Photographs of Alex Rodriguez hitting a home run, Rodriguez waiting for a ruling on the home run and then the umpire ruling it was was home run from the AP Mets 9, Brewers 2: Wednesday was a good day for the players brought back in the Lastings Milledge deal. Ryan Church and Brian Schneider each went deep in a six-run first inning -- Church hit a grand slam -- as the Mets gave Oliver......

Mets 6, Brewers 5 (10 innings): This game had all the requirements of any contest involving the Mets. No. 1: Take an early lead -- the Mets led, 5-1, by the third inning. No. 2: Throw out a starter from which the team has little idea what to expect. They should have expected little of Jon Niese, who went three-plus innings in his big-league debut and gave back the Mets' lead in the fourth. No.......

Some establishments may be praying for the Yankees' playoffs hopes, or else they'll see lower sales. The Post commissioned a study that shows city business could lose $141 million if the Yankees keep sputtering. If they advance to the division series, businesses earn $26 million; they get another $54 million if the Yanks manage to make it to the AL Championship. And a World Series if worth an additional $61 million. As for the Mets,......

Photograph of Johan Santana pitching against the Brewers by Bill Waugh/AP Mets 4 Milwaukee 2: There is a good chance that this series could be a preview of the playoffs so it behooves the Mets to jump on the Brewers and pay them back for a series loss back in April. Johan Santana pitched very well, striking out 10 over six innings, but he left the game losing 2-0. Luckily for the Mets, Brewers’......

Mets 6, Marlins 2: Both times a team in this series suffered a crushing loss, it came back to win the next day. After Friday's deflating loss, the Marlins won Saturday on a walk-off walk. Pedro Martinez helped the Mets in Sunday's rubber game. He turned in six strong winnings, striking out four and walking one. Three solo homers -- from Carlos Beltran, Nick Evans and then David Wright -- helped the Mets erase a......

Tickets for the final home games at Yankee Stadium are being resold online for upwards of $10,000. After the Yankees leave town following today's game against the Blue Jays, there's only one homestand remaining inside the House that Ruth Built. For those ten sold out games, bleacher seats alone are running over $100 a ticket. And for the final game on September 21, the cheapest seat in the house sits at $350 right now. Elsewhere......

Marlins 4, Mets 3: Another terrible effort by the Mets' bullpen. Mike Pelfrey lasted 6 2/3 innings and allowed two runs, but the Mets couldn't make it stand up. Ex-Met Mike Jacobs tied the game, 3-3 in the eighth, and then Aaron Heilman walked in the winning run in the ninth. That free pass was the fourth in the inning (two were intentional), but maybe Jerry Manuel would have been better off not loading the......

Yankees 2, Blue Jays 1: Well, maybe not. But the healthy -- for now -- Carl Pavano has two wins in his two starts this season. He pitched six innings of one-run ball in front of an appreciative crowd at Yankee Stadium to keep his team within six of the Red Sox in the American League wild-card race. The bad news is that Pavano's peripheral stats aren't so great -- he only struck out one......

Mets 6, Phillies 3: This game takes some air out of the whole "that loss will stay with them for a while" theory. Games don't get that much worse than Tuesday's 8-7, 13-inning loss. But were the Mets really thinking about that when they took the field Wednesday? Maybe. Did it affect them? Not in a bad way. They trailed, 3-2, entering the eighth, but Carlos Delgado hit his second homer of the game......

Phillies 8, Mets 7: How much can the bullpen be blamed in an 8-7 loss that came in a game in which the Mets once held a seven-run lead? Not as much as people would think. Pedro Martinez gave back five of the seven runs he was given -- those tallies came thanks to home runs by Damion Easley and Fernando Tatis -- but was perversely still in line for the win. Luis Ayala, the......

Mets 9, Astros 1: Houston has been a pesky opponent for the Mets all season, but Mike Pelfrey knew how to handle the Astros. He threw his second straight complete game -- he lost the shutout in the ninth -- as the Mets salvaged a split of the four-game series. That's important momentum for a team that goes into a critical three-game series against the Phillies this week. Carlos Delgado homered not once but twice.......

Astros 6, Mets 4: The Mets haven't been losing that much lately, but, when they have, it has been in frustrating ways. In this one, the Mets blew leads of 3-0 and 4-3 then watched in the 10th inning as Brad Ausmus (!) and Darin Erstad went deep of Pedro Feliciano. Homers happen, yes, but Ausmus has a .310 slugging average this season and a .345 mark for his career. Erstad's days as a productive......

Yankees 5, Orioles 3: Carl Pavano -- Opening Day starter in 2007 -- made his 2008 debut and his first start since April of last year. He e put 10 baserunners on but didn't suffer. Jason Giamb's go-ahead homer helped matters. With Boston's loss, the Yankees are now five games out of the playoffs. Has Pavano unseated Sir Sidney Ponson as the No. 3 starter? Can the Yankees make up some ground? Don't count on......

Mets 3, Astros 0: They didn't score often, but the 3 runs the Mets scored early was enough to help Johan Santana to his third straight win. Santana pitched seven scoreless innings, but needed a career-high 121 pitches to do so. The Mets got the scoring started in the 1