Cano hit a tiebreaking double and a two-run homer in New York’s nine-run sixth inning, sending Phil Hughes and the Yankees to an 11-5 victory over the Detroit Tigers on Thursday.

Austin Kearns added a two-run double and Derek Jeter a two-run triple as New York’s offense, still missing Alex Rodriguez and Lance Berkman because of injuries, broke loose for the second consecutive day.

“Big hits by a lot of people,” manager Joe Girardi said. “Our guys are picking up the slack.”

As I was watching the game yesterday, I could do nothing but smile as I watched the chowdas go down in a blaze of glory as Phil Hughes and the Yankees offensive firepower was too much for Josh Beckett and the Red Sox.

One of the best things about this victory is that the Yankees are playing with a beaten up lineup. They went into the game with two starters (Posada and Granderson) recovering from injuries, and finished the game with two more injured players in Robinson Cano and Nick Johnson with a sore knee from a wild pitch, and a sore wrist.

How the Yankees continue to dominate is beyond me, however, I am enjoying the ride. Aren’t you?

“The card is a little short right now,” said Yankees manager Joe Girardi, who also was without injured catcher Jorge Posada and center fielder Curtis Granderson. “It is frustrating, but no one is going to feel sorry for (you).”Phil Hughes (4-0) allowed seven hits and two runs in seven innings and has a 1.69 ERA.His confidence, Hughes said, “is up there. I’m throwing the ball well. I’m just trying to keep it going. There’s a lot of season ahead of us.” Beckett (1-1) struck out six and allowed one hit in the first three innings but ended up giving up nine runs in 5 1/3. He also plunked Derek Jeter in the back in the six-run sixth and even hit his own catcher, Jason Varitek, in that inning with a pitch that forced him out of the game with a left forearm contusion.”I had an idea where (the ball) was going. It just wasn’t going where I wanted it to go,” Beckett said. “When you try to overthrow like that, your delivery gets all messed up.”Neither team suggested that Beckett was trying to hit batters.”No one’s going to hit you (deliberately) with the bases loaded,” Jeter said.The Yankees have outscored opponents 37-12 during their winning streak.Jeter played in his 2,165th game for the Yankees, breaking a tie with Lou Gehrig for second place in club history. Mickey Mantle is first with 2,401.David Ortiz drove in both runs for Boston, which was coming off a four-game sweep over the Los Angeles Angels.The game lasted just 3:01, shorter than the three in the teams’ opening series of the year — 3:46, 3:48, 3:21. After that series, umpire crew chief Joe West said that the Yankees and Red Sox were “pathetic and embarrassing” for dragging out those three games.The Red Sox started Friday’s game with a 15-14 record, the first time they were over .500 since beating the Yankees on opening night. But since then, New York is 20-7.They’ve kept winning without Posada, who hasn’t played since Monday because of a strained right calf, and Granderson, who went on the disabled list on Sunday with a strained left groin. Johnson felt pain in his wrist during his first at-bat and is to be examined Saturday at a New York hospital while Cano is day to day, Girardi said.Alex Rodriguez led off the sixth with a double and Cano was hit by a pitch. He walked slowly to first and stayed in the game for two pitches before Ramiro Pena ran for him. A passed ball moved the runners up and Brett Gardner was walked intentionally. The next six batters all got RBIs — Francisco Cervelli with a walk, Randy Winn (single), Jeter (hit by pitch), Marcus Thames (single), Mark Teixeira (single) and Rodriguez (sacrifice fly).Beckett threw inside pitches to two other batters, sending Cervelli to the dirt on a 3-2 pitch and coming close to Teixeira.”In a 3-1 game, there’s certainly no intent in any one of those situations,” Boston pitching coach John Farrell said. “I don’t think any one of us foresaw the sixth inning unfolding like it did.”And the pitch on which Beckett hit Varitek?”We switched the signs a little bit,” Beckett said. “That was completely my fault.”Swisher’s sixth homer of the season broke the scoreless tie in the fourth. The Red Sox made it 3-1 on a sacrifice fly by Ortiz in the bottom of the fourth. After the Yankees went ahead 9-1, Ortiz singled in a run in the bottom of the sixth.The last two runs scored in the eighth on a sacrifice fly by Thames and a single by Adrian Beltre.

–ESPN

My biggest concern about the way that the Yanks played yesterday is the fact that they only had three hits the entire game! That can’t be good. Not many teams in this league will win a ball gamer with only three hits.

Really, that was the big story of the night. Forget the fact that Morales got lucky and hit a bomb without throwing out his back. The Angels bullpen just showed up to play and they shut down all of our hitters. I guess they are loaded with a whole bunch of Mariano Riveras. Pretty digusting display of hitting if you ask me.

Let’s hope that the Yanks can get over this loss. Yeah, they aren’t playing that bad, but if they don’t look out, the Rays are going to take a big lead in the AL East before long.

