Ca-No You Didn't, Yankees Sweep Orioles

BALTIMORE - It is fair to say that the New York Yankees (70-60) are back into the playoff race.  Now back to 10 games above the .500 mark and a whole lot of momentum heading into a huge series with the Boston Red Sox.

Sunday, the Yankees completed a much needed 3-game sweep of the Baltimore Orioles to finish off a string of games where 16 of their last 19 games were on the road.

Of those 16 road games, the Yankees were able to win 7 of them thanks to the big wins in Baltimore over the weekend.

Darrell Rasner received a no decision in the game, and he was roughed up early.  Giving up back-to-back home runs in the bottom of the first inning to Melvin Mora and Aubrey Huff.

The Yankees answered back in a hurry with an RBI double off the bat of Robinson Cano and a huge three run jack from Johnny Damon in the top of the 2nd inning off of Baltimore pitcher Daniel Cabrera. 

The Orioles would not see the last of Cano's bat after his RBI double.

In the fourth, Jason Giambi hit a sac-fly with the bases loaded and one out.  Xavier Nady followed with a 2-run double to extend the Yankees lead to 7-2.

Game over right?, not so fast.

In the bottom of the fourth, the Orioles answered quickly.  An RBI single by Nick Markakis, followed by a Melvin Mora walk, ended Rasner's shortest outing of the season.

David Robertson came in and gave up an RBI double to Aubrey Huff on the first pitch he threw.  Kevin Millar added a sac fly to make the game 7-5.

With two outs in the bottom of the fifth, Brian Roberts hit a huge two-run home run to right center off of Edwar Ramirez to tie the game at seven all.

After a quiet sixth inning, Robinson Cano hit a go-ahead home run in the top of the seventh off of Orioles reliever Jamie Walker.  A huge blast to deep center, his 12th of the season.  The ball traveled an estimated 425 feet.

“Just a bad pitch,” Walker said. “I was trying to go down and away. I didn’t execute the pitch, and big league hitters, that’s what they’re supposed to do.”

The Yankees asked for four outs from Mariano Rivera and his third consecutive save in Baltimore, three days in a row.

Rivera rung up Jay Payton in the eighth with a runner on and then walked Brian Roberts with two outs in the ninth.

The ending became some what of a nail biter for the Yankees as Roberts stole second and then scampered over to third on a throwing error from newly acquired catcher Ivan Rodriguez.

Mariano didn't let the pressure get to him and struck out Nick Markakis looking on a nasty 94mph cutter to end the game.  Mariano recorded his 31st save of the year and the Yankees completed the sweep.

They combined for 22 runs during the three games and it was their first sweep in Baltimore since 2004.

Edwar Ramirez improved to 4-1 on the season even after giving up the big home run, he still managed to get the victory thanks to Robinson Cano.

Cano is red hot as of late, 7-13 with 2 HR and 3 RBI in his last three games.

Jamie Walker suffered his second loss of the year and moves to 1-2 on the season after giving up the Cano home run.

Remaining five games back of the wild card leading Boston Red Sox, the Yankees get a day off on Monday.

Tuesday begins a three game series against none other then Boston.  The games will be their last three regular season games in Yankee Stadium ever.

There is no doubt that these three games can make or break the rest of the Yankees season.

“It’s always nice to come home, and we’re going to have an important series at home,” catcher Ivan Rodriguez said. “We’ve just got to keep doing what we’ve been doing.”

Andy Pettitte (13-9, 4.17) will take on Tim Wakefield (7-8, 3.67) on Tuesday night to start the series off.

It is going to be a three game series to remember, I just know it.

Last season, the Yankees demolished the Red Sox in September, getting five wins during a four game series at Fenway, with one of those being a double header.  It was a modern day Boston massacre which put them into playoff contention. 

Anything is possible at this point.  With the injuries the Yankees have had and a lot of bad luck along the way, it is really amazing that they are this close after all.

You can just never count out the New York Yankees.