When the Yankees won last night, they sent a message to a jittery fan base that the division was secure. With their victory, the Magic Number dropped to a Ruthian three, and the AL East finish line is looming on the horizon. With the distance between them and the Red Sox back up to 6.5 games, I guessed the Yanks would ease off the throttle today, but they aren’t.
Facing Daisuke Matsuzaka for the first time this year, Joe Girardi is trotting out his A lineup sans a stiff-necked Jorge Posada. With CC Sabathia on the mound, this is very close to the projected Game 1 ALDS lineup Girardi will use, and it’s a good one. A-Rod has 93 RBIs and 28 home runs despite missing the first month of the season, and while baseball writers are praising David Ortiz for leading the league in home runs since early June, Hideki Matsui is hitting .310/.401/.582 since June 30. Matsui’s name, by the way, hasn’t appeared in articles about steroid use.
And so today, the Yankees will look to clinch a tie. A win today gives them a Magic Number of 1. If the Yanks were to lose all seven of their remaining games after this and Boston were to win all of their remaining games, the two teams would tie.
In other Yankee news, David Robertson will be available to pitch out of the pen on Monday. That’s very good news for the Yankee relievers. Game time is at 4 p.m., and we’re stuck with a Tim McCarver/Joe Buck special.
Jeter SS
Damon LF
Teixeira 1B
Rodriguez 3B
Matsui DH
Swisher RF
Cano 2B
Cabrera CF
Molina C
Sabathia P