Yankees 2, Rays 1: Forget Joe Girardi's pregame meeting or Hank Steinbrenner's bluster. Mike Mussina's continued revival is the real story of Wednesday's win. He went 6 1/3 innings of one-run ball to help the Yankees take a squeaker. He's now won five straight starts and lowered his ERA to 3.99 on the season. Remember when he was left for dead? Robinson Cano, a corpse for most of the season, went 4-for-4. The team's bats......

Photograph of Yankee players celebrating their 6-3 win over the Cleveland Indians--from left, Wilson Betemit (14), Melky Cabrera (28), Robinson Cano (24) Derek Jeter (2), Johnny Damon (18) and Bobby Abreu, right--by Frank Franklin II/AP Yankees 6, Indians 3: Consider for a moment what situation the Yankees would have been in if they had lost this game. They would have been 3-6 (with the six losses coming in two sweeps) on a nine-game homestand......

Photograph of Mets relief pitcher Duaner Sanchez, center, surrounded by infielders, from left, Raul Casanova, David Wright, Jose Reyes, Damion Easley and Carlos Delgado as manager Willie Randolph, lower right, comes out to the mound to take out Sanchez after the Arizona Diamondbacks scored five runs in the eighth inning by Paul Connors/AP Yankees 6, Mariners 1: Johnny Damon had two doubles and a home run and Mike Mussina pitched six innings of one-run......

Yankees 5 Indians 2: Maybe it was the cold temperatures, but the Yankees couldn’t do anything for the first five innings. They were no-hit through five, but the sixth proved to be the difference. Melky Cabrera and Derek Jeter reached on infield singles and after Bobby Abreu singled the Yankees had the bases loaded and no outs. A-Rod was hit by a pitch, driving in a run and Jason Giambi drove in a run with......

Mets 7, Nationals 2: Any time a pitcher has more extra-base hits than he allows, things must be going well. Johan Santana cracked two doubles and allowed only one -- ironically it was hit by Nationals starter Tim Redding -- as he and the Mets snapped the team's three-game losing streak. The Nationals have proved a nice cure for the Mets this season; New York is 4-0 against the ex-Expos. Ryan Church, moved up to......

Red Sox 7, Yankees 5: Mike Mussina will be seeing Manny Ramirez in his sleep. The Stanford graduate gave up two home runs to the George Washington High School product as part of a distressing performance. The righty allowed five runs in three innings, and, unlike Wednesday, the Yankees could not put up 15 runs. Ramirez has worn out all Yankees pitching, not just Mussina, and who could be blamed for thinking the slugger is......

Photograph of Johan Santana giving the ball to manager Willie Randolph by Ed Betz/AP Brewers 5, Mets 3: Mets fans that had waited two months -- or even longer -- to see Johan Santana make his Mets Shea Stadium debut left disappointed. Santana gave up five runs (four earned) and took his second loss of the year in three starts. Three home runs proved to be his undoing Saturday. He didn't get much help......

Mets 13 Marlins 0: The game is the good news as the Mets pounded out 17 hits against Florida in an easy win. Ryan Church got it started with a home run in the second and David Wright also added his first shot of the year. Oliver Perez looked very good, striking out eight over six innings. The bad news came from Pedro Martinez who is out 4-to-6 weeks with what is being described as......

Cleveland 6 Yankees 4: The 2007 Yankees’ season ended as it began, in disarray. Chien-Ming Wang didn’t make it out of the second inning and while Mike Mussina was reasonably effective, he left with a 6-1 deficit. Meanwhile, Paul Byrd managed to shut down the Yankees’ offense. Somehow, Byrd pitched around 10 base runners in five innings and the Yankees squandered numerous opportunities to score. In a way, that was the story of this......

Yankees 8 Indians 4: It looked bleak in the third inning. Already down 2-0, the Yankees watched Roger Clemens hobble off the mound with a hamstring injury. But, Phil Hughes came in and stabilized things and Johnny Damon hit a huge three-run home run to put New York ahead. After Trot Nixon misplayed a Robinson Cano single into a three-run event, the Yankees had seized control of the game and reversed the momentum in......

