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Although they have seemingly faced a lot of borderline journeymen or unfamiliar rookie pitchers this season, the Yanks haven't had to send too many to the mound. And when it finally came time to do so, Sergio Mitre did what was necessary for the Bombers to walk away with the victory.

By this time last year, the Yankees had already asked Kei Igawa, Darrell Rasner, Dan Geise, Sindey Ponson, Ian Kennedy, Phil Hughes and even Brian Bruney to start games for them. Last night was only the 9th start they needed from outside their Opening Day rotation this season, with seven of those coming from Hughes. Having only one pitcher nearly incapable of recording a victory in the early going this year (Wang) as opposed to two last year (Hughes and Kennedy) is a big reason that the Yankees just took over sole posession of first place in the AL East.

It wasn't a dominant outing for Mitre, and it got off to a rocky start in the 1st when Brian Roberts doubled to lead off the game, advanced to third on a groundout and scored when Nick Markakis singled to center. Roberts made his way around the bases again in the 3rd, via a single, stolen base, thorwing error (by Mitre) and finally came home on a one out dribbler to Jeter.

The Yanks did their damage in the second through fourth innings, starting with a manufactured run by A-Rod. He walked to lead off the 2nd, stole a base, advanced to third on a fly ball and scored on a sac fly. Alex was the one driving in the runs in the third inning, with a two out, bases loaded single that scored Cody Ransom, and Jeter. Robby Cano added a two run homer to the home bullpen in the fifth inning and Ransom scored again on a single by Johnny Damon later in the frame.

Mitre faced the minimum 6 batters in the fourth and fifth but ran into trouble in the 6th. He gave up back to back singles to Markakis and Aubrey Huff, who both came around to score two batters later on a single by Melvin Mora. The Serg got Nolan Reimold to strike out before Girardi replaced him with Alfredo Aceves.

The Marlins' cast-off and Tommy John rehab case didn't exactly impress with his performance last night, but when he left the game, he could only win, not lose it. He gave up 8 hits but only one was for extra bases - the double in the first to Roberts. The O's worked just one walk off of the sinkerballer and he threw 57 of his 91 pitches for strikes. After Aceves, Phil Coke and Mariano Rivera each pitched a scoreless inning to lock down Mitre's first Major League win since 2007.

It would seem that Mitre has earned himself another go 'round in the rotation and will be enough to keep Phil Hughes and Alfredo Aceves in the bullpen, at least for now. Mitre has already matched Chien Ming Wang's win total for the season and with the news that Wang might not be back for a while, this outing is enough to to cast aside concerns about the thinning rotation for the time being.

Game 41: Tumbling Dice

Jay's vacation winds to Baltimore tonight to see Trey Anastasio with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra. Meanwhile, back in New York, the Yankees will go for a sweep of the O's.

The subplot for tonight's game will be Aubrey Huff vs. Joba Chamberlain. When the two met on May 10th, Huff took Joba deep. Apparently insulted by Joba's "fist pump" antics following one of his 3 career Ks against him (in 8 previous PAs), Huff now had his revenge and the ten year veteran responded with exaggerated, preconceived fist pumps while rounding first and crossing the plate. He made sure he was looking right at Joba both times. You tell me whose actions are more bush league.

That said, I doubt anything will happen tonight. This is essentially a media issue at this point. While I wasn't opposed to some sort of retaliation 11 days ago, why mess with a good thing now? Perhaps a good brawl would have served to kick start a team that had lost 6 of 7, but there's no sense in resorting to such tactics when you've won eight in a row. Joba's best revenge will be to sit him down, not knock him down. And if that fails, the two teams still meet nine more times this year. Sometimes it's better to have a long memory as opposed to a short fuse.

Brett Gardner returns to the line-up for the first time since banging up his shoulder during his daring/ill-advised mad dash for the plate Sunday. Damon takes a seat after wrenching his neck chasing Adam Jones' HR last night. He should only be out one day, which of course is Girardi-speak for "he'll be having his vertebrae fused tomorrow morning". And CMW will make one more AAA start. That means Hughes will start in Texas Monday, where he'll look to do this again (minus the pulled hammy). Thanks to LoHud for all of the above notes.

Yesterday we went with the Beatles, so it's only fitting that today we go with the Stones: the Gehrig and Ruth of the British Invasion - and arguably all of rock and roll. Just like a crap shooter, you need some luck in life. Mick and Keef needed luck to still be alive and touring after all these years. A ball club needs luck to rattle off a winning streak this long. Since I dropped in this week we've seen sixes and sevens (and eights), tonight we go for nines. Let's hope the dice tumble the Yanks' way tonight and they don't crap out.



Always in a hurry, I never stop to worry,
Don't you see the time flashing by?
Honey, got no money,
I'm all sixes and sevens and nines.
Say now baby I'm the rank outsider,
You can be my partner in crime.
But baby, I can't stay,
You've got to roll me
and call me the tumbling dice.