The Yankees are certainly enjoying their trip to Chicago. Wednesday they really broke out the lumber, scoring 13 runs in the first three innings as they demolished the White Sox 18-7. Derek Jeter had five hits while Curtis Granderson added four hits and five RBI's. Robinson Cano and Eric Chavez had 4 RBI's and every starter had at least one hit and one run. The only downside was another terrible effort by AJ Burnett. Staked to a 12-run lead, AJ couldn't even last long enough to earn the win, departing in the 5th inning. But Corey Wade, Luis Ayala and Rafael Soriano took it from there, recording the final 14 outs while not allowing a run. more ›

Yankees 4 Chicago 3: A brutal collision at home proved to be a crucial element of the Yankees victory. After the Yankees took a 3-2 lead in the 6th on Curtis Granderson's sac-fly RBI, the Yankees' defense almost gave away the lead before standing tall. AJ Burnett hit a batter and then Eduardo Nunez and Robinson Cano made errors to load the bases with one out. Geovany Soto lined a pitch that Brett Gardner caught and Gardner's throw home beat Carlos Pena to the plate. Pena tried to obliterated Russell Martin, but Martin managed to hang onto the ball, showing it to both Pena and the umpire. The Yankees held on for the rest of the game with Mariano Rivera earning his 17th save. more ›

Mets 5 San Francisco 2: Mike Pelfrey was good over 7-2/3 innings, allowing only one earned run while striking out 5 to earn his second win of the season. Carlos Beltran hit his 5th homer of the year while Jose Reyes had a 2-run triple. K-Rod came on in the 8th and saved the game, despite loading the bases with one-out in the 9th. The Mets will now face the only team in worse financial straits than they are, the LA Dodgers. more ›

After an off-season that was widely reviewed as a failure, the Yankees will take to the field tomorrow attempting to prove their detractors wrong. Yes, they didn’t land Cliff Lee and yes, they enter the season with big question mark hanging over their rotation. But the fact remains that this is still a pretty good ballclub. more ›

The Yankees' ace CC Sabathia says that he lost 25 pounds easily: By cutting out Cap'n Crunch cereal from his diet. He told reporters today, "I stopped eating Cap'n Crunch every day I used to eat that stuff by the box." Now he's 290 pounds, down from 315 pounds—"I'm actually what it says on the back of my card." more ›

Toronto 7 Yankees 5: Get excited Yankees’ fans! AJ Burnett is signed for another three years. That’s right, a 10-15 pitcher with an ERA over 5 is coming back for 2011, 2012 and 2013 and at the “bargain” price of $16.5 million a year. more ›

The Yankees were forced to put Dustin Moseley on the mound a day early when AJ Burnett came down with back spasms and it worked out pretty well for the Yankees. Moseley lasted 6-1/3, surrendering two runs. And the Mets' game started out well...but didn't end that way, in the 6-5 loss to the Phillies. more ›

Another AJ Burnett implosion sank the Yanks as they fell to the Blue Jays 8-6. AJ had pitched very well through four innings, but he went completely off the rails in the fifth. Johan Santana had one rocky inning—the first—but it cost the Mets the game, in a 4-1 loss to Atlanta. more ›

Yankees pitcher A.j. Burnett couldn’t complete the third inning because he punched something in the locker room and cut his hand. Burnett’s implosion and some mediocre relief pitching doomed the Yanks who saw their lead in the AL East drop to 2 games, in their 10-5 loss to Tampa Bay. more ›

Mets 5 Washington 3: Jon Niese kept up his stellar pitching with seven innings of one-run ball. Niese struck out eight batters and added a RBI single. Alex Cora had the big hit, driving in three runs with a triple in the fourth. Ike Davis had a RBI and David Wright added three hits. more ›

Mets 4, Marlins 3: The Mets clearly need to use Mötley Crüe's Home Sweet Home as their new intro song because nothing seems to work quite as much as that home cooking. Unfortunately for the Mets, as good as they are at home, they're just as bad on the road. Now 20-9 at home, the Mets were able to win again behind the knuckle-ball of R.A. Dickey, 3-0. more ›

The Yankees and Mets both failed to sweep their opponents: The Red Sox beat the Yankees, 9-3, as AJ Burnett got shellacked while the Giants defeated the Mets, 6-5, with Giants pitcher Tim Lincecum winning his fourth and Oliver Perez faltering. more ›

The Yankees are sitting just a half game out of first place this morning with a sparkling 21-8 record. They are winning games convincingly, but they are also winning them without any significant contributions from their offseason acquisitions. Flash back to the start of 2009. The Yankees brought in three big pieces, CC Sabathia, AJ Burnett and Mark Teixeira. more ›

The Yankees and Mets both won yesterday. In the Yanks' win over Baltimore, Francisco Cervelli was 3-for-3, scored two runs and made a fantastic catch in support of AJ Burnett. And Rod Barajas hit a ninth inning, game-winning home run for the Mets to defeat the Reds. more ›

Mets 2 St. Louis 1 (20 innings): For a team that has supposedly quit on its’ manager, the Mets are doing a lousy job of living up to the script. One night after having their heartbroken, the Mets showed character that few pundits thought was possible. Not only did they survive multiple threats in extra innings, but they survived a blown save from K-Rod in the 19th inning. Mike Pelfrey ended up with an unlikely win and Jose Reyes had the GWRBI. more ›

• Yankees 3 Phillies 1: The Yankees gave AJ Burnett a lot of money this offseason to pitch in big games and he delivered on Thursday night. Burnett, who would have had a shutout with better defense, allowed only one run over seven innings and struck out nine. Pedro Martinez almost matched him, but he was touched up for two home runs, one by Mark Teixeira that tied the game at 1 and one by Hideki Matsui that put New York up 2-1.

