The Yankees lost 7-4 to the Royals as Sergio Mitre bombed in his return. The Mets also fell, 3-2, to the Dodgers in 13 innings; the Mets were out of options, so they were forced to turn to Ollie Perez and the results were as expected. 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 ›

Yesterday Alfredo Aceves took a stumble in the competition to become the Yankees’ fifth starter. Aceves’ bad outing combined with Chad Gaudin’s latest clunker most likely lowers the candidate pool to three pitchers; Hughes, Chamberlain and Mitre. All three have stepped up and made their case, but the Yankees really have only one direction to go in and that is to put Joba Chamberlain in the rotation and Phil Hughes in the minors for now. more ›

• Toronto 10 Yankees 4: The Yankees must see something in Sergio Mitre because they keep giving him the ball even though he doesn’t pitch very well at all. Mitre’s latest clunker was seven earned runs over five innings. Despite the bad start, the Yankees had their chances. They pounded out 11 hits against Roy Halladay, but they could not string enough of them together. Things got testy in the eighth when the benches cleared after Jorge Posada brushed the Toronto pitcher as he was running past him. Several punches were thrown and the Yankees will probably have some players suspended as a result. Boston won, so the lead in the AL East is now 6.5 games.
• Atlanta 6 Mets 0: Tommy Hanson is making a strong case to be the Rookie of the Year in the NL. On Tuesday, Hanson won his 10th game of the year, holding the Mets scoreless over seven innings while striking out 8. Pat Misch was not as good, allowing four runs in five innings of work which earned him the loss.

• Blue Jays 14, Yankees 8: Even a first-place team can look like last-place ones. All it has to do is start Sergio Mitre, play terrible defense and play backups for half the game because it has a day-night doubleheader the next day. The Yankees led this game, 5-4 at one point, but then Mitre and Mark Melancon had enough of that. Derek Jeter had three hits, leaving him three shy of Lou Gehrig's Yankees record. The Yankees start a long homestand with two against Tampa Bay on Monday.

• Yankees 10, White Sox 0: Sergio Mitre easily had the best game of his season yesterday, if not his career. Mitre managed to one-hit the White Sox over 6 1/3 innings of work as the Yankees offense pounded Jose Contreras for eight runs. Mitre's fantastic start was cut short after taking a come-backer from A.J. Pierzynski in the right forearm. X-rays on the arm were negative. Chad Gaudin came into the game in relief and didn't allow Chicago to get another hit. Two-run doubles by Jerry Hairston and Johnny Damon in the 2nd inning started the scoring for the Yankees, who added four more runs in the 4th inning when the Sox had two errors. The Yankees go for the series sweep today.
• Cubs 11, Mets 4: Hey, look! The Mets managed to explode for four runs. Too bad the Cubs nearly tripled the Mets output. While the Mets managed to lead the game at two points, the Cubs put themselves ahead for good in the 5th inning when Jake Fox hit a grand slam, chasing starter Bobby Parnell from the game. The Cubs go for the series sweep today.

• Toronto 5 Yankees 4: After a weekend where they swept their archrival a letdown was to be expected. Unfortunately, Sergio Mitre delivered on that expectation. Mitre made his fifth lousy start for the Yankees, allowing three earned runs over five innings and you have to wonder if the recently acquired Chad Gaudin will start the next time Mitre’s spot comes up. Despite Mitre’s struggles, the Yankees had their chances but they couldn’t cash in. Boston won, so the lead is down to 5-1/2 games.

• Mets 9, Cardinals 0: Yes, the Mets won, but they lost Jon Niese for the season. The starter suffered a "complete tear of the right upper hamstring" -- ouch! -- and will have surgery. Gary Sheffield also appeared to tweak his hamstring injury. Off the field, the Mets announced Jose Reyes has scar tissue behind his knee. Don't expect him back anytime soon. The good news came from Nelson Figueroa, who pitched 4 1/3 scoreless innings and also tripled in two runs. The bad news -- the Mets are 51-56 and going nowhere.

• White Sox 10, Yankees 5: This whole Sergio Mitre-as-a-fifth-starter experiment isn't going too well Mitre has a 7.90 ERA after lasting three innings and allowing five runs as the Yankees fell for the second straight night in Chicago. The Yankees led, 3-0, before Mitre took the mound, bu the gave one run back in the bottom of the first, three more in the second and then another in the third. Dave Roberston allowed one run to take the loss after the Yankees had tied it, 5-5. Eric Hinske continued his habit of hitting homers whenever he plays, but the Yankees' offense couldn't muster anything else.

• Mets 8, Astros 3: Nothing like a pair of games against Russ Ortiz and Brian Moehler to boost a team's confidence. The Mets' performance in their last two games has been nothing short of an offensive explosion. They overcame Livan Hernandez's three-run adventure in the first to record their first road series win since early June. Every starter -- including Livan Hernandez -- had a hit. The Mets had 13 of them. Oliver Perez will start Monday when the Mets return home to take on the wild-card-leading Rockies in the opener of a four-game series.