IIndians 12, Yankees 3: Well, that didn't go as planned. Chien-Ming Wang didn't have his sinker, gave up a ton of two-out and two-strike hits, and the Yankees got buried. Their patient bats wore out C.C. Sabathia, but they only got three runs for their efforts against him, and that wasn't nearly enough given the way Wang pitched. Then they stunk up the joint against the Indians bullpen, but by them the game was......

Marlins 7, Mets 4: Who thought this bad dream would last this long? Needing a quality start from Oliver Perez to stop their bleeding, the Mets instead got a vintage -- as in 2005 -- effort in their fifth straight loss. Not even Byung-Hyun Kim could play the platelet to the Mets' open wound. The Marlins righty kept the Mets in check, and Oliver Perez lost control at the most critical points. Even David Wright,......

Mets 7, Marlins 6 (11 innings): A third straight win has pushed thoughts of panic to the back burner. Philadelphia lost, meaning the Mets' lead is 2 1/2. Stranger things have happened, but the Mets have buckled up in the driver's seat in the National League East. Please support David Wright for the MVP award. He put the team ahead in the 11th after another poor performance from the relievers. That bullpen still has to......

Nationals 9, Mets 8: If a four-run lead can't stand up against the Nationals, against whom will it last? The Mets are hoping what was a seven-game lead as recently as Sept. 12 stands up, but they're not helping their fans maintain regular heartbeats. John Maine hit before he threw a pitch and still couldn't get out of the fifth. That's against a team that's last in the Major Leagues in runs scored and playing......

Blue Jays 2, Yankees 1: Ian Kennedy would have signed up for one hit allowed in seven innings. The hit was a run-scoring double -- on a ball that Melky Cabrera should have caught.Too bad A.J. Burnett looked just as sharp while holding the Yankees to only a Johnny Damon solo homer. Then Chris Britton allowed a a run-scoring single in the ninth, and a seven-game winning streak went up in smoke. With Phil Hughes......

Yankees 4, Blue Jays 1: Entering this game, who would have thought Joba Chamberlain would allow more runs than Mike Mussina? The rookie reliever's scoreless streak finally ended, but that's small potatoes in the Yankees' seventh straight win. Besides, his ERA's still at 0.00 because Alex Rodriguez's error allowed the run to score. Mussina's start makes a case for him to be of use in October, a month that each day seems more likely to......

Yankees 9, Devil Rays 6: Mike Mussina might want to worry now. Ian Kennedy threw seven innings of three-run ball -- though only one run was earned -- as the Yankees evened their series against the Devil Rays. Mussina might start if Roger Clemens is unable to go Monday, but the rookie Kennedy probably earned himself a few more starts with this one. Alex Rodriguez found himself at the center of everything today. He hit......

Tigers 16, Yankees 0: Needing a win to salvage a split in Detroit, the Yankees instead got a beating and left having lost three of the four games to the Tigers. Boston awaits New York for a three-game series that starts Tuesday, and the Yankees can't be blamed if they feel a sense of urgency. Mike Mussina has felt that way for a while now. The results, including Monday's performance against Detroit, haven't been pretty.......

Mets 7, Padres 6: When Trevor Hoffman enters a game, more often than not, it's over for the opposing team. Then again, the all-time save leader with 513, has never been good in New York. Last night, the Mets came back from a one-run deficit in the 9th with Hoffman in the game for a dramatic victory. From the Mets standpoint, the bottom of the 9th was perfect and they looked like the Mets of......

Tigers 8 Yankees 5: Detroit is a great offensive team and the question the Yankees have to answer is, can their pitching stand up to a great offensive team? In the first of eight games against Detroit, the answer was a resounding no. The Tigers knocked around Mike Mussina for seven runs (six earned) in five innings of work. The Yankees had some chances, getting fifteen runners on base, but couldn’t mount a sustained rally......

