why is Coke in there against a slew of righties? Joe Girardi had a chance to step on the neck of the Red Sox and he used his one lefty in the 'pen. Fucking A.

Update 10:49 PM: SIMPLY DEMONIC! Johnny Damon gets back one for the Yankees!

Johnny be good!

Update 10:52 PM: A Tex Message to Right Field! Back-to-back and belly-to-belly!

Mark Teixeira crushes one there.

Ari was right saying to me that the Yankees should never have used Hughes for 1/3 of an inning and lost him today, but I like Ben's message to me better:

"red sox got their own version of teixeira with martinez...we got the real teixeira"

Update 10:54 PM: Daniel Bard's Hall Of Fame candidacy took a hit tonight.

Update 11:00 PM: You have to love this team. After a year in which I couldn't stand my own team, there's no player I don't root for. Nick Swisher is a prime example and that's a huge hit for him.

5-2 with Mo coming in, though Cano's hit with a runner on base (!!!!) keeps the inning alive hoping for more.

I hope they bring in Rivera either way tonight. Whether it's a save or not

Update 11:06 PM: It's a save, here comes Mariano Rivera.

Let's crush the Red Sox right here. How defeating would this loss be after the Victor Martinez home run?

Lowell to begin in with David Ortiz on the bench

Update 11:14 PM: A strikeout of Ortiz by Rivera here would be the perfect ending to this game, series, and maybe (hopefully) the AL East race.

This umpire's strike zone just shrank...what the hell happened?

Update 11:19 PM: No strikeout, but a sweep. Wow!

Not even in my wildest dreams did I see that coming. Now 4-8 against Red Sox this season, but 6.5 game lead.

All smiles for the Yankese as they leave the field. Awesome job. A-Rod, Damon, Tex all went deep, Andy pitched great and deep and Mo closed it out.

Thhhhhheeeeeee Yankees win!

Postgame: Reactions:

@robneyer: The sweep will be spun (as most things are) as almost purely about the Red Sox. But this is really about the Yankees, now sitting pretty.

@Ledger_Yankees: This could be the one time it's true. But in the Yankees' case against the Sox: 4>8. --Carig

Funny Deadspin caption

This had to be the most crushing way to beat the Red Sox tonight so for that, I'm very grateful. Hopefully this is the end of the division race and the end of the stupid "MT Curse". You gotta love this team: they never say die and have now made up 11.5 games in the division. Amazing.

Updated standings, now for the top 6 teams in baseball:

MLB	W	L	PCT	GB	HOME	ROAD	RS	RA	DIFF	STRK	L10
NY Yankees	69	42	.622	-	39-17	30-25	619	525	+94	Won 7	7-3
LA Dodgers	67	45	.598	2.5	36-22	31-23	552	445	+107	Lost 3	4-6
LA Angels	65	44	.596	3	33-22	32-22	614	548	+66	Lost 1	6-4
Boston	62	48	.564	6.5	35-17	27-31	562	487	+75	Lost 6	4-6
Texas	62	48	.564	6.5	37-21	25-27	532	483	+49	Won 1	5-5
Philadelphia	61	48	.560	7	29-29	32-19	569	505	+64	Lost 3	3-7

Pretty amazing stuff. Heading to bed. Back tomorrow with more. Thanks for reading along!