Joe Girardi did not want to take any chances with Big Papi on deck so he summoned Mo even though he still needed one more base runner to have a save situation.

David Robertson got two outs but walked Jacoby Ellsbury to put runners on first and second with a 7-2 lead. Ryan Kalish reached to start the inning on a Ramiro Pena error at third.

Mo entered and needed only one pitch to induce a force play off the bat of Marco Scutaro to end the game. Rivera's 2010 season ERA now stands at 0.88.

The Yankees got out to an early 2-0 lead with the help of Lance Berkman. He doubled and scored when Bill Hall made a great stop on a grounder up the middle but then threw past first for an error allowing Berkman to score with the game's first run. Derek Jeter would add an RBI single later to give the Yankees a 2-0 lead. Bill Hall would pull the Red Sox to within a run at 2-1 on a home run but the Yankees would erupt right back in the next at bat.

Dustin Moseley was a replacement starter for A.J. Burnett who came down with back spasms and was great through 6 1/3 innings and also made three fine defensive plays to help his own cause.

Mark Texeiera led off the fifth with a home run and before the inning was over the Bombers would add four more runs with the last two coming on a two run double up the gap in right center from Jeter. Jeter's hit sent Beckett to the showers and the Yankees held on.

The Red Sox would load the bases in the 7th when Joba Chamberlain could not get the last out of the inning but Boone Logan got David Ortiz to ground out to second with the bases loaded to end the inning.

The series concludes tomorrow afternoon at 2 PM with John Lester against Phil Hughes. With the win and another loss from Tampa the Yankees now lead the A.L. East by 2 1/2 games.

CC Sabathia did not start out that great but finished very strong to lead the Yankees to a 5-2 win over the Boston Red Sox on Saturday afternoon in the Bronx. The game was nationally televised on FOX as their game of the week.

In the second inning Sabathia fell behind Victor Martinez and came inside with a fast ball and Martinez crushed it to left to give the Boston an early 1-0 lead. Adrian Beltre and Mike Lowell followed with consecutive doubles to make the score 2-0 but Sabathia battled and got out of the inning without any further trouble.

The Yankees battled back when Lance Berkman walked and scored on a triple to right center from Curtis Granderson. Granderson would score on an infield ground out from Ramiro Pena. Pena was in the lineup to replace A-Rod who was hit in the shin with a line drive during batting practice. X-Rays were negative on A-Rod and he is being listed as day to day.

In the fifth, the Yankees would have a two run, two out rally with consecutive singles from Swisher, Texeira, Cano and Posada. In the sixth, Pena produced another RBI with a sharp single to right to give the Yankees a comfortable three run lead. Granderson scored on the play as he was walked and stole second and took third on an errant throw.

Sabathia pitched through the eighth inning and had very little trouble after the second inning. He was able to strike out David Ortiz three times and only surrendered one walk for the day.

Rivera entered in the ninth and pitched a perfect inning. Victor Martinez led off and hit a sharp grounder down the first base line which Texiera was able to glove and threw to Mo covering for the first out. Beltre flied out deep in foul territory in right field and then Mike Lowell hit a fly ball of the end of the bat to right center which Granderson caught to end the game.

The save for Rivera is his 23rd of the season in 25 save opportunities and the 549th of his career. His 2010 season ERA now stands at 0.89.

With the win and another Tampa loss the Yankee lead in the A.L. East now stands at 1 1/2 games. The series with Boston resumes tomorrow night on ESPN with Josh Beckett for the Red Sox and A.J. Burnett on the hill for New York.

Even though the game was played on a bright sun shiny and muggy day, all the stars must have been aligned properly and the Yankees rebounded with a 5-1 win in the series finale vs. the Blue Jays. A-Rod started off the day and finally hit his 600th career home run to put the Yankees out to an early 2-0 lead. The Yankees would not relinquish the lead all day and Phil Hughes along with the bullpen held Toronto to only one run.

Mark Texeira would add an RBI double in the third and a two run single two innings later to complete the scoring for the Bombers. Phil Hughes only gave up one run, but his pitch count got close to the magic 100 number and he was removed with one out in the sixth. He was followed by Boone Logan, Joba Chamberlain, David Robertson and finally Mariano Rivera. The bullpen pitched 3 2/3 innings of scoreless relief.

Rivera faced Lyle Overbay to start the ninth and got him to ground to Cano for the first out. The second pitch to Edwin Encarnacion sailed inside and just grazed the jersey for an HBP. John McDonald hit to third for a force play at second and Travis Snider was jammed and popped back to Mo to end the game.

Rivera's 2010 season ERA now stands at 0.91.

