...literally. In a game that took only 2 hours and 17 minutes, the Yankees defeated the Mariners 4–2 thanks to some stellar pitching and a few timely long balls. The win was the Yankees' 7th in a row and they kept pace with Boston and created some room between them and the Rays, who lost to Toronto.

All four Yankee runs were scored via the home run tonight. Johnny Damon homered in the 3rd to put the Yankees up 1–0 and Melky Cabrera (confirmed by replay) hit a monster shot into left field in the 5th inning to put the Yanks up again by a score of 2–1. Both of those home runs were answered in the next inning by 1-spots from Seattle. A-Rod put the Yankees ahead for good in the 6th with a two-run shot into Monument Park.

Andy Pettitte was solid after being roughed up a bit in Atlanta, with the only blemishes being a home run by Ken Griffey Jr. and a run-scoring ground out by
Wladimir Balentien (I'll admit, I had to copy and paste that name). Pettitte finished with a line of 2 runs on 6 hits in 7 innings of work. Alfredo Aceves and Phil Coke combined for a 1-2-3 8th inning and Mariano Rivera pitched a hitless 9th to record his 20th save of the season and the 502nd of his career.

As an aside, I heard just a minute ago on YES that Xavier Nady will in fact have Tommy John surgery and that Jose Molina will play for Scranton/Wilkes-Barre on a rehab assignment tomorrow in Pawtucket.

The Yankees will send CC Sabathia to the mound tomorrow at 7:05 ET and will try to complete a sweep of Jason Vargas and the Mariners.

Recap records: Patrick: 22–11, Seamus: 18–14, Andrew: 5–7