Venezuelan Victor Martinez gave Boston a temporary lead top of 8th (LS/Bill Menzel)

Yankee Stadium - Saturday's pitching duel between A.J. Burnett and Josh Beckett lived up to its hype, but it's tonight's battle of the southpaws between Andy Pettitte (9-6, 4.35) and Jon Lester (9-7, 3.79) that may have decided the fates of two teams clearly headed in opposite directions ... fast

Such was the theme coming into the Sunday night match-up between the New York Yankees (69-42) and the Boston Red Sox (62-48). At 7:45 p.m., 25 minutes before the first pitch, the home crowd of 48,190 enthusiastically cheered at the sight of the New York Daily News' AL East standings posted on the stadium's 59x100 high definition screen, which had the Yankees 5.5 games ahead of the Red Sox entering the game.

As a DH, Alex Rodriguez gives Yanks temporary lead in 7th (LS/Bill Menzel)

At stake for the Yankees was the possibility of taking a commanding 6.5 game lead in the AL East standings by completing a sweep. For the Saux, a win would spare them of being swept, falling further back in the division standings and lose, coupled the Texas Rangers' 7-0 win over the L.A. Angels earlier in the day, their .5 lead in the AL Wild Card. But much to the chagrin of all of New England, Boston failed to a 2-1 lead by surrendering 4 devastating, 2-out runs in the eighth inning, and thus today they're finding themselves waking up to the latter scenario.

After Victor Martinez stunned the stadium crowd by hitting a 2-run, top of the eighth inning homer to left off Phil Coke (BS, 5, W, 4) to give Boston a 2-1 lead, which broke a 31-inning scoreless streak against the Yankees, Johnny Damon and Mark Teixeira set a franchise record by hitting back-to-back homers (their 21st and 29th, respectively) for a franchise record sixth time this season to put the Yanks up 3-2.

After 2 outs Johnny Damon ties the game with 21st HR (LS/Bill Menzel)

This photo deserves to be seen back to back with Damon's HR (LS/Bill Menzel)

"Johnny is hot," said an elated Nick Swisher after the game. "To have a guy hitting in the 2 hole - 21 bombs and 65 RBIs - that says a lot."

Alex Rodriguez, who broke the scoreless tie with a solo shot (21) to center in the bottom of the seventh, worked a walk after Teixeira's homer, and advanced to third Posada's stand-up double into the right field corner.

With 2 outs, and runners on second and third, Swisher hit a clutch 2-run single up the middle that sealed the deal by allowing Mariano Rivera operate in the ninth with a 5-2 cushion, before he closed the door for his 32nd save. The win, for at least 24 hours anyway, assures the Yankees of unmolested baseball bliss.

"This is a different team, a confident team, and it's so much fun playing on this team right now," said Swisher when comparing the Yankee team that lost 8 straight to Boston to the current one.

"In general, our pitching staff has been absolutely incredible," he added. "It's like their having a friendly competition between themselves."

One would think so, especially after the Sabathia and Burnett gems, with many wondering how Pettitte would fare against the struggling Bosox, who've lost six of their last ten games, and are now tied with the Rangers - also 62-48 - for first place in the Wild Card.

Andy Pettitte rose to the ocassion to match BoSox's Jon Lester (LS/Bill Menzel)

But Pettitte held his part of the bargain up by going 7.0 strong innings, during which he allowed 0 runs, 5 hits, 2 walks while fanning 4 batters in a no decision.

"As long I stay healthy, I can help this team win," said Pettitte. "Last year I struggled in the second half when I started having issues with my elbow."

If the Andy Pettitte who showed up on the mound last night appears more often, the Bombers will have as good a 1-2-3 punch as any team in the sport.

"Andy was as good as he's been all year," Joe Girardi told reporters at his post-game press conference. "He battled really hard tonight.

"It's a lot of emotion in one game: Alex gives us a 1-0 lead in the seventh; they get the lead back in the eighth; we get the lead back with Damon and Teixeira and [Swisher's] 2-run single later on ... It was up and down all day."

But as emotionally exhausting as the late inning seesaw battle was for the Yankee skipper, it certainly didn't hurt him to see his team perform at a playoff-like level these past four days against the team they couldn't beat all year.

"It's a good feeling because we were on other side of this," said Girardi of the sweep.

By no means, however, does this sweep crown the Yankees as the division champs, Girardi warned.

"[Boston] is a team that has been through a lot lately," he said. "I expect them to bounce back. This divisional race is going down till the end. As tough as this division is - The 6.5 game lead, is it comfortable? No!"

"We don't want a let-down going into tomorrow," said Swisher, mirroring his manager's sentiments going into Yankees' final 3 games of the home stand vs. the Toronto Blue Jays. "We've been pitching great, scoring runs. We got to keep at it going."

Today the Yankees will look to keep it going against the Toronto Blue Jays (53-57) behind Sergio Mitre (1-0, 7.50), who'll start opposite the Jays' Marc Rzepczynski (1-3, 3.74).

The game is scheduled for a 7:05 p.m. start.

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