Ken Rosenthal of Fox Sports reports that the Yankees are still looking for starting pitching, but probably won't do anything until the rosters can expand on September 1. They did take a look at Aaron Harang and Bronson Arroyo of the Reds, but talks hit a roadblock when the Reds refused to add cash to a potential trade.

Via Ben Nicholson-Smith.

Tyler Kepner of the Times writes that Johnny Damon wants to return to the Yankees last year. Given that Damon, Hideki Matsui and Xavier Nady are all set to become free agents, it could make sense to snap him up to a short term, budget conscious deal, like Ben Kabak of River Ave. Blues says.

Baseball America's Jim Callis reports that the Yankees came to terms with 44th round pick LHP Evan DeLuca for $500,000.

Meanwhile, noMaas.org's Lane Meyer contradicts an AP report that indicated that 17th round pitcher Chad Thompson had signed.

Veteran hurler Russ Ortiz has opted out of his contract with the Yankees after three minor league starts, reports Peter Abraham. He was 2-1 with a 1.59 ERA for Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre.

The Yankees lost back to back games for the first time since they lost the first three in Chicago from July 30 to August 1, thanks to a second straight sub-par performance by the Yankee offense. This time they were shutout 3–0 by an A's staff that was headed by Brett Tomko, who the Yankees designated for assignment on July 21.

Tomko allowed just 5 hits in his 5 scoreless innings despite a few hard-hit balls early on. The A's also got 4 shutout innings from Craig Breslow, Brad Ziegler and Andrew Bailey. The only Yankee who really came through offensively was Derek Jeter, who had 3 hits and as Ken Singleton mentioned during game, is 11–20 so far on this road trip.

If you take away the bottom of the 4th inning, A.J. Burnett was actually the best pitcher in this game. Burnett allowed 3 runs in the inning, including a balk that allowed Kurt Suzuki to come across the plate, but aside from that he was really untouched and he went the entire way despite being the losing pitcher.

CC Sabathia will get the ball tomorrow night and will face Vin Mazzaro and the A's. Game is scheduled to start at 10:05 ET.

Recap records: Seamus: 34–22, Patrick: 31–14, Andrew: 9–9

According to reports by Bryan Hoch, Peter Abraham, Jim Callis and Callis again, the Yankees have come to terms with 1st rounder Slade Heathcott ($2.2 million), 2nd rounder J.R. Murphy ($1.25 million), 5th rounder Caleb Cotham ($675,000), 16th rounder Bryan Mitchell ($800,000) and 21st rounder Joe Talerico.

MLB.com's Bryan Hoch reports that Hideki Matsui had his swollen left knee drained. The Yankees are optimistic that he'll be back this week.

Everybody is allowed a clunker once in awhile, I guess. Today's 10–3 loss in Seattle is pretty hard to be upset about considering the Yankees still won 3 of 4 in the series, still have won 12 of 14 games overall and remain 7.5 games ahead of the Sox, who lost in Texas.

The pitching wasn't really there for the Yankees the way it has been over the last month or so. Joba Chamberlain put 10 batters on base in just 5 innings, allowing 4 runs. The bullpen struggled as well, most notably in the 7th, when Alfredo Aceves and Chad Gaudin combined to allow 5 runs (4 were charged to Aceves). The M's added on a final insurance run in the 8th to cap off their 10-run attack.

Even if you take the bullpen out of the equation, though, the Yankees still would not have come up with enough offense to win. They were held to just 3 runs in this one by rookie Doug Fister, all coming in the first 4 innings of the game. Derek Jeter had 3 hits in the game, overtaking Luis Aparicio for the most career hits ever by a shortstop. Nick Swisher homered for the second straight game. Other than that, there wasn't much offense to speak of.

The Yankees will be in Oakland tomorrow and will force us to stay up late for three more nights as they'll begin a set with the last place A's. A.J. Burnett will take the mound tomorrow and will be opposed by Vin Mazzaro. Game starts at 10:05 ET.

Recap records: Seamus: 34–21, Patrick: 31–14, Andrew: 9–9

Steve Serby of the Post has his Sunday Q&A with Mariano Rivera this week.


Ha.

Coming into Saturday night's Yankees/Mariners game at Safeco Field, the Mariners had struck out 22 times in the first two games of this four-game series. Tonight would be no different, as the M's went down on strikes 11 times at the hands of Yankees pitchers, including eight from the bullpen. The strikeouts helped secure a 5-2 victory for the Yankees and Sergio Mitre.

Mitre allowed two runs (one earned) in 5 1/3 innings and a dropped fly ball by Franklin Gutierrez in the second inning helped propel the Yankees.

The Mariners got on the board in the first inning on a sacrifice fly. Robinson Cano got eaten up on an in-between hop off the bat of Ichiro that resulted in a two-base error. Following a groundout, Jose Lopez flew out to left to drive in the run.

But the Yankees countered with four in the second, helped by Gutierrez's miscue with one out. Cano led off with a single. After Jerry Hairston Jr. flew out, Melky Cabrera hit a fly to center. Ichiro Suzuki got close to Gutierrez, which threw him off and eventually led to the ball dropping. Jose Molina followed with an RBI single. Derek Jeter then added a sacrifice fly to give the Yankees a 2-1 lead. After that, Nick Swisher hit a two-run home run to left.

Mitre seemingly ran out of gas in the sixth. After getting Ken Griffey Jr. to strike out, he allowed two singles and a walk before being removed in favor of David Robertson. Robertson got Josh Wilson to strike out swinging for the second out. He then struck out Ryan Langerhans looking, in what was a questionable call by C.B. Bucknor.

In total, Robertson struck out three batters in one inning of work and Phil Coke, who was brought in with one out in the seventh, struck out three in his 1 2/3 innings.

There was another questionable call in the bottom of the seventh - this time strategically - as Suzuki was caught trying to steal third with two outs and the go-ahead run at the plate.

Derek Jeter hit a solo home run in the ninth to extend the Yankees' lead to 5-2. Mariano Rivera nailed down the save in the ninth, his 35th of the season. The Yankees are now 31 games over .500 and have a 7.5-game lead in the American League East. Joba Chamberlain starts tomorrow afternoon, as the Yankees will look to sweep the four-game series in Seattle.

Recap records: Seamus: 34–20, Patrick: 31–14, Andrew: 9–9

Andrew Fletcher blogs about the Yankees regularly at Scott Proctor's Arm.