Yankees 3, A's 2

Thoughts:

1. Two scary moments, of course: the fifth and eighth. Both times, disasters averted with double plays. Actually, make it three scary moments, since, in the eighth, just before Cust got his hit to put runners on first and second, none out, Hughes threw him a 1-2 fastball that missed by . . . what, nothing? Compare it to Tex's punchout the previous inning. Hughes clearly wanted strike three on Cust, maybe (who knows?). Then A-Rod and, especially, Texiera helped Hughes walk the tightrope.

2. Chad Gaudin had a Nook LaLoosh night: same number of walks as strikeouts, five and five. Cue Robert Wuhl: "New League Record." No win, but enough.

3. Girardi's plan for the pitching staff is set: ride CC, AJ and Pettitte as far as they will go, then save the bucket brigade of relievers for Joba, Mitre, Gaudin. I switched over to ESPN.com after the game and came up with this: The Yankees have played 1078 1/3 innings thus fat this season. CC has pitched 178.2, AJ 153.2, Pettitte 147.1. That is a total of 479 2/3s innings, or--to put it this way--forty-five percent the season from three pitchers. Forty-five percent out of a possible sixty percent, if all three had pitched nine innings of every start. It was not for nothing that Girardi was able to practically uncase Hughes from carbon freezing (five days rest) to pitch the eighth.

4. Nobody, least of all Girardi, will say this, but Texiera is becoming the Paul O'Neill of this team.

5. A 5-2 road trip was about as good as could have been expected. Maybe better. Now a day's well-earned rest, then on to Boston with Lefty, AJ, and then CC v. Beckett on Sunday. The Yankees will wake up August 31st in first by no worse than 3 1/2 games.