What a choke! The A.L. East (IMO the best division in baseball) sure looks different of late. That's a good thing!

The Rays and Red Sox will be playing golf in October.

An A-Bomb from A-Rod. Hard to believe he has hit 300 HRs as a Yankee.

I'm looking forward to a Yankees/White Sox ALCS! How's that sound guys? BYW - I did my pennance for the football thread, MC.

great joke mark! like the yankees will make the playoffs lol

Great game last night, but thank goodness the Orioles lost today, too! I still can't get over that 14 inning win last night. It was exhausting to watch, I can't imagine actually playing it.

BAM,be careful dissin' the Yankees when visiting the Yankee thread.

BAM is a bit careless that way, isn't he?? Hmmmm....It's late September. Aren't the Orioles supposed to collapse like a cheap tent right about now? And yet, not so much. They're unbelievably hot.

Geez, what a nail-biter of a game last night! 1 more to win the AL East!!

The Yankees control their own destiny. All they have to do is win tonight and they clinch the AL East and win the No. 1 seed in the playoffs!

We DVR'd the game and are watching the debate, so we'll watch it later.

CONGRATS to the 2012 American League East Division champs and also for clinching home field advantage through the first 2 rounds of the playoffs. They really had to work for it this year!

PS - Bobby Valentine got fired today from Boston. Good, now maybe he'll stop talking smack about them and plays from 10+ years ago (like the Jeter flip in Oakland). Don't get me wrong, I liked Bobby but when he started to run his mouth about things that he had NOTHING to do with, I just find that to be cheap. SHUT your mouth until you actually DO something. And if that something is to have your team finish 24 games below .500 and lose 90+ games for the first time since 1965, then that disqualifies you as well.

A GREAT year to be a Yankee fan! #28, here we come!

IBANEZ! AWESOME come from behind win last night and 1 win away from the ALCS!

Gotta hand it to Girardi. That was a ballsy move to put Ibanez in for A-Rod.

And it paid off! Ibanez, who is 112 in baseball years, was the hero not once, but twice. I honestly thought that the game-winning run was a replay of the tying run.

My son, nephew and brother-in-law were at the game last night, and delivered another big order of stromboli to the clubhouse in the afternoon. Maybe Ibanez had an extra slice and that's the cause of his heroics.

I could have gone too, Klyd. My brother had a ticket for me if I wanted it, but I turned it down becuase it was a little too cold for me last night. Stupid me. Now you know I'm not a Yankees fan, but I'm a good all around baseball guy. And I missed a piece if history .

It ain't over yet, though. This has been a really good series from the fan's point of view. I expect Baltimore to win tonight. I always go with a guy coming off a big win, so Saunders looks like the ticket tonight. Hughes is too erratic.

The O's may win tonight, but I didn't pick them (or the A's or Nationals) to survive the first round of the playoffs because they're not accustomed to postseason play. Their opponents have key veteran players with sold playoff experience, and that's a good advantage.

Agreed. I think the O's will will tonight, but the Yankees will wrap it up tomorrow night. We'll see.

I'm so SICK of hearing that. It's not you MC, it's that mindset. I don't care how much money A-Rod is making. I don't care about hurting his feelings if we have to drop him in the lineup or pinch hit for him. This is about more than Alex Rodriguez. This is about the New York Yankees (the TEAM) and winning World Series title #28. He hasn't done ANYTHING for us so far anyways. If he came up last night, I guarantee he would have stuck out. Thus far in the series he's 1-for-12 with 7 strikeouts. He's hurting us, not helping us. I'm glad Giradi FINALLY decided to do something with him!

PB, you could have called me about the ticket! I have to give credit to the Orioles. I expected them to fizzle long before now and they are hotter than ever. Great series!

I was never an A-Rod fan. There are any number of players I would rather see in the lineup. Nice to see Mo in the dugout last night!

The Yankees offense is TERRIBLE. How can you only muster 1 run in 13 innings of a potential series clinching game? Good game thrown by Hughes and I tip my hat to Baltimore for the way they've played all year. It all comes down to this. LET'S GO YANKEES!

Girardi can't possibly start A-Roid against a right handed pitcher tonight. If he does and A-Roid goes 0 for 4 and the Yankees lose 2 to 1, then Joe might have himself a problem with Hal and Hank during the off season.

I was half right on last night's game. I picked to Orioles to win. But only because I thought Hughes would get tattooed. I was dead wrong on that one. Hughes pitched well.

How many times did they ground out or strike out with men in scoring position? Geez, Louise, it was like they were all in some sort of A-Rod induced coma. The guys who they could usually count on to help them out, like Swisher and Granderson, have been awful at the plate. They can't expect Ibanez to get them out of trouble each and every game.

They'd better step it up tonight, or I think I12 is right - Girardi could be in trouble with the Steinbrenners.

I like how A-Rod gets blamed for the poor play of his teammates.

Right or wrong, when you make his kind of money you become a target of the masses.

I watched much of the game, particularly the first six innings. I don't think Hughes pitched well. He missed repeatedly with location and was in a few jams where some Oriole hitters whiffed on pitches carelessly left up in the zone. He threw too many pitches, and his ball to strike ratio was bad. I thought the Orioles offense squandered many opportunities, not just because they were getting base runners, but because they had poor approaches on hittable pitches. Though the game was 1-1, I thought that Saunders far outperformed Hughes.

I had to feel bad for Chamberlain getting pegged by the broken bat that he never saw, reacting only when the batter yelled. Interesting to see whether the swelling was controlled enough to make him available.

If you pinch hit for Rodriguez in game-on-the-line situations, you might as well start someone over him. My guess is that A-Rod will start.

Finally, while the Phillies failed to make the playoffs, it was a little warming to see former Philles outfielders, Ibanez and Werth, win big playoff games with walk-off homers on consecutive days. Now it's time for Hunter Pence to hit a game ending homer.

No, A-Rod gets blamed for playing like crap year after year during the postseason.

But you have to give him credit because he was able to get out of those situations and limit the damage. He didn't pitch a gem but based on the situation he was in (I think in 3 innings he had runners on first and third with 2 or less outs) and only gave up the 1 run. His location was bad but he did strike out 8 as well.

Agreed! He had a great postseason in 2009 but, like any sport, what have you done for me lately? And just think, we still have ANOTHER 5 years of this after the season

Wow, I just read this too!

A-Rod benched for Game 5