Yanks snap three-game slide

The Yanks lost their ninth series of the year (out of 35) but salvaged a 5-1 win in the finale of a three-game set against the Blue Jays. They snapped their season-high-tying three-game slide and have now won two of their last six. With the win, the Yanks are within a half-game of the Rays for the division lead. Tampa Bay plays later tonight against the Twinkies.

Phil Hughes pitched very well, giving up a run on four hits with five strikeouts to two walks over 5 1/3 innings of work. He stopped some recent struggles; first 11 starts: 2.71 ERA with four homers; last eight starts: 6.04 ERA with 12 homers. He didn’t give up any long balls to the team that leads the majors in home runs (167). Philthy has now won his last seven day game starts dating back to last season.

It wasn’t just Hughes that was on, the bullpen looked spectacular too. Boom Boom Boone threw 2/3 of an inning of scoreless relief (but hit Lind), Joba tossed a one-hit seventh, D-Rob fanned two in a scoreless eighth and Mo did his thing with a scoreless ninth, although he did hit Encarnacion. Mo, who lowered his ERA to 0.91, has thrown 249 innings since the start of 2007…and walked just 36 batters!! He also has a career WHIP of 1.00. He’s also 40 years old.

In case you haven’t heard, A-Rod hit his 600th home run in the first inning. Video here. However, he went 1-for-4 and is still just 1 for his last 21. But at least that pain-in-the-ass milestone is out of the way and we don’t have to hear Michael Kay bitching about it every game. The Star-Ledger put together a full list of A-Rod’s 600 homers and the pitchers they came off of.

He did get home run number 600, but he’s been stuck on stolen base #299 since May 8. The 72-game streak without a SB is the longest of his career. Once he nabs that bag he’ll become only the 10th player in MLB history with 1,500 runs, 2,500 hits, 200 home runs and 300 stolen bases.

Hal Steinbrenner on 600:

"Congratulations to Alex on this great achievement and on adding another highlight to Yankees history. We are especially proud he accomplished this feat as a Yankee and here before the most loyal fans in baseball."

A-Rod:

"I wasn’t sure (if it was gone), it’s been awhile. It definitely felt good to get a home run and help the team win, I just wanted to get a base hit. We needed a win and to do it in a winning fashion is incredible. I’m glad it’s over and I definitely enjoyed the moment. We got a big series against Boston this weekend. It gives us momentum going into Friday. I just want to thank the fans for being patient."

Derek Jeter, who has been left for dead by many fans, went 4-for-4 with three runs scored and is now one hit away from tying Babe Ruth (2,873) on the all-time hits list. It was his first four-hit game since July 10, 2009 against the Angels and the 35th of his career, tying Willie Wilson, Andre Dawson, Alvin Dark, Johnny Damon and the AIDS-ridden Roberto Alomar for 58th place in the live-ball era (Pete Rose has the most with 73).

Tex continued his torrid streak with a 2-for-3 day and three RBI, and has now driven in 33 runs over his last 30 games and is hitting .330 (37-for-112) over that span. He had a double and a single in his first two at-bats on Wednesday, which were his first two non-homer hits since July 28. In the process he has raised his average to .258.

It seems that Robbie Cano has gone back to his lazy ways in August, he is 1-for-14 this month while the lone base knock could have easily gone as an error. His 0-for-13 stretch was the longest hitless streak for him this season.

The Yanks will have an off day on Thursday before starting a pivotal four-game set with the Red Cox on Friday. The Yanks rotation for the series will be Javy, CC, AJ and Moseley.

LET’S GO YANKS!!!!!!