Yanks rally again, sweep Rangers

The New York Yankees were staring down the barrel of a disappointing loss in Arlington when Shawn Chacon trotted out of the pen. The bases were full of runners, the scoreboard told you that there were still three outs to go in the bottom of the eighth and the Rangers already had a one run lead. One strikeout and one nicely turned double play later and the Yankees felt good knowing that victory was in sight.

Jeter singled and Giambi would launch one deep into the seats in right to propel the Bombers to good 8-7 victory. The Yankees DH had been slumping since the A/S break but he got his pitch and this time he didn't miss it and the Rangers announcers as I've already blogged about slumped into their chairs.

The Yankees pulled this one out of the bag despite having BP troubles. Ron Villone pitched two innings and was taken out with Farnsworth and TJ Beam warming up in the pen, however this is where the problem came, Farnsworth's back couldn't get loose and therefore he couldn't go. With no-one else warming up it was down to Beam and he didn't exactly do the job. Proctor had pitched in both games in Texas already prompting Torre to say he wasn't available, but he was called upon and what we know about Proctor is when he's rested he's great, when he's not, he's very hittable. He couldn't get anyone out and the Rangers took the lead before Chacon came in and did a superb job.

Mariano nailed down the save in the ninth but I don't think Joe could've played his hand any differently. He gets a lot of stick for his management but tonight he did all he could, the injury to Farnsworth really hurt and he just had to hope Beam could do the job, sadly for both he and Joe, he couldn't.

After the win the Yankees took sole possession of the W/C lead with a half game advantage over both the ChiSox and the Twinkies, and they trail the Red Sox by just one and a half games in the AL East. If the playoffs started tomorrow then for the first time in a long while, the Yankees would be playing, and they would be playing the Tigers. That'd do me I tells ye.