Yankees 3, Red Sox 2

A terrific win, and a terrific game, but realistically no more than holding serve, as the Yankees' ace squared off against the Red Sox' own version of AJ Burnett.

Still, I pick the wrong nights to work late. Caught the second half (meaning, the second two hours).

Yankees 3, O's 2

Nice stuff from Garcia, who dwelt the first half of the season as the lesser half of the Cliff Lee Consolation Prize.

CC, Nova, Hughes?, Garcia?, Colon?

The last team that tried to hit its way to a World Championship was the '93 Phillies, blessed with a young Curt Schilling and . . . Dyskstra, Kruk, Daulton, Inky, Eisenreich . . . the only problem was, in Game 6, Toronto got to bat last.

Yanks split

Good pitching by Colon is the consolation.

Orioles 12, Yankees 5

Welcome to the 2011 Yankees, who score 27 runs in two games . . .

And split. 'Cause the other guys scored 19 runs.

AJ.

And now, we hunker down, wait for Irene to pass, and sit miserably watching the Red Sox win again today.

Yankees 22, A's 9

I was going to see the new Irish film The Guard either tonight or tomorrow night.

Guess which one I picked. Sigh.

All I can say is, after all the records have been charted and after the laughter dies down (Posada at second throws to Swisher at first, a one-hopper that Schilling on ESPN describes as Swisher's Web Gem), remember these heroics would not have been necessary had Hughes pitched a half-decent game against Oakland, who even after tonight have scored, this entire season, a grand total of 10 more runs than the hapless Astros.

A's 6, Yankees 3 (10)

This is why I keep reruns of "Las Vegas" in my DVR.

Before Crisp's second home run had clattered off the right-field seats, I was already deep into the adventures of Danny, Mike, and Sam.

A's 6, Yankees 5

Ooooooooh damn.

The playoff rotation is like golf, guys--CC, Hughes, Nova . . . we do need a fourth.

Yankees 3, Twins 0

Let's see. Assume it's the first week in October. In New York. Or Detroit or Cleveland or Arlington.

Game 1: CC
Game 2: Hughes
Game 3: Nova
Game 4: Colon or Garcia
Game 5: CC

Like. Our. Chances.

Over at Grantland (headlined by Boston freak Bill Simmons, who counts as his buddies Malcom Gladwell, whose next best-seller will undoubtedly be entitled Don't Screw with Mr. Big, so you've been warned), a Yankee fan admits to rooting against the Yankees for the first time in his life: "He Must Be Stopped."

Guess who? Hint: Last night's game.

Aw, you peeked:

. . . for one day and one day only I'll be rooting against the Yankees. I want A.J. Burnett to have a devastating professional disaster. It’s for the good of the team. I want the experience to be so sour that Girardi actually bans him from the clubhouse. I want the Yankees to build a bronze statue of that moment, and I want to buy a poster of the statue and hang it in my bedroom.

This is, as Simmons's other pal Chuck Klosterman would write, the Lenin Theory of Sports: The Worse, the Better.

CC Sabathia, barring injury, is headed toward the greatest Yankee career of any Yankee starter free-agent ever. Better than Catfish, Tommy John, or Moose.

AJ? 82 million dollars . . . really, for his performance in one pivotal, essential, God-we-need-ya game in 2 3/4 years.

2009 World Series. Game 2.

In which he was only a shade short of brilliant against Philly's two-legged meat grinders, after CC was rousted against Cliff Lee.

This year, assuming the pitching aligns, Game 2 of a Philly-New York World Series will be against Cliff Lee.

As in, Yankee-killer Cliff Lee.

The night after CC goes against Yankee-killer Roy Halladay.

In Philadelphia.

AJ? Nova? Hughes?

Your life depended on it, whom would you pick?

Game 3 vs. Hamels? Nova or AJ?

Game 4? Oswalt? Colon, Garcia, or AJ?

Twins 8, Yankees 4

I gave up writing about politics here because I was tired of arguing with morons (and, in the process, lost 95% of my readership--hi, Dad).

But . . . it has (it has been suggested) become part of the Associated Press Stylebook that every dreadful new regulation of Obamacare be known as "little-known."

As in: "A little-known portion of the Affordable blah blah was revealed today. It regulates blah blah terrible consequence." You, pass the bill so we can find out what's in it, and so on.

Along those lines, I hslf-seriously propose that every reference to AJ Burnett hereinafter be preceded by "exasperating."