The Yankees used the long ball on Saturday night in Florida. Robinson Cano got the biggest one off of Rays closer Rafael Soriano in the top of the ninth inning to give the Yankees a 5-4 lead and set up Mariano Rivera for his 22nd save of the season.

The Rays jumped out to a 1-0 lead in the first inning off of Javy Vazquez. The Yankees tied the score on a sacrifice fly from Curtis Granderson.

The Rays added two more runs until Mark Texeira tied the score with a two run bomb. However, the Rays came right back with last night's hero Matt Joyce connecting again to right to give Tampa a one run lead at 4-3.

Nick Swisher then tied the game as he got a hanging curve ball from Matt Garza and hit it just high enough to clear the fence and tie the score.

Vazquez gave up a one out walk in the seventh and gave way to Boone Logan who got out John Jaso and Carl Crawford. David Robertson pitched an impressive eighth inning and that set up Cano for the ninth.

Cano's blast came after A-Rod popped out and again missed an opportunity to hit his 600th career home run.

Rivera came in for the bottom of the ninth and struck out Sean Rodriguez and then induced B.J. Upton to ground out to Jeter for the second out. Willy Aybar broke his bat when he got jammed with the cutter but managed to loop the ball just over Cano's head for a single. Mo then got Jason Bartlett to ground into a force play to end the game.

The save for Rivera is his 22nd in 24 save opportunities and the 548th of his career. His 2010 season ERA now stands at 0.93.

With the win the Yankees ensure that they leave Tampa in first place as tonight's win extends their lead to two games. In tomorrow's finale CC Sabathia goes up against James Shields.

Jake Westbrook was masterful for seven innings and along with some help from the umpires he held the Yankees to two hits and one run. The lone Yankee run was from a home run off the bat of Nick Swisher.

Javier Vazquez was almost as good as he surrendered only a home run to Travis Hafner and a RBI double from Shin Soo Choo and Cleveland led 2-1 going into the eighth.

Earlier in the game, Mark Texeira worked a walk and A-Rod lined a ball to left which was clearly trapped by the left fielder Trevor Crowe. Crowe fired to second to try and force Tex, but to his amazement the umpire ruled that he had caught the ball and Texeira was easily doubled off of first.

Curtis Granderson also just missed a home run after Jorge Posada had walked and tried for a double but was thrown out at second on a fine throw from Choo. The replay showed that Granderson got his foot in but the umpire rang him up.

In the Yankee eighth, Posada singled to left after being down 0-2. Curtis Granderson hit a no doubter this time, well back into the right field grandstand to give the Yankees the lead at 3-2.

Vazquez started the eighth and gave up a lead-off walk. It was not Joba Chamberlain who was called in, but rather David Robertson. Robertson induced a hard grounder to short which Jeter back handed and turned into a double play. Boone Logan replaced Robertson and struck out Choo to end the inning.

The Yankees could not add any insurance runs and Mo was summoned with only a one run lead. Carlos Santana, a rookie, led off and lofted a soft single to center to start the inning. Travis Hafner barely hit the ball and Mo fielded it half way between the mound and the plate and retired Hafner for the first out. Santana took second on the play. Peralta broke his bat and grounded out to A-Rod and Matt Laporta then grounded out to Cano at second to end the game.

For Rivera, it is his 21st save in 23 save opportunities and the 547th of his career. His season ERA now stands at 0.96.

The game started off with Javier Vazquez cruising through the first four innings. The Yankees had jumped out to a 5-0 lead off Joel Pineiro but Javy lost it in the fifth inning. The Angels came roaring back and scored three runs. Vazquez had more pitches in the fifth inning then he had in the previous four combined. The Angels did Vazquez a favor when Aybar tried to steal third with one out and Cervelli gunned him down. Vazquez struck out the next batter and the Yankees had the lead at 6-3.

In the sixth, Vazquez did not retire a batter and surrendered a two run home run to Hideki Matsui to pull the Angels to within a run at 6-5.

The Yankees erupted however with the Baby Yankees from down on the farm contributing. Juan Miranda hit a home run to deep right and then a very unusual play happened. The Yankees had two runners on and Brett Gardner was at bat. When the count got to 0-2 he must have argued too much and got tossed. Colin Curtis was inserted to complete the AB and delivered a three run homer to give the Yankees a comfortable lead at 10-5.

Joba Chamberlain gave up one run and Mo was summoned for the ninth even though the game was not in a save situation. Rivera retired Matsui on a bouncer back to the mound for the first out. Mike Napoli popped out to second and Juan Rivera struck out swinging to end the game.