This week the Yankees have a series with the A’s. I am starting to smell a sweep of these games. The A’s are just too young and don’t have the experience to pull out a win.

Go Yankees!

Yankee Celebration

AP-Paint the town in pinstripes! Nearly a decade after their dynasty ended on a blooper in the desert, the New York Yankees are baseball’s best again.

Hideki Matsui tied a World Series record with six RBIs, Andy Pettitte won on short rest and New York beat the Philadelphia Phillies 7-3 in Game 6 on Wednesday night, finally seizing that elusive 27th title. It was the team’s first since winning three straight from 1998-2000.

Matsui powered a quick rout of old foe Pedro Martinez – and when Mariano Rivera got the final out it was ecstasy in the Bronx for George Steinbrenner’s go-for-broke bunch.

What a way for Alex Rodriguez, Derek Jeter and crew to christen their $1.5 billion ballpark: One season, one championship.

And to think it capped a season that started in turmoil – a steroids scandal involving A-Rod, followed by hip surgery that kept him out until May.

About 100 miles south, disappointment.

For Chase Utley and the Phillies, it was a frustrating end to another scintillating season. Philadelphia fell two wins short of becoming the first NL team to repeat as World Series champions since the 1975-76 Cincinnati Reds.

Ryan Howard’s sixth-inning homer came too late to wipe away his World Series slump, and Phillies pitchers rarely managed to slow Matsui and the Yankees‘ machine.

In a fitting coincidence, this championship came eight years to the day after the Yankees lost Game 7 of the 2001 World Series in Arizona on Luis Gonzalez’s broken-bat single off Rivera.

New York spent billions trying to get back. At long last, it did.

Hey Babe and Yogi, Mr. October and Joltin’ Joe – you’ve got company. Mark Teixeira, CC Sabathia and a new generation of Yankees have procured their place in pinstriped lore.

And for the four amigos, it was ring No. 5.

Jorge Posada, Jeter, Pettitte and Rivera came up together through the minors and were cornerstones for those four titles in five years starting in 1996.

Now, all on the other side of age 35, they have another success to celebrate. And surely they remember the familiar parade route, up Broadway through the Canyon of Heroes.

Indeed, a New York City-sized party is next. Nine years in the making, with all the glitz and glamour this tony town can offer.

For Steinbrenner, it was the seventh championship since he bought the team in 1973. The Yankees had talked about winning another for their 79-year-old owner, who has been in declining health.

Though he stayed back home in Tampa, Fla., he certainly wasn’t forgotten. The grounds crew wore “Win it for The Boss” shirts last week, which were on sale outside the ballpark Wednesday.

New York wasted its chance to wrap things up in Game 5 at Philadelphia, then set its sights on clinching the World Series at home for the first time since 1999.

While nine years between titles is hardly a drought for most teams, it was almost an eternity in Yankeeland.

New York’s eight seasons without a championship was the third-longest stretch for the Yankees since their first one, following gaps of 17 (1979-95) and 14 (1963-76).

Reggie Jackson’s three homers in Game 6 against the Los Angeles Dodgers made the Yankees champs in ’77. On this November night, Matsui delivered a sublime performance at the plate that must have made Mr. October proud.

Playing perhaps his final game with the Yankees, Matsui hit a two-run homer off Martinez in the second inning and a two-run single on an 0-2 pitch in the third.

A slumping Teixeira added an RBI single in the fifth off reliever Chad Durbin, and Matsui cracked a two-run double off the right-center fence against lefty J.A. Happ.

A designated hitter with balky knees, Matsui came off the bench in all three games at Philadelphia. Still, he had a huge Series, going 8 for 13 (.615) with three homers and eight RBIs. His go-ahead shot off an effective Martinez in Game 2 helped the Yankees tie it 1-all.

Bobby Richardson was the only other player with six RBIs in a World Series game, doing it for the Yankees in Game 3 against Pittsburgh in 1960. Richardson had a first-inning grand slam and a two-run single in the fourth.

Matsui’s big hits built a comfortable cushion for a feisty Pettitte, who shouted at plate umpire Joe West while coming off the field in the fourth. Still, Pettitte extended major league records with his 18th postseason win and sixth to end a series.

The 37-year-old left-hander, pitching on three days’ rest, became the first pitcher to start and win the clincher in all three postseason rounds. He beat Minnesota and the Los Angeles Angels in the AL playoffs.

Pettitte lasted 5 2-3 innings, allowing three runs, four hits and five walks. Joba Chamberlain and Damaso Marte combined for 1 2-3 innings of scoreless relief before Rivera secured the final five outs.

It had been nearly a half-century since players had won five titles with one team. The last to do it? Of course a bunch of Yankees: Yogi Berra (10 titles), Mickey Mantle (seven) and Whitey Ford (six) in 1962, according to STATS LLC.

