There were reports of tornadoes in the Chicagoland area last night but happily none seemed to cause any major damage. To the Yankee winning streak that is. The bats took a bit of time to get going, Jose Contreras threw very well for the Sox, but once they did the Bombers had their latest overwhelming evidence that things are looking up in the Bronx. Bobby Abreu scored three runs and drove in a pair, A-Rod hit a ninth-inning grand slam to turn a one-run game into a rout and Mariano Rivera mowed down five White Sox for a save in the 10-3 win. Joe Torre may have been the biggest winner. The victory was the 2,000th of his managerial career and he became the first man in the history of baseball with 2,000 wins and 2,000 hits. Very impressive, as is the way the Yankees are playing right now.
Mike Mussina was pulled after 79 pitches, normally that would be a troublesome sign, but when Torre went to get him in the seventh it was preventative rather than reactionary. He missed out on a win when Mike Myers couldn't do his job but it was encouraging to see Moose make it through six-plus without ever losing his nerve. That's been a problem forever, something goes wrong and it snowballs, but he kept the Sox looking bad until Jim Thome and Paul Konerko got hits to start the seventh. Myers is still called a lefty specialist despite their .350 average against him, perhaps his specialty is letting them get hits as A.J. Pierzynski did to tie the game at 1 with a single. Scott Proctor got them out of the inning, though, and the bats woke up against Ozzie Guillen's beleagured pen.
(AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh)
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