Yankees 11, Indians 2: We thought things were supposed to be tougher for the Yankees when they played winning teams, but that doesn't seem to be the case. While Mike Mussina allowed one run in the first inning, the Yankees scored all they would need in the second when they tagged Paul Byrd for 7 runs. The inning included a two-run homer by Alex Rodriguez, who added another two-run shot in the 8th inning. While......

Mets 8, Cubs 3: The pitcher's win is among the most overrated stat in baseball. When you pick up 300 of them, however, you probably don't stink. Surefire Hall-of-Famer Tom Glavine fits that description, though he was a legend long before he reached an arbitrary cutoff point. He went 6 1/3 innings to pick up his 300th career win in Chicago as the Mets took two of three from the Cubs. The veteran lefty......

Devil Rays 14, Yankees 4: Pitchers can go from cruising to losing in a matter of batters. Mike Mussina's propensity to allow home runs makes him especially prone to such reversals of fortunes. He looked good for two innings on Friday but couldn't finish the fifth. Four games at home against the Devil Rays might look like a well-wrapped Christmas present, but with Matt DeSalvo and Kei Igawa scheduled to start both ends of......

Twins 6, Yankees 2: Beating Johan Santana is tough enough with an A lineup. Doing it with three reserves becomes nearly impossible. The Yankees tried and failed to beat the Cy Young Award winner by sending out Kevin Thompson, Miguel Cairo and Wil Nieves on the same day. Part of the blame goes to manager Joe Torre for choosing to rest everyone en masse, but part of the blame can rest on the Yankees' perpetual......

Mets 6, Phillies 5; Mets 5, Phillies 2: Things couldn't have gone much better for the Mets. Brothers Carlos, who have been struggling of late, combined for three homers. Orlando Hernandez and John Maine combined to hold the Phillies in check. New York leads Philadelphia by five games in the National League East. Of all the developments, Beltran's and Delgado's homers have to be the most welcome. Billy Wagner also deserves plenty of recognition, even......

Twins 9, Mets 0: Jorge Sosa has had good starts this season, but this wasn't one of them. The defense has played near flawless baseball, but it didn't Tuesday. The Mets offense has had its ups and downs, but its efforts in this loss rank among the season's worst. The Mets managed four hits, got only one runner to second base and made Johan Santana, albiet an American League Cy Young Award winner, throw only......

Yankees 7 Arizona 2: It took 60-something games, but the Yankees are finally playing like everyone thought they would from the beginning. A punishing lineup and solid starting pitching have finally shown up at the same time and the result is an eight-game winning streak. Wednesday, it was Mike Mussina’s turn on the mound and he provided his best game of the year. Moose threw over 100 pitches and made it into the eighth,......

Yankees 10, White Sox 3: When Mike Mussina pitches well these days, he doesn't last too long. He cruised into the seventh inning in Chicago on Thursday before being derailed and helping give up a one-run lead. That didn't stop the Yankees, who used a Bobby Abreu double to take the lead for good in the eighth. Thinks got dicey with Kyle Farnsworth's appearance in the bottom of the inning, but an Alex Rodriguez......

Yankees 5 White Sox 1:If the Yankees are going to get off the deck and get back into playoff contention, they will need a lot more nights like this. Chien-Ming Wang was brilliant, going the distance while allowing only one run and six baserunners. Wang also struck out four as he cruised to an easy win, his fifth of the season. The Yankees scored the bulk of their runs in the fourth. Johnny Damon......

Mets 6 Marlins 4: It is the best of times for the Mets. 32-17, best record in the National League and fresh off a sweep of the Marlins. Sunday’s win was a balanced effort with Jorge Sosa giving a solid start, the bullpen doing its job and the offense taking advantage of seven walks. Damion Easley showed his versatility, starting in left field and contributing 2 hits. Five different Mets had a RBI and the......