Roger Clemens turned the page on another chapter of his storybook career Monday night earning victory number 350 behind 8 innings of a two hit, one run gem. The win marked the first time a Major league pitcher has reached the 350 win milestone since Warren Spahn last achieved it for the Milwaukee Braves on Sept. 29, 1963. On 97 pitches, Clemens snapped a personal three game losing streak retiring the final 15 batters before departing after the eighth inning. The 44 year old Clemens is now 12 wins away from sole possession of 7th place on the all-time wins list behind Kid Nichols. After snapping a streak of 200 straight starts with a strikeout in his last effort against Baltimore, Clemens returned to form with 4 strikeouts, reaching 4,630 in his career, now 14 more than Randy Johnson and good for 2nd behind Nolan Ryan on the all-time list.

The New York Yankees continued their revitalization taking the Subway Series from the spiraling New York Mets with an 8-2 win on Sunday Night Baseball. Chien-Ming Wang (7-4) turned in a masterful performance pitching 8 2/3 of commanding baseball striking out a career high 10 batters en route to his fourth consecutive victory. Alex Rodriguez continued his hot hitting in the month of June with a first inning moon shot to left field, his Major League leading 27th on the season. The homerun was his eighth in the last 14 games and with three more RBIs he raised his Major League leading total to 73, 26 of which have come in the last 12 games. With A-Rod’s personal success now translating into wins, the Yankees have found success, pulling themselves to 3 games over .500 by winning 11 of their last 12 and 14 of 17.

Never thought I would ever be celebrating .500 again, but we are going to party like its 1993! The New York Yankees are back to .500 pushing their win streak to seven straight defeating the Arizona Diamondbacks in the series opener 4-1. The Yankees continued their interleague dominance squeezing four runs out of former CY Young winner Brandon Webb on Bobby Abreu’s three run first inning homer. Abreu’s only hit would not only extend his hit streak to 11 games but would prove to be the difference as Chien-Ming Wang held the D-Backs to 1-run over seven innings en route to his third straight win and sixth overall this season. The Yankees have now won 10 out of their last 12, breaking Boston’s double digit lead down to 9.5 games and climbing back to .500. It’s official, the Yankees are back!

Just as they did two seasons ago, the New York Yankees swept the Pittsburgh Pirates in what is looking like a repeat performance of their slow start in 2005 that ended with the AL East division crown. A 13-6 win on Sunday continued the Yankees current win streak to six straight and 9 out of the last 11 to bring them one game from .500 on the season. Alex Rodriguez provided the power hitting two homeruns on the day including a go-ahead three run shot in the fourth inning to lift rookie Tyler Clippard up from an otherwise inconsistent effort. A-Rod’s Major League leading 23rd and 24th homers plated 5 total RBIs raising his Major League leading total to 63. A red hot Bobby Abreu added four more hits raising his average from .228 to .272 during a current 10 game hit streak in which he is 19 for 38 and batting .500. Sean Henn picked up the win after relieving Clippard in the 4th in his first appearance since being recalled from the minor leagues.

The 2007 New York Yankees season script started a new chapter on Saturday with the much heralded debut of rotation savior Roger Clemens. Amid countless standing ovations, Clemens made his way to the mound just four years removed from his last service as a Yankees starter. Facing a familiar National League team in the Pittsburgh Pirates, Clemens settled in after yielding a first inning run to pitch two scoreless innings before giving up another two runs in the fourth on a two-out two run double. But behind with the rebirth of the Yankees offense, Clemens was able to shut down the Pirates after getting a lead, retiring his last 7 batters before departing after the sixth inning. He finished his day limiting the Pirates to three runs on five hits and seven strikeouts in a performance that was more than enough as the Yankees tacked on another five runs for the bullpen.

Please allow me to introduce my new 26th favorite player in Major League baseball, Shannon Stewart. With two outs in the bottom of the ninth on the verge of Curt Schilling’s first career no-hitter, Stewart stepped to the plate with all intentions of becoming a hero to Red Sox haters everywhere. And with one swing of the bat, we thank you Shannon Stewart.

The New York Yankees closed out the series finale in Chicago in grand fashion on Thursday as Alex Rodriguez and company scored six runs in the ninth to bring Joe Torre his 2,000th career win as a Major League manager. The milestone victory was Torre’s 1106th in pinstripes pushing him to a .602 career winning percentage with the New York Yankees. With another nine wins Torre will pass Leo Durocher for ninth place on the all-time managerial win list and will likely pass Walter Alston into 8th place with another 41. Even with the Yankees slow start this season, it is hard to imagine any team that would dismiss Torre’s career success as a manager, but if he fails to lead the Yankees through the post season with their all-or-nothing attitude you can bet that this Hall of Fame manager might be looking at his last season in pinstripes.

After a long weekend of constant taunting and heckling from Red Sox Nation, Alex Rodriguez put it all behind him with one swing of the bat. As the rain fell in the 9th inning, A-Rod took an 0-2 pitch from closer Jonathon Papelbon over the right field wall to break a 5-5 tie and put the Yankees ahead for Mariano Rivera. Rivera, who received only his seventh opportunity to save a game this season battled with David Ortiz before getting him to hit a towering shot to Bobby Abreu in right field. He would then strike out Manny Ramirez and Mike Lowell to close out the game and seal the victory. For New York, it was their third win in the last four games, and their fourth win in the last six against Boston to pull the season series to 7-5 in favor of the Red Sox. With their last six to play at the end of August and September, the Yankees needed to make the most of this series and they came up big taking two of three to cut the standings deficit by a game to 12.5 back.

The New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox traded shots in Game 2 of Rivalry Series 4 on Saturday but Boston delivered the knockout in the seventh taking advantage of a New York meltdown for an 11-6 victory. In a game highlighted by Yankee miscues and injuries, none was more demoralizing than news that Roger Clemens is suffering from a fatigued right groin, an injury that has lingered for the past few seasons, and will delay his much anticipated debut as savior to the Yankees struggling staff.

The benches cleared and the 2007 rivalry rebirth came to a head in the ninth inning with the Yankees holding on to a commanding 9-5 lead when Scott Proctor came inside on Kevin Youkilis prompting a turn towards the mound. The Yankees second ejection of the game confirmed their desire to shake things up and fuel a fire that hasn’t been seen in the clubhouse yet this season. And as the dust settled at Fenway Park, the Yankees pulled out a much needed win to take the series opener from the division leading Red Sox in front of a hostile crowd donning buxom blonde female masks, an obvious reference to the newly appointed Stray-Rod.