For second-year manager Joe Girardi, a three-time Yankees champion as a player, it was the fulfillment of a mission. When he succeeded Joe Torre in October 2007, Girardi chose uniform No. 27, putting his quest on his back for all to see. His tenure didn’t start out so well, with New York missing the playoffs in its final season at old Yankee Stadium following 13 consecutive appearances.

Steinbrenner’s well-paid players hadn’t soaked themselves in bubbly after the season since Bernie Williams gloved Mike Piazza’s midnight flyout at Shea Stadium to win the 2000 Subway Series and cap the Yankees’ third straight championship and fourth in five years.

Two outs from winning in 2001, the Yankees stumbled in the desert. New York then spent more than $1.6 billion after that trying to regain glory, falling short with infamous flops such as Kevin Brown, Javier Vazquez and Carl Pavano.

But last offseason the Yankees got smart, adding a trio of top free agents – Teixeira, Sabathia and A.J. Burnett – for $423.5 million. They jelled with Rodriguez, the game’s highest-paid player but a winner for the first time in 16 major league seasons.

A-Rod became a newly minted champion following a sordid spring in which he admitted using steroids from 2001-03 with Texas and then needed hip surgery.

Maybe now, demanding fans in the Bronx will consider him a true New York Yankee .

-Mike Fitzpatrick

Yankees' CC Sabathia vs Angels--Washington Post

The Yankees definitely came to play tonight as they routed the Angels 10-1 to take a series lead 3-1. CC Sabathia was lights out and could not be touched. He only gave up one run in eight innings of well executed baseball. The pitch he used the most to shut down the Angels…his power changeup.

Alex Rodriguez also seems to be wanting a World Series ring. He showed up big tonight with three hits and three runs, while Melky Cabrera knocked in four runs of his own. With dominating pitching and hitting, the Yankees have taken a commanding lead in this series.

In the eight innings that featured CC Sabathia on the bump, the Angels were only able to muster up five hits, while between innings, Sabathia could be seen yawning in the dugout as if it was nothing.

Even with only thee days of rest, Yankees‘ manager Joe Girardi knew Sabathia might not have his best stuff, but he chose Sabathia over inexperienced Chad Gaudin or struggling Joba Chamberlain. The choice ended paying off for the Yankees and Girardi.

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — Alex Rodriguez homered twice and drove in an AL-record seven runs in a 10-run sixth to help the playoff-bound New York Yankees finish the regular season with a 10-2 victory over the Tampa Bay Rays on Sunday.

Rodriguez hit a three-run homer off Wade Davis, giving the AL East champions a 3-2 lead. He added his 18th career grand slam later in the inning after Andy Sonnanstine issued an intentional walk to league co-home run champion Mark Teixiera to load the bases.

New York, preparing to open the playoffs at home against Detroit or Minnesota on Wednesday or Thursday, finished with a 103-59 record, its best since 103-58 in 2002.

Tampa Bay dropped to 84-78 after going 97-65 last year and reaching the World Series for the first time.

A-Rod moved into a tie with Mark McGwire for eighth on the career list with 583 homers. It also gave him at least 30 homers and 100 RBIs for the 13th time — including the past 12 seasons — despite missing the first month with a hip injury.

A.J. Burnett (13-9) pitched five innings for the victory, enabling the Yankees to avoid a weekend sweep.

Joba Chamberlain, who could be headed for the bullpen for the first round of the playoffs, tossed a perfect inning in relief as manager Joe Girardi continued preparing for the postseason.

A year after making an improbable run to the American League pennant, the Rays finished 19 games behind the Yankees in the division. Evan Longoria scored both of the runs off Burnett, hitting his 33rd homer in the first and racing home on a passed ball to give Tampa Bay a 2-0 lead in the fifth.

Rookies Davis (2-2), Jeff Niemann and David Price combined for 25 wins and are part of the reason the Rays are optimistic about their prospects of returning to the top of the AL East in 2010.

The 24-year-old right-hander limited the Yankees to three singles over the first five innings, then couldn’t get anyone out in the sixth. Johnny Damon began New York‘s big inning with a double and later helped keep it alive for A-Rod with a two-run double off Sonnanstine that made it 6-2.

The previous AL record of six RBIs in an inning was accomplished 12 times, most recently by Boston’s David Ortiz on Aug. 12, 2008.

Rodriguez was sidelined until May 8 after hip surgery, then homered on the first pitch he saw from Baltimore’s Jeremy Guthrie. He began Sunday with 28 homers and 93 RBIs.

Yankees owner George Steinbrenner visited with the team for about an hour in the clubhouse before the game and later said he’s “excited” about the playoffs, which will start later this week.

The 79-year-old Steinbrenner made the trip to Tropicana Field from his home in nearby Tampa for the second time this season. He also met with the players before the Yankees‘ 6-2 win in St. Petersburg on July 29.

Steinbrenner attended the opener at the new Yankee Stadium on April 16 and is expected to be on hand for some of New York‘s home playoff games.