Yanks Keep On Rolling With 9th Consecutive Win

The Yankees won their 9th consecutive game on Thursday night on the strength of their offense and--of all things--their bullpen...

In the first inning, Joba Chamberlain took a line drive off his knee and had to come out of the game before completing the inning...that forced Girardi's hand. He had to call on Alfredo Aceves who, it turned out, was more than up to the task...Aceves pitched a scoreless 3 1/3 innings against the Birds, in relief of Joba...

Meanwhile, the Yankee offense continued where they left off yesterday...in last night's game they hit back-to-back-to-back home runs...today, in the first inning, they hit back-to-back-to-back doubles courtesy of Jeter, Cano and Teixeira...later in the inning Cabrera added a 2 run double and the Yanks had an early 4-0 lead...

Later, Home runs by Cano and Matsui gave the Yanks a 7-1 lead and although Baltimore would battle back for 4 runs, the Yanks had a big enough lead to secure the win...

With the victory, the Yankees sweep the Birds and extend their winning streak to 9 straight...

Additional Notes:

While Aceves was stellar in relief of Joba, the same could not be said for Albaladejo, who relieved Aceves in the 5th. In just 2 1/3 innings of work, Albaladejo surrendered 4 earned runs...fortunately Jose Veras and Mariano Rivera picked up the slack, pitching a combined 2 2/3 scoreless innings...

Yankees.com is reporting that X-rays of Joba's knee were negative!

Tomorrow, the Yankees will host the Philadelphia Phillies....

Let's Go Yanks!

ESPN.com has Thursday night's box score and video highlights: