The other night in Arizona, Mo showed he was human. Superman returned on Friday night at Chavez Ravine. CC Sabathia pitched eight brilliant innings leaving with a 2-1 lead.

Sabathia surrendered a run in the first on an RBI single from Manny Ramirez. The Yankees countered quickly with a double from A-Rod and a one out RBI single from Jorge Posada.

Both Sabathia and Vicente Padilla pitched great. Padilla wasn't quite as great as he gave up A-Rod's 10th home run in the sixth to give the Yankees the lead for good. Padilla is known as a head hunter and he paid for hitting Robinson Cano earlier when CC hit him on the leg with a pitch. Padilla tried to stare down Sabathia, but CC stood tall and protected his teammates.

Rivera had to face the heart of the order in the ninth. Manny Ramirez was up first and Mo struck him out swinging on an outside cutter for the first out. Matt Kemp also struck out on a high fast ball and the Dodger fortunes were left to James Loney. Loney struck out looking on four pitches and threw the bat and helmet in disgust at the call.

Phil Cuzzy, the home plate umpire, pointed at Loney, indicating that a fine was imminent for his action and that he was ejected. After that, Joe Torre and Don Mattingly started screaming at Cuzzy and were vehement in their dissatisfaction. Mattingly pointed at the letters and below his knee to indicate to Cuzzy where he thought those called strikes were.

The save for Rivera is his 17th on the season in 18 save opportunities and the 543rd of his career. His season ERA now stands at 0.99.

With the win and losses by Tampa and Boston the Yankees now have a three game lead in the AL East.

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