Bronx, N.Y., September 26, 2009 — The Yankees moved within one game of 100 wins and also reduced their magic number for clinching the AL East to one with a 3-0 win over the Red Sox in Yankee Stadium Saturday afternoon. Staff ace CC Sabathia brought his “A” game and copped his 19th win with seven innings of shutout ball. Then Manager Joe Girardi called on the eight inning/ninth inning combo he hopes to use to bring the team its 27th Championship: eighth inning by youngster Phil Hughes, ninth inning by Mariano Rivera, the best closer the game has ever known.

Although Rivera’s ninth was a bit more messy, with Boston’s second hit on the day and a hit by pitch allowing the tying run to come to the plate, the young and old relievers did their job in the same exact way, a ground out and two strikes outs by each. I’m sure they weren’t necessarily trying to copy one another, but perhaps something cosmic was going on, because Sabathia too followed a pattern, the one set by winner Joba Chamberlain in Friday night’s game.

Both Chamberlain and Sabathia pitched perfect ball for 3.7 innings before Victor Martinez broke up their perfectos. Both used exactly 36 pitches to retire the Boston order through three. Both pitched to 24 Red Sox batters. Both threw just 11 first-pitch strikes to those hitters. Sabathia was pitching with an extra day of rest, and had been announced as the Friday starter earlier in the week. Maybe Girardi just got lucky, but the eventual rotational choices for this series, moving from young hurler to dominant ace in the prime of his career to Yankee old-timer Andy Pettitte to close out the series Sunday, looks to be a brilliant coup now.

Of course, the Friday and Saturday games were quite different. The Yanks took an early lead they would never relinquish Friday, and led 5-0 after three in the eventual 9-5 win. Chamberlain only went six innings, and allowed three runs in that time. Sabathia was confronted with a very different game. Both Yankee hurlers dominated the opposition early, but CC continued his domination through seven innngs. He had to because Boston starter Daisuke Matsuzaka was doing his usual tapdance around spotty control. The Yankees had runners on base in every inning he threw except for the seventh, and had the leadoff batter on in five of the first six. The Boston starter walked five, hit a batter, allowed six hits, and at one point missed on first pitches to nine straight hitters. But Matsuzaka was up to the task of thwarting each and every threat. The Yankee offense, so explosive the night before, was 0-for-11 with runners in scoring position until Robbie Cano finally slashed an opposite-field home run to left leading off the home sixth.

So even though Sabathia didn’t allow a baserunner until the fourth and the only base hit against him in the fifth, there was no time to relax. The go-ahead run was facing him in each and every at bat through six, and on three occasions his defense stepped up. Young Jed Lowrie drove a 1-0 pitch deep to dead center in the third, but Melky Cabrera ran it down, crashing into the wall once he made the catch. And following the two-out Martinez walk in the fourth that broke up the perfect game, Derek Jeter ranged far into short center field to flag down a Kevin Youkilis soft liner that had base hit written all over it. But in the fifth and seventh innings, Sabathia came to his own rescue. Once Mike Lowell led off the fifth with a single to center, CC struck out David Ortiz, Rocco Baldelli, and Lowrie in succession. And when Lowell bounced one off the Yankee left hander’s glove with a man on first and one down in the seventh, Sabathia kept his cool, ran down the ball that was rolling toward third, and pegged Lowell out. Worthy of mention in this respect also, however, is a diving stop Mark Teixeira made on J.D. Drew, the first batter Hughes faced in the eighth.

As with the night before, although this was a much tighter game, and Matsuzaka gamely kept his team in it, Boston came up short in several respects. They threw 25 more pitches, which was largely attributable to the 35 throws Billy Wagner threw to get two outs in the eighth. It was in that frame that the game’s only error was made, and it was huge, but Boston fielding looked silly in the top of the fourth when Hideki Matsui lofted a harmless popup into short center leading off. No less than four fielders could have caught it, but none did. Matsuzaka walked Nick Swisher next but retired three straight with Matsui in scoring position, much as he did all afternoon.

Wagner replaced the Boston righty to start the eighth, and Swisher worked a six-pitch leadoff walk. Brett Gardner ran for him and was wild pitched to second, but Wagner struck Cano out on the next pitch. Gardner stole third and Cabrera took first after being hit by a pitch. Jose Molina missed at a bunt try, but two pitches later, Gardner tried to score on a ball in the dirt. But Red Sox catcher Martinez gloved it and Brett was in a rundown. Eventually he made a dash for home then reversed and sped toward third. Backup shortstop Chris Woodward couldn’t handle the throw and Gardner was safe. One out later Johnny Damon lofted a soft two-run single over first, a back-breaking hit, and the only one of the inning.

So now the Yanks play the Sox for the Division clincher with Pettitte facing Paul Byrd. It seems ages ago that Boston took the first eight games between these two teams in 2009. They have played nine games since, and the season series now stands at 8-9 in favor of the Sox with the one game to go. With Texas thrashing Tampa Saturday night, it seems clear that the Sox magic number to make the playoffs will remain at two. Texas’ odds are long, and Boston will probably do it shortly.

Probably. I remember thinking June 11 after the Yanks had lost that eighth straight game to the Sox, that they would “probably” avenge those losses, that when push came to shove the Yanks would rise. And I was right. But it didn’t feel good. As a Yankee fan I felt demeaned, brought low, humbled.

Composer George Gershwin would have been celebrating his 111th birthday this day had he lived. I was feeling pretty poorly back in June, as were hosts of Yankee fans. But I’m not feeling poorly now. Mr. Gershwin was talking love in his Broadway hit ‘S Wonderful, but with my apologies for altering the second line, it describes the way this Yankee fan feels on September 26, a week and a half from the playoffs:

‘s wonderful, ‘s marvellous
they play well for me!
‘s awful nice, ‘s paradise,

‘s what I love to see

BTW,TYW

YANKEE BASEBALL!!!