Yankees take sole possession of AL East

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For the eleventh time in twenty-two games, the Yankees came within one run of either winning or losing a ballgame. In tonight’s case it was winning, as Shawn Chacon gave his team a lights out performance, pitching 6 2/3 innings while giving up only one run. Chacon who, along with Aaron Small and Alex Rodriguez, is part of the trio that has been most valuable to the Yankees since the all-star break, has now lowered his era to 3.40, down more than 60 points from two months ago.With tonight’s clutch win over Baltimore, New York is now 9-2 in their last 11 one-run ball games.

So much for the team that was only supposed to be able to produce at the plate via long ball.

However, home runs played a big factor in tonight’s game when, in the 6th inning, Alex Rodriguez his hit 47th homer of the year. That tied the game 1-1 and erased Javy Lopez’s solo shot in the second inning.

One player that hasn’t had much experience at all as far as bunting has been rookie sensation Robinson Cano. When playing in the minor leagues, Cano batted third and fourth, therefore his chances to bunt were very limited. But tonight he showed that he is a very valuable asset to his ball club as he laid down a sacrifice bunt in the 7th to advance Jorge Posada to third. Posada then scored on a groundball single by Derek Jeter.

With two outs in the seventh inning, Orioles shortstop Chris Gomez hit a ground rule double off of Chacon, which ended the Yankee starter’s night. Tom Gordon came in and got pinch-hitter David Newhan to ground out on the very first pitch.

Gordon pitched the entire 8th inning giving up only one hit to Melvin Mora before Miguel Tejada grounded into an inning-ending double play.

For the ninth it was Mariano Rivera who secured his 43rd save of the season by retiring three Orioles in order, thus putting his team one game ahead in the AL East.

Mike Mussina’s Tuesday night performance was blotted out and it was Bronson Arroyo who looked like the Moose tonight.

Arroyo did last longer than Mussina last night but his lack of placement could not have come at a worse time.

In his three innings pitched, he gave up 7 runs on 7 hits, throwing in 3 walks along the way for good measure.

After giving up 7 runs in the first three innings the Sox attempted to battle back but were rebuffed by Toronto’s Ted Lilly.

Edgar Renteria hit a solo home run in the 1st inning and David Ortiz drove in Renteria in the 5th, but it wasn’t enough to keep Boston at the top of the East.

Tomorrow the Yankees and Red Sox finish their four-game sets against the Orioles and Blue Jays before Boston plays host to the Evil Empire for the final three games of the season.

The Red Sox will put Matt Clement on the mound to face Scott Downs while a 9-0 Aaron Small makes his final start of the season against Erik Bedard.

Boston desperately needs Clement to come out strong for them tomorrow but his stats are against them.

In his last 5 starts, Clement has gone 1-3 and allowing 20 runs in 25.3 innings pitched. Just two starts ago against Oakland, the all-star pitcher lasted just 1 1/3 innings while giving up 7 runs on 8 hits.

Obviously the Yankees are hoping that Small will have a great game but if he gives up four or five runs, New York is pretty confident that their bats can make up the ground.

Tomorrow’s game is much more crucial for Boston because the last thing they want is to host the Yankees down 2 games in the division. If the Red Sox lose and the Yankees win tomorrow it would mean that to win the East, Boston would have to sweep the Yankees which isn’t a very easy task.

With David Wells going for Boston on Friday night the Yankees won’t have much to worry about, at least in the first game of the series. Wells doesn’t paint the corners like Mussina does but rather challenges the hitters to hit his pitches.

That strategy can work against teams like Tampa Bay (who, assuming the Red Sox have to win the wild card, helped Boston out by beating Cleveland 1-0 and keeping both teams tied for first in the wild card) who aren’t great hitting teams but pitching like that to hitters like Gary Sheffield and Jason Giambi, well, that’s just plain dangerous.