I wanted the sweep. I prayed for it. But I didn’t really expect it. It was asking a lot of the Yankees to beat the Red Sox for the fourth day in a row – especially against Lester – but they pulled it off. I was stunned.

Andy Pettitte must have really listened to me when I had that talk with him yesterday. He went seven innings, only giving up five hits, and matched Lester batter for batter – until A-Rod came up in the bottom of the seventh. Alexander Emmanuel Rodriguez not clutch?

Yeah, it does sound funny. He had two clutchy homers this weekend, and tonight’s put the Yanks on the board in what looked like it might be another 15-inning scoreless fest. Of course, the drama didn’t end there. This is Yankees-Red Sox we’re talking about. Coke coughed one up to Victor Martinez to give the Sox the lead, but the Yankees now have the 2009 version of these guys.

OK, not quite. But Damon and Tex went deep in the eighth off Bard and have now gone back-to-back in six games this season. Oddly enough, that’s a franchise record.

With the Yankees ahead 5-2 in the ninth, Mo gave up a single and a walk, and my heart was going like this.

But he retired Ellsbury. The sweep was in the bag.

So yes, we’re up by six-and-a-half games in the division. And yes, we have the best record in the majors. And yes, it all feels great. But it’s August 9th as I’m typing this – still a lot of baseball to play. A couple of bad series for us and a couple of good ones for the Red Sox and/or Rays, and it’s panic time again.

Monday night begins a series against the Blue Jays. We’ll be facing that pitcher with the hard-to-spell name. You know, the rookie with only two vowels. Rzepczynski.

And we’ll have Sergio Mitre on the mound for us – Mr. I-Can’t-Get-Anybody-Out-In-The-First-Inning. Does anybody think there won’t be a letdown? Just a teeny weeny lack of intensity after the Red Sox series? If I had a team meeting, I’d say this.

“Hi, Yankees. It’s me, She-Fan. I want to congratulate you on the fantastic weekend. But I also want to tell you to keep the train moving. Don’t just go, ‘Oh, it’s the Blue Jays. So what.” If you have to pretend it’s still the Red Sox, go ahead. Whatever it takes. Just win. Thank you.'”

I hope they heard me. Somehow.