After last night's Game 1 loss to the Phillies, the Yankees are hoping to even up the World Series. Now, manager Joe Girardi is benching Nick Swisher. The AP, which calls him the "slumping outfielder," says Swisher will be replaced by Jerry Hairston Jr. who "is 10 for 27 in his career against Phillies starter Pedro Martinez." more ›

The Yankees have won 102 games and apart from their slow start, dominated the American League. But none of that matters now as Wednesday as they will begin their quest for a championship against either Minnesota or Detroit. more ›

• Yankees 4 Kansas City 3: There’s nothing more for the Yankees to wrap up in the regular season, but this win was a nice gift to the fans. Sure another win is nice, but the way it happened, a comeback off of old “friend” Kyle Farnsworth was a nice release for the locals. After watching Farnsworth implode in big spots as a Yankee it was nice to see him do it against the Yankees. Juan Miranda completed the comeback with a RBI single in the ninth. More importantly, A.J. Burnett pitched well and David Robertson looked good in his first action in three weeks as he tries to make the postseason roster.
• Washington 4 Mets 3: New York jumped out to a 3-0 lead, but they couldn’t close it as they fell to the Nationals. Two errors in the eighth allowed the Nats to break a 3-3 tie and win the game.

• Yankees 3, Angels 2: For all the talk about how the Yankees can't beat the Angels, the Yankees did finish 5-5 against Los Angeles of Anaheim this season. The fifth and final win came with some irregulars -- including Jerry Hairston Jr., Shelley Duncan and Jose Molina -- in the lineup. It also included Ian Kennedy, back from an aneurysm, wriggling out of an eighth-inning jam. A.J. Burnett pitched 5 2/3 innings of two-run ball for the win. Robinson Cano had a critical two-run single. Melky Cabrera followed that up with an RBI double. Mariano Rivera got the save. The Yankees should have a chance to clinch the American League East this weekend when second-place Boston comes to town.

President Obama was on this morning, sitting down with David Gregory. The topics were what you'd expect: the extreme tone that the health care debate has taken on, how it's not about race, who he's predicting to win the World Series, if there's a deadline on Afghanistan, etc. Wait wait, was the president once again lured into being a chatty Cathy on plebian topics one again, just days after he called Kanye West " a jackass"? more ›

If the Curse of the Bambino was bestowed upon the Yankees in 1918 leading to 86 years of dominance over the Boston Red Sox, 2009 may just end up being the year the team discovered "The Magical Cream Pie" courtesy of off-season acquisition AJ Burnett. Last night Burnett dished out his 14th cream pie of the season, an honor that has been given during the postgame interview each time a Bomber has won a game for the team with a walk-off hit. Wednesday's recipient was Francisco Cervelli, the team's third-string catcher who found his way into the game after Jorge Posada was suspended for Tuesday night's bench-clearing brawl. After the game, Cervelli said, "I was waiting a long time for the pie. It tasted good...It's a moment everybody wants." more ›

The 2009 Yankees look to be returning to the playoffs in just a couple weeks after last season's first year being left home in over a decade. This year's team has been marked by a level of extroverted charisma and fiery personalities uncharacteristic of the stoic bunch that led the turn of the century dynasty. But last night, late in a game that did not appear to be on its way toward another AJ Burnett pieface moment, some of that adrenaline appeared to turn nasty as Jorge Posada took a cheap shot shove at Blue Jays' pitcher Jesse Carlson and BAM! It was on—bench-clearing brawl, enough of a mess to end with a little blood. more ›

• New York 10 Philadelphia 9: New York jumped out to a 4-0 lead and turned to Mike Pelfrey to make it standup. Pelfrey couldn’t handle that, surrendering eight runs in six innings of work and he left with the Phillies up 8-4. But, the Philadelphia bullpen is a mess and the Mets rallied with three in the eighth and two in the ninth, thanks to a David Wright home run to take the lead. K-Rod shut the door and the Mets and their fans had a reason to celebrate.

• Yankees 4 Tampa Bay 1: The Yankees won a pitcher’s duel in the first game of their doubleheader Monday. C.C. Sabathia went seven-strong, but he did not collect the win because Matt Garza matched him frame for frame. But, the Yankees broke through in the eighth, turning a 1-1 game into a 4-1 win. Robinson Cano hit a sac fly to make it 2-1. Jorge Posada and Eric Hinske both added RBI’s. That’s all Mariano Rivera needed as he pitched for the first time since September 1st and nailed down his 39th save.

• Red Sox 14, Yankees 1: A.J. Burnett didn't have it. If that wasn't clear after the Red Sox scored three runs in the first, it became clear when Alex Gonzalez poked one out over the Green Monster in the second. Kevin Youkilis also went deep -- twice -- as Boston snapped a five-game losing streak against New York, which still leads the American League East by 6 1/2 games. When all was said and done, Burnett allowed nine runs in five innings, striking out six and walking two. Nick Swisher's homer accounted for the lone Yankees run. CC Sabathia and Josh Beckett square off Sunday night in the rubber game.
• Phillies 4, Mets 1: One night after getting to Cole Hamels, the Mets were shut down by J.A. Happ after celebrating the 40th anniversary of the 1969 championship team. Alas, no miracle appears in store for these Mets, who wasted five scoreless innings from Tim Redding and blew a 1-0 lead. Six relievers combined to give up four runs. Pedro Martinez returns to Queens to start Sunday afternoon's game.
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At minimum, the Yankees will finish this weekend with a 4-1/2 game lead on the Red Sox. In the process of building that lead this weekend, they have answered the biggest question hanging over them since the last time they played Boston: can the beat a good team? more ›