"The exasperating Burnett took the mount with the Yankees in an impressive road tip. However, it was clear the exasperating Burnett was in for a short night. In fact, the exasperating Burnett did not even make it out of the second inning. Afterward, the exasperating Burnett made no apologies . . ."

Yankees 8, Twins 1

Hughes!

Half-game in front.

Yankees 8, Twins 4

Picked the wrong game to miss.

Half-game up.

Royals 5, Yankees 4

So badly did the Royals want to give the game away . . . and the Yankees weren't having any of it.

Cano's at-bat in the ninth was the story, the two pitches he could have sent into the waterfalls, or even turned on for a base hit when, in the end, a base hit would have been enough to make it 6-5.

Half-game up.

Yankees 9, Royals 7

Cano's mash, yes.

But Tex's nab with two out in the sixth, and the Royals within a run--that was the ballgame.

a foot to the left, and the merry-go-round starts.

Half-a-game up.

Yankees 7, Royals 4

And so, the exasperating AJ pulls to .500, and the exasperating Yankees, with seven weeks to go in the season, pull into a tie with Boston.

The Angels fall to 10 games back in the wild-card loss column.

Ho hum. Texas--with two games in Arlington to start? Or Detroit--with two games against Verlander? Lady or the tiger.

Yankees ppd.

". . . Sometimes, it rains."

Time to fatten up on KC.

Yankees 9, Rays 2

Posada! Let's hope it's not a dead-cat bounce.

Saturday's game? Never happened.

CC will be fine.

Hughes--need him.

Yankees 6, Angels 5

Out of nowhere, the Yankees win the series.

Not that I saw it. But I heard Granderson's homer was something.

Yankees 9, Angels 3

All right, then.

Red Sox 2, Yankees 1 (10)

Saw this one on a big screen, in a west Louisiana combination lounge/mini-concert area that seem unique to interstate casinos. The place had closed for the night (we were an hour behind the game, but the place was closed for the night); the lights were turned off, and the staff had gone home, but the TV had been left on for any patrons who wanted to watch the game to the end. There was only me, sitting in the darkness, staring at what I sort of knew what was coming.

Red Sox 10, Yankees 4

Pass.

Yankees 3, Red Sox 2

Ahhhhh lovely--and the most significant event of the evening may not have been Swisher's ground-rule bullet into the seats, nor his nifty play on Carl Crawford to prevent a roller into the triangle (and hence, a game-tying inside-the-park homer).

Overhsadowing Swisher's heroics was Soriano in the eighth. If he holds where he is, the Yankees will be nasty.

Yankees 4, White Sox 1

Over at Pinstripe Alley the writer remembers a historical precedent: the last time the Yankees won four out of four on the road was when they won five out of five on the road in 2006, against the Red Sox.

Jscape writes: "I remember that. That was a good week."

So: for the starters. Once more around to the dealer, right? AJ Burnett is a pitcher for whom "exasperating" seems specfically coined.

Yankees 18, White Sox 7

Everyone reporting this game is missing the real story.

Go ahead: you were thinking, "13-1? Not even AJ can blow this."

Whoops. Almost. After 4 1/3 innings, the Sox were one base hit away from making it 13-9, and then it's practically a new ballgame.

AJ--you kill me.

Yankees 6, White Sox 0 (7)

What's very cool is, since the Yankees won anyway, they let the two runs from the top of the 7th stand, and did not revert to the end of the 6th.

It was Earl Weaver who had his Memorial Stadium grounds crew trained so thoroughly in siphoning every advantage from a rain storm (the Yankees once lost a game in '78 because of his crap, and in the same game Reggie had a home run wiped away) that a whole host of new rules were put in place.

Anyway, good to see Tex swinging so well. And Hughes, gonna need Hughes.

With CC, Colon, Garcia, and--a few more starts like tonight's, we may wonder why--AJ set in the rotation, apparently this week is the Hughes/Nova bake-off. After tonight, though, the only question for Nova may be the pen or back to Scranton.

Oh, right: "Put it on the booaaaaaaaaaard . . . Yeeyes!"

No worse than a split.

Yankees 3, White Sox 2

When CC "isn't going right," when his "slider is flattening," when he "isn't hitting his spots"--when this happens in a start in August, and his formerly 2.96 ERA goes down in the course of the game . . . brother, this is one season he's having.