On the Yankees beat

And a hearty good afternoon to everyone out there in Yankee blogland today. This is Roderick Boone here to take you through the final game of the Yankees' three-game set with the A's. The Yankees are going for the sweep.

For starters: Andy Pettitte (10-7, 4.03) takes the mound for the Yanks (52-45) while Justin Duchscherer (10-5, 1.82) is the main man for the Athletics (51-46).

We're about set for the first pitch. Be back in a sec to get this thing started.

Top of 1st: Great start for the Yankees and Pettitte. Mark Ellis goes down looking and Derek Jeter made a beautiful leaping grab of a Ryan Sweeney liner. Bobby Crosby struck out swinging.

Bottom of 1st: Jeter grounded out to shortstop and Bobby Abreu's struggles continued as he struck out weakly swinging. A-Rod laced a single to left and Jason Giambi followed it up with walk. Robinson Cano singled to right on a 2-1 pitch and Rodriguez came charging for home. Sweeney's throw to the plate took one hop and A's catcher Rob Bowen tagged snared it and tagged A-Rod out at the plate.

Top of 2nd: Pettitte appears to be locked in. Emil Brown flied out center and Pettitte proceeded to get the next two hitters, Matt Murton and Carlos Gonzalez, on grounders. Murton grounded to third and Gonzalez to shortstop.

Bottom of 2nd: Wilson Betemit struck out swinging and The Melk Man, Melky Cabrera, walked. But Saturday's hero Jose Molina tapped into a double play on the first pitch he saw.

Top of 3rd: In the words of Hawk Harrelson, "You can cancel the postgame show." Pettitte struck out Rob Bowen to start the inning but Donnie Murphy came up with Oakland's first hit of the game, a single to center. Pettitte got Jack Hannahan swinging for his fourth strikeout. Ellis reached out and poked a single to right to put runners on the corners. Sweeney fanned on a 90 mph fastball for the final out.

Bottom of 3rd: Brett Gardner (will he ever get a hit again?) flied out to center and Jeter lined a ground rule double over the centerfield wall to get himself in scoring position. Abreu singled hard up the middle to bring up A-Rod with runners on the corners. Rodriguez flied to right and Jeter tagged up and scored. Replays showed Jeter might've left a split-second too soon and A's manager Bob Geren came out to argue with third base ump James Hoye. After things resumed, Giambi was intentionally walked and Cano struck out looking. Yankees 1, A's 0.

Top of 4th: Crosby popped up to first base and Brown grounded out to third. Murton struck out swinging for out No. 3. Pettitte is pitching well so far. He has thrown 58 pitches.

Bottom of 4th: Betemit and Cabrera both flied out to left. Molina hit one deep to the warning track in right but Sweeney caught up to it and snared it.

Top of 5th: A couple of solid defensive plays in this half inning for the Yankees. Betemit made a nice one on Gonzalez's roller to first and lofted an underhanded toss to Pettitte, who tagged the bag a millisecond before the hand of a sliding Gonzalez could reach. Pettitte blew away Bowen and A-Rod made a diving stab on Murphy's hard-hit ground ball to third and threw to first in time.

Bottom of 5th: Duchscherer records his second straight 1-2-3 inning. Gardner flied out to short and Jeter lined out hard to short. Abreu flied out to center.

Top of 6th: Hannahan led off with a broken bat double and was sacrificed to third by Ellis. Pettitte got ahead of Sweeney 1-2, but he flicked his bat out and singled to center to score the tying run. Crosby grounded into a double play to end the inning. Yankees 1, A's 1.

Bottom of 6th: A-Rod goes down on a roller to short. Giambi helps the Yanks regain the lead with a homer to the short porch in right, his 20th dinger of the season. Cano continued his hot hitting with another single to right. Betemit struck out and Cabrera grounded out to first. Yankees 2, A's 1.

Top of 7th: Easy inning for Pettitte. Brown lined out to Jeter and Murton grounded out to Jeter. Gonzalez flied out to center.

Bottom of 7th: Quick seventh-inning stretch. Molina flied out to right, Gardner follows with a fly ball to center and The Captain ground to his counterpart at shortstop, Crosby.

Top of 8th: Pettitte came out for another inning and was still sharp. He struck out pinch hitter Jack Cust and got Murphy on strikes, too. Hannahan flied out to right and Pettitte did his job. Now it's up to Mo.

Bottom of 8th: Abreu flew out to center and A-Rod reached first on a throwing error. Giambi made it first and second with one out thanks to his infield hit. Cano grounded into an inning-ending double play and it's on to the ninth.

Top of 9th: Rivera came in and got Ellis to pop out to second. Sweeney then singled to center. Really weird play on the second out. Abreu chased down Crosby's fly to right and at first seemed like he caught it. But the ball fell out of his glove and he overthrew Jeter at second. Luckily A-Rod backed it up and tossed it to second base just in time to get Sweeney. Rajai Davis came in to pinch run for Crosby and was thrown out by Molina trying to steal second. Wow. Game over. Final: Yankees 2, A's 1.