The Yankees stayed mathematically alive Saturday afternoon with a 1-0 victory over the Orioles in what was the last afternoon game ever played at Yankee Stadium. Robinson Cano was the hero this time, lining a walk-off base hit up the middle in the bottom of the 9th.

Alfredo Aceves and Brian Burres pretty much matched each other, as Burres pitched seven scoreless innings and Aceves shut the O's out for six. Aceves is definitely leaving something other than the new stadium to be intrigued about for next year, as he's allowed only four runs in 26 innings of work since being called up.

As you could probably imagine, the box score featured a lot of zeros, and Alex Rodriguez and Oscar Salazar were the only two players in the game with more than one hit.

The only run of the game was allowed by the Orioles' Jamie Walker, who coughed up a base hit up the middle by Robinson Cano with runners at the corners to end the game, giving the Yanks a 1-0 victory.

Derek Jeter was hit on the hand by Jim Miller in the bottom of the 9th, forcing him to leave the game. Jeter did say that "it doesn't feel good," but he expects to be able to go tonight.

So this is it...one last game in the cathedral before heading out to finish the season with stops in Toronto and Boston. Andy Pettitte will be on the mound and hopefully Jeter's hand is good enough to allow him to play for more than just an out or so. Pregame cermonies begin on YES and ESPN at 7 ET and the game is scheduled to start at 8:05 ET on ESPN.

The final series ever at Yankee Stadium started on a high note, as the team got some good pitching, great defense, just enough hitting and a little bit of luck to defeat the Orioles by a score of 3-2. The entire game was decided in five innings, as the game was scoreless from the sixth inning on.

The Orioles jumped ahead early with an RBI single by Aubrey Huff in the first and a sacrifice fly by Lou Montanez in the second. That would be all the offense Baltimore would get as the Yankees got a good performance out of their pitching staff, beginning with five solid innings from Carl Pavano. The Yankees probably didn't need to use six pitchers, but everybody who contributed did a nice job.

The Yankees tied the game with two runs in the third inning, as Robinson Cano lead the inning off with a solo home run and Brett Gardner brought in Pudge Rodriguez with an RBI double.

It turns out Gardner was just getting started. Luke Scott lead off the top of the fourth and drilled a ball to straightaway center that would have gone over the wall if it weren't for Gardner, who leaped up and snagged the ball from just on top of the wall above the 408 sign to keep the game tied.

That play would turn out to be key, as the only run scored after that was on a wild pitch that scored Johnny Damon in the fifth to put the Yankees ahead 3-2, a score that would prove to be final.

The Orioles got the tying run at third base with two outs in the ninth, but Mariano Rivera got Brian Roberts to pop up to end it. Rivera picked up his 37th save of the season.

The Rays won last night, officially taking the Yankees out of the running in the East. A win by the BoSox over Toronto put the Yankees' elimination number at just two with eight games left to play.

The Yankees will play the last day game ever to be played at the Stadium this afternoon. The pitching matchup will feature Alfredo Aceves for the Yankees and Brian Burres for Baltimore. Game starts at 1:05 ET.

Well, if the Yankees keep playing this way until the end of the season, a lot of people won't feel quite as bad as if the Yanks just mailed it in. Maybe it's because it's the last homestand at the Stadium or maybe it's just personal and team pride, but the Yankees put forth another good effort in beating the White Sox 9-2.

Javier Vazquez, who was pitching on three days rest and who is now 0-3 when he does that, clearly didn't have his best stuff and got batted around, especially by Bobby Abreu, who launched the go-ahead homer in the bottom of the first, another in the third and drove in 6 of the 9 runs.

Still, the story of the game was Mike Mussina who was making his last start at the stadium. Moose labored through 28 pitches in the first as he loaded the bases twice but was able to escape with only one run scored (on a groundout off the bat of Paul Konerko that was a hair away from being a DP). After the Yankees took the lead in the bottom of the inning, Mussina settled down and went six full innings and shut down the White Sox offense, retiring 10 straight batters from the 2nd to the 5th. He went out for the seventh and faced one batter before Girardi came and got him. On his way off the mound, the crowd gave him an ovation that can only be described as thunderous (MOOOOOOSE) and I don't think even Mussina could stop the smile from creeping onto his face.

The bullpen came in and did their job and we got our first glimpse of hometown boy Humberto Sanchez in the 8th. Sanchez, who grew up in the Bronx and whose dad still lives at 183rd and Jerome, was the key piece of the Gary Sheffield trade and will probably be expected to make some significant contributions to the Yankee bullpen next year. Chris Britton even pitched and though he gave up a couple hits and a run, the game had long been decided. A good one for the Yankees and let's see if the good times can keep rolling against the Orioles (a sweep to get to 85 wins before the Sox come to town would sure be nice).

The 2009 for your New York Yankees has been released. The home opener is against Cleveland on April 16.

Via Bryan Hoch.

Jack Curry spoke with Derek Jeter on his leadership style.


I have read, many times over, where people have said Jeter is not a vocal leader and how he doesn't get in anyone's face. How Jorge Posada (or someone else) is more of a leader because we see them talking more, giving their opinion more, saying where they think Joba should play more. It kind of bothers me because the bottom line is that we don't know what he does in private and nor should we. If he pulls someone aside and then that gets reported, the person he pulled aside may be embarrassed. Professionalism is keeping things in house. The fact that you don't hear about Jeter doing it much could be a testament to his professionalism, as much as anything else. In addition, different people lead in different ways and yelling at people isn't always the best way.

We sometimes see things on TV, read things online or in the press, and we make these judgements based on a small portion of the story. I see the same thing at Bad Boy Blog, especially with a figure like Diddy. People see this, see that, read the gossip reports, read news reports, listen to stories and then those things are turned into facts. We know this, we know that. But, at the end of the day, what we know generally isn't all that much. Familiarity breeds contempt, it's easy to criticize people and even easier to criticize those who are successful - to find flaws. I'm rehashing some of what I said on this subject in March, but I thought it was interesting to see Jeter speak on this perception.

Ronald Blum of the AP spoke with Joe Mignogna, a 90 year old Yankees fan who attended the first game played at the stadium - when he was five.


He plans to attend Sunday's regular season finale.

Now that Scranton's season is finally over, first baseman Juan Miranda has been called up to the Majors.

In other news, Carl Pavano will start Friday while Sidney Ponson will be skipped to make room for Phil Hughes, who will start tonight.

The Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Yankees couldn't get the job done against the Sacramento River Cats, falling 4-1 in the Triple-A championship.

Derek Jeter went 2 for 3 on Tuesday night, moving past Lou Gehrig to take the top spot on the hits at Yankee Stadium leaderboard. Unfortunately, the team as a whole collected 9 hits and 1 walk and, as a team, left 8 runners on base. Yeah, that's not going to cut it. Yankees lose to the White Sox, 6-2.

Andy Pettitte started and he had a rough go, throwing only 77 pitches and being pulled after 6 innings of work. However, he did keep us in the game, as he left with the score at 4-2, despite walking 3 and allowing 6 hits.

Jose Veras, Dan Giese and David Robertson followed him with one inning of work each. Veras and Giese each allowed an earned run, while Robertson held the White Sox scoreless.

Johnny Damon was 3 for 5 with a double and an RBI, Brett Gardner was 2 for 4 with a run, Jason Giambi was 1 for 3 with a home run and A-Rod had a hit. And that was it for the Yankees offense.

Tomorrow at 7:05 PM ET, Phil Hughes will make his return, pitching in the Majors for the first time since April. As a reminder, his record is 0-4 with a 9.00 ERA. He'll face Lance Broadway (1-0, 8.49).

Jim Baumbach of Newsday spoke with Bob Sheppard, who confirmed that he will miss the regular season close of Yankee Stadium.


Via Ben.