Rivera is 3-1 on the season with 20 saves in 22 save opportunities. His 2010 season ERA now stands at 0.98.

Mariano Rivera spoke with ESPNNewYork.com's Ian Begley about George Steinbrenner.

After the thrashing the Bombers took yesterday, Sunday afternoon did not start off that well either. Carlos Pena launched a three run home run in the first inning to vault the Rays to an early lead.

The Yankees rallied back with a key two run triple from Robinson Cano to pull within a run. Pettitte continued to struggle but did not allow any more runs. However, he finished a pitch rather gingerly in the third and the trainer and Girardi were summoned. Pettitte was removed from the game and David Robertson came in early. Robinson entered with two runners on, but got out of further trouble and the third inning proved to be the key inning in the ball game.

The Yankees tied the score when Jeter got on and stole second and scored on a double from Teixeira.

Robinson also worked the fourth and was followed by Boone Logan and Chan Ho Park. They surrendered only one run on a home run from Gabe Kapler.

In the fifth the Yankees erupted against David Price with Brett Gardner stealing second and scoring on a RBI single from Derek Jeter. Jeter moved over to third and was brought home with a single up the middle from A-Rod. Jorge Posada got a key two run double to deep left center to score two and gives the Yankees a four run lead at 7-3.

Swisher would add an RBI single, A-Rod connected for his 598th career home run and Joba Chamberlain came on for the eighth. He pitched a scoreless eighth but tired in the ninth and gave up doubles to Pena and Matt Joyce to score a run. Rivera was summoned to get the final out and did so by throwing only one pitch to get Reid Bringnac to pop out to second to end the game with the Yankees winning 9-5. Rivera's ERA now stands at 1.01.

Nick Swisher came through all night long for the Yankees on Friday night in the Bronx. The game was extremely emotional for the players and fans as before the game the Yankees had ceremonies to honor the passing of long time public address announcer Bob Sheppard and "The Boss" George Steinbrenner.

The Yankees fell behind early as a throwing error from A-Rod led to the Rays scoring a first inning run. The Rays added another run on a two out double from Evan Longoria. It looked like the best play would have been to walk Longoria, but the Yankees pitched to him and it cost them a run.

Swisher got his first hit of the night with a sharp single to right to score Brett Gardner and pull the Yankees to within a run at 2-1. The Rays extended the lead to 3-1 as Sabathia was not at sharp as he was during his last eight wins.

James Shields was cruising for the Rays and had the Yankees off balance all night with his change up. However, Robinson Cano and Jorge Posada hit back to back home runs to tie the score in the middle of the game.

Sabathia gave the lead right back, but limited the damage to one run as the Rays loaded the bases with no outs. It was then Swisher time again as he connected off stellar set up man Joaquin Benoit to tie the score at four.

Rivera entered in the ninth and was unlucky to start the inning as he sawed the bat off in the hands of B.j. Upton but the shards from the bat was heading toward A-Rod and it distracted him from making the catch an the ball fell for a lead off single. Mo then picked off Upton and got All-Stars Carl Crawford and Evan Longoria to end the inning. Crawford flied out to shallow right an Longoria was caught looking.

The Yankees were set up for a walk off. Curtis Granderson led off with a single off Randy Choate and was sacrificed to second by Ramiro Pena. Brett Gardner battled out a walk before Derek Jeter struck out for the second out. Swisher then delivered with his third hit of the game and his third RBI to win the game for the Yankees with a sharp single to right. Gabe Kapler threw to home but Granderson just slid in safely ahead of the tag.

With the win Rivera is now 3-1 on the season and his ERA was lowered to 1.02. The Yankees extended their lead in the AL East to three games over the Rays. Tomorrow should be just as emotional with the celebration of Old Timers Day.

At the start of the 2010 season it looked like as long as Trevor Hoffman was going to continue to be a somewhat effective closer that it would be difficult for Mariano Rivera to catch him for the all time saves lead.

However, Hoffman has had a terrible year. He only has 5 saves on the season and also has 5 blown saves. Currently, he has been supplanted in the closer role for the Milwaukee Brewers by John Axford. Axford is ten for ten in save opportunities.

Hoffman has 596 career saves and is 42 years old and realistically close to the end of his career. Rivera has 546 saves and is pitching as well or better than ever. He has 20 saves in 22 save opportunities and pitches to a stellar ERA of 1.05. Hoffman's ERA is over 8 runs per game.

If Hoffman does not get back in a closer role and if Mo has a second half similar to his first half he could be only about a season away from overtaking Hoffman.

Would it be foolish to think that Mo could be the first to get the magic 600 number?