They walked side-by-side out a blue concrete corridor, through the bowels of Yankee Stadium and up to street level: the 6-foot-3 ace hurler holding a good size advantage over the club’s top pitcher some three decades prior.
Clutching a Coca-Cola cup and clad in a baggy Nike T-shirt, Chien-Ming Wang looked down at his pitching coach, Ron Guidry, listening attentively. Wang understood that, even within his afternoon’s importance, he still had some growing to do.

Wang took a no-hitter into the seventh inning and Robinson Cano homered twice, completing a series sweep of the Red Sox with a 5-0 victory on Thursday. Wang allowed just one hit, but it was the free passes — four of them — that chafed both teacher and pupil, vowing to improve upon for next time.

One day after Roger Clemens took a no-hitter into the sixth inning, Wang did one better, bringing the game into the seventh with the suddenly-dormant Boston offense still holding a zero in the hit column. Mike Lowell finally broke up the no-no bid with a single to right, extending his hitting streak to 12 games.

The right-hander, in command of his sinker, slider and changeup, walked four batters but was able to escape the big hit on his way to victory No. 16, tying for the Major League lead. He even garnered defensive help from an unlikely source — first baseman Jason Giambi, who dove to his right to stab a Dustin Pedroia shot to end the third inning.

Part of Wang’s success may stem back to changes made prior to his Aug. 19 start against Detroit, when Guidry began incorporating several small, hard-to-notice mechanical adjustments. Wang said he has also modified his pitch selection.

The victory, completing a sweep on the heels of strong pitching from Andy Pettitte and Clemens, moved New York into sole possession of the American League Wild Card lead. New York closed within five games of the AL East-leading Red Sox.

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The Mets showed up Thursday. They showed resistance, they showed resolve. It wasn’t enough of a showing, though. And ultimately, they were shown up — in an afternoon game in a four-game series. The Phillies put them on their heels and now are on their heels as well, following a stunning and excruciating 11-10 victory that completed an improbable sweep of the National League East leaders.
The Phillies scored once in the eighth inning on Pat Burrell’s home run against Billy Wagner after the Mets had scored five times in the eighth inning to take a 10-8 lead. They struck again in the ninth against Wagner, with the Phillies stealing three bases, Tadahito Iguchi driving in the first run and a sharp single to right by Chasey Utley providing the winning run.

With a four-game performance as comprehensive as the Mets’ breakdown, the Phillies reduced the Mets’ lead from six games — it had been seven games as recently as Sunday morning — to two games, and seemingly made themselves legitimate players in the race. Outplayed in every phase of the game in the series and not particularly fortunate either, the Mets took their fifth straight loss and saw the lead reduced to its lowest point since July 16.

Trailing, 5-0, after three innings and a dismal performance by Orlando Hernandez, and trailing, 8-5, as they came to bat in the eighth, the Mets came back and almost restored their lead at four games.

Their five-run rally against three Phillies relievers, featured critical hits by pinch-hitter Marlon Anderson and Endy Chavez — his single through the middle against Antonio Alfonsecca drove in the seventh and eighth runs — and five walks, including one intentional pass that put the potential go-ahead run, in the person of slumping Jose Reyes, on base.

Reyes did score, after executing the front end of a double steal and the Phillies’ inability to handle the ball cleanly. And an infield out by Carlos Delgado scored Chavez with the 10th run. The Phillies scored in the bottom of the eighth when Burrell hit his second home run of the game, his fourth of the series and the Phillies’ fourth of the game, against Wagner, who was trying to earn his 30th save and his first six-out save in six years.

Hernandez, the Mets’ most effective starter of late, surrendered a two-run home run to Ryan Howard in the first inning and successive bases-empty home runs to Burrell and Aaron Rowand in third. He departed having allowed five runs in three innings.

Shawn Green and pinch-hitter Lastings Milledge drove in runs in the fourth against starter Kyle Lohse, and a single by Carlos Beltran and a sacrifice fly by Green tied the score in the fifth against Geoff Geary. But the Phillies scored three times in the fifth against seldom-used Aaron Sele.

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More than a decade after bolting from Boston, Roger Clemens left the Red Sox scratching their heads.

The Rocket shut down his original team, allowing only two hits and outpitching an ace 18 years younger than him in the New York Yankees’ 4-3 victory over the Red Sox on Wednesday night.

Alex Rodriguez hit his major league-leading 44th home run and the Yankees got another big hit from Johnny Damon to earn their second consecutive win in the series. New York trimmed Boston’s cushion to six games in the AL East and moved within a percentage point of Seattle for the wild-card lead.

Josh Beckett was tagged for a career-high 13 hits by the Yankees, who turned to Mariano Rivera in the eighth inning for a four-out save.

Clemens (6-5) held the Red Sox hitless until David Ortiz’s upper-deck homer with one out in the sixth. He worked around a season-high five walks and improved to 9-5 with a 3.73 ERA in his career against Boston, a team he last faced in Game 7 of the 2003 AL championship series.

The Yankees tied the season series 7-all after losing the first four meetings. The teams play four more times this year, including Thursday afternoon. New York will go for a series sweep when 15-game winner Chien-Ming Wang faces Boston’s Curt Schilling.

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(AP) — Marlon Anderson went a little too wide with his slide.
Anderson’s hard takeout attempt might have been enough to bust up a double play in the ninth inning and allow the tying run to score for the New York Mets. Instead, Anderson went far outside second base, knocked down Philadelphia’s Tadahito Iguchi and was ruled out on a game-ending interference call in the Phillies’ 3-2 victory Wednesday night.
Jimmy Rollins and Pat Burrell homered, and Brett Myers survived a wild ninth to help the Phillies win their third straight game against New York and close within three games of the NL East leaders.
“I’m just glad the umpire made the call and took care of it,” Iguchi said through an interpreter. “I think we were fortunate he was right on the play.”
The Mets had runners on the corners with one out against Myers when pinch-hitter Shawn Green hit a slow roller to Rollins, who shoveled the ball to Iguchi at second.
Anderson made a rough slide at Iguchi outside the line and knocked the second baseman down as he threw to first. Second base umpire CB Bucknor ruled interference and a double play, sending Anderson into a fit.
He ripped off his helmet and jumped up in protest, and manager Willie Randolph also rushed out to argue.
“I know it shouldn’t have been a double play, but at the same time we have to abide by the rule of the umpire,” Anderson said.
Anderson demanded an explanation and said he didn’t receive one.
“My foot was on top of the bag when I touched him,” Anderson said. “I haven’t read the rule book tonight, but maybe somebody will have an explanation for it. My foot was on the bag when I made contact with him.”
Crew chief Joe West spoke on Bucknor’s behalf.
“Marlon Anderson went after the second baseman to break up the double play and did not, and could not reach the base, which is what he argued,” he told a pool reporter. “He went out of his way to interfere with the play that created the interference. CB made a great call, made a gutsy call and he didn’t back down from the call at all.”
Iguchi called the contact “unnecessary” for where he caught the ball. Randolph disagreed.
“There’s no doubt that the slide was hard, but he slid into the base and he was able to touch the base with his foot, so that’s unfortunate to end a game like that,” he said.
Myers, who earned his 13th save, never saw the play or the commotion behind him. When first baseman Ryan Howard ran toward the mound for a congratulatory handshake, Myers was yelling for the ball.
“I was like, ‘They just scored, dude. What are you doing?’” he said. “It was like, let’s hurry up and get off the field before they change their mind.”
Now, the Phillies might be changing some minds about how the order of the NL East will look in September. Philadelphia goes for a series sweep on Thursday.
“The experience we’ve gotten the last two years has really shown up,” Phillies manager Charlie Manuel said.
Jamie Moyer (12-10) rebounded nicely from two straight abysmal starts (16 runs in 8 2/3 innings) and gave up eight hits, two runs and stuck out four. J.C. Romero and Tom Gordon each worked a scoreless inning.
David Wright homered for the Mets, who have lost six of eight.
The Phillies seemed on the verge of falling out of the division chase after losing four straight on this 10-game homestand. But they won the finale against the Padres, have won the last three against the Mets and hope Kyle Lohse can complete the sweep and make this a September to remember.
Oliver Perez (12-9) gave up five hits, three runs and walked five in six innings, snapping a three-start winning streak.
Perez escaped some serious trouble after loading the bases with none out in the fifth. Burrell just missed a grand slam, with the ball landing inches foul of the left-field pole. He ended up with a sacrifice fly for a 3-2 lead.
But Perez struck out Ryan Howard looking, and fanned Aaron Rowand with a 93 mph fastball to get out of the jam. Perez struck out Rowand four times and Howard three times, finishing with 10 overall in six innings.
Wright sent a full-count pitch into the bushes beyond the center-field wall for his 24th homer in the first, but the Phillies quickly gave Moyer some run support.
Rollins hit his seventh leadoff homer of the season to left and Burrell followed two batters later with his 22nd for a 2-1 lead. Counting Howard’s game-winner in the 10th inning a night earlier, the Phillies homered in three of four at bats.
Carlos Beltran doubled in the fourth, advanced to third on a grounder and scored on Carlos Delgado’s RBI single to left, tying the game at 2.

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Pettitte throws seven strong innings, Rivera closes game

Yankees-Red Sox. There isn’t a better rivalry in baseball, arguably in all of American sports. It’s why stars like Tiger Woods, Cameron Diaz and Billy Crystal joined another packed house at Yankee Stadium on Tuesday night.
And while the opener of the highly anticipated three-game series in the Bronx was scintillating, some of the luster was missing. After all, the Bombers entered the series eight games behind the Red Sox, and fading in American League East race. Even with the best-case scenario — a three-game sweep — the Yanks would still be five back entering the final month of the regular season.

Publicly, the players say they’ve conceded nothing, but you’d have to think the emphasis has gone from the division crown to the wild card. And that’s just fine, after all the last three World Series champions have been wild card entries.

And to reach that goal, the Yankees need wins, which made Tuesday’s 5-3 win over their bitter rivals so important.

As is the case with the remaining two games of the series, the opener featured a marquee pitching match-up with veteran Andy Pettitte facing AL Rookie of the Year candidate Daisuke Matsuzaka.

Pettitte did what he’s done so well in August — clean up a Mike Mussina mess and improve to 6-0 this month in seven strong innings. He allowed three earned runs on six hits, inducing an inning-ending double play out of J.D. Drew on his 119th and final pitch.

The Yankees are in another playoff chase heading into September — even if the AL East is out of reach.

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Mota serves up walk-off homer in the 10th inning

When the baseball finally came to rest, it was inches from the chalk and miles from where the Mets wanted it to be. It had rolled foul first, then crossed the line, traveling perhaps 40 feet in the general direction of third base. To the Mets, there was no question where its journey ended — that gray area between a victory they nearly secured and loss that vexed them. Call it unfair territory.
On this night when the unseen hand played a significant role, it nudged a critical swinging bunt fair and simultaneously slapped the Mets in the face. They eventually lost to the Phillies, 4-2, in 10 innings Tuesday night because of the power of Ryan Howard. But they had lost their lead two innings earlier because of the power of providence. And that troubled them more that Howard’s final-pitch home run.

In the aftermath of the loss, the Mets pretty much dismissed the impact of the two-run home run Howard had hit off a friendly, misplaced changeup thrown by Guillermo Mota. Home runs happen in Citizens Bank Park. But the swinging bunt by Aaron Rowand — the hit that tied the score and denied the Mets a nine-inning victory — made them curse, lament and wonder.

They had played seven innings with that sense of baseball claustrophobia the Phillies home arena creates. And eventually, they fell victim to its home run tendencies. But to lose a lead on a 40-foot roller and in this place … well, neither the irony nor the significance of the loss was lost on them.

The Mets have lost three games off their lead in three days. But the lead was four games on Aug. 18, too. So the Phillies have gained three games in three days, but lost 10 days since the last time they were this close.

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Loss is third straight for Bombers; Friday night’s game crucial

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It was the first meeting between the two teams since the American League Divisional Series last October, won by the Tigers in four games.
And like that game, Justin Verlander weaved in and out of trouble to hold the mighty Yankees bats at bay, Carlos Guillen homered off of Mike Mussina and the Tigers left Yankee Stadium with a victory Thursday night.

There wasn’t a playoff-type atmosphere in the Bronx, but this is a four-game series that has postseason implications with both teams vying for the AL Wild Card and alive in their divisional races. That loss in October was the first of three straight defeats as the Yankees made an early exit out of the playoffs.

On Thursday night, the Bronx Bombers dropped their third consecutive game, losing 8-5. Trailing the Red Sox by five games in the AL East and Seattle by a half a game in the Wild Card race, the Yankees can’t afford to have an extended losing streak at this point in the season.

“We were going really well there for a long time and the last three days made that disappear in a hurry,” Mussina said. “We’ve got to get it straightened out again or all that work we just accomplished in the past month or so will end up being a waste.”

The Yankees got off to the worst possible start when Guillen hit a one-out grand slam in the top of the first inning to give Detroit a four-run cushion. Last October, the Tigers shortstop hit a game-tying home run off Mussina in the sixth inning.

“It did (remind me of the playoffs),” Verlander said. “It was a good pitch and he put a good swing on it. But that’s baseball. Hitters get paid to hit good pitches, too.”

On Thursday, Guillen’s third career grand slam came two batters after Alex Rodriguez booted a possible inning-ending double play ball.

“That’s a play I need to make,” A-Rod said. “I feel bad for Moose, because maybe I make that play and he pitches a gem.”

Mussina, who fell to 8-8 on the season, said it feels like he undid four good outings with five bad innings.

“It was a struggle from the beginning and kind of makes what I’ve done over the last couple of weeks seem a long time ago,” said Musslna, who gave up seven runs on nine hits. “I only get out there every fifth game or so and I have to do my job when it’s my turn to play. And today I didn’t do that and that’s frustrating.”

Mussina said he was just off Thursday night.

“I’d just miss outside, I’d just miss low. I’d make a good pitch and they’d foul it off,” he said. “A hit-and-run ball off the end of the bat that rolls into right field. It just seemed to be that kind of day, it was not quite where you wanted it to be. When you get up against a good team and it’s not quite where you wanted it, it ends up being a tough day.”

As was the case in the playoff game last October, Verlander wasn’t perfect, but he worked himself out of jams. A two-run home run by Bobby Abreu cut the Yankees deficit to 6-3 in the third and when Torre had Shelley Duncan pinch-hit for Johnny Damon in the sixth inning, the Bombers had a chance to tie the game with one powerful swing of the bat.

And the sellout crowd of 53,914 knew it, rising to their collective feet, roaring in anticipation of a second straight game-tying home run from the rookie fan favorite.

But Zach Miner struck out Duncan to end the inning.

“Offensively I thought we had great at-bats,” Joe Torre said. “We kept pushing, got the pinch count up and kept doing things. But it was too tall a mountain.”

The Bombers rallied again in the ninth, scoring a pair of runs and Jason Giambi, who played at first, could have brought the Yankees to within a run if he went yard. But Todd Jones closed the door, fanning Giambi, who earlier in the day learned he wouldn’t face any disciplinary action from baseball commissioner Bud Selig for comments he made about taking performance-enhancing drugs.

The Yankees send Andy Pettitte to the mound Friday night to face left-hander Nate Robertson. Even though there’s still a month and a half of baseball left, it’s about as close to a must-win as you can get on Aug. 17.

“I’m happy to say (a three-game losing streak) seems very odd, but we still have a great deal of confidence,” Torre said. “Our approach was good tonight. Tomorrow we just need a little pick me up. Hopefully it’s a well pitched game and we control the game a little more.”

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Phil Rizzuto, the Hall of Fame shortstop during the Yankees’ dynasty years and beloved by a generation of fans for exclaiming “Holy cow!” as a broadcaster, died Tuesday. He was 89.

His death was confirmed by the Yankees. Rizzuto had been in declining health for several years and was living at a nursing home in West Orange, N.J.
Rizzuto, known as “The Scooter,” was the oldest living Hall of Famer. He played for the Yankees throughout the 1940s and ’50s, won seven World Series titles and played in five All-star games.

Rizzuto was a flashy, diminutive player who could always be counted on for a perfect bunt, a nice slide or a diving catch in a lineup better known for its cornerstone sluggers. He played for 13 seasons alongside the likes of Joe DiMaggio and Mickey Mantle.

He stood just 5-foot-6 but was equipped with a productive bat, sure hands and quick feet that earned him his nickname. A leadoff man, Rizzuto was a superb bunter, used to good advantage by the Yankee teams that won 11 pennants and nine World Series between 1941 and 1956.

Rizzuto tried out with the Brooklyn Dodgers and New York Giants when he was 16, but because of his size was dismissed by Dodgers manager Casey Stengel, who told him to “Go get a shoeshine box.” He went on to become one of Stengel’s most dependable players.

A Rizzuto bunt, a steal and a DiMaggio hit made up the scoring trademark of the Yankees’ golden era, and he played errorless ball in 21 consecutive World Series games. DiMaggio said the shortstop “held the team together.”

Rizzuto came to the Yankees in 1941 and batted .307 as a rookie, and his career was interrupted by a stint in the Navy during World War II. He returned in 1946 and four years later became the American League MVP. He batted .324 that season with a slugging percentage of .439 and 200 hits, second most in the league. He also went 58 games without an error, making 288 straight plays.

He led all AL shortstops in double plays three times and had a career batting average of .273 with at least a .930 fielding percentage. He played in five All-Star games.

After the Yankees released him in 1956, Rizzuto began a second career as a broadcaster, one for which he became at least equally well known.

In his decades on the radio and TV, Rizzuto’s favorite phrase was “Holy cow!” It became so common, the team presented him with a cow wearing a halo when they held a day in his honor in 1985. The cow knocked Rizzuto over and, of course, he shouted, “Holy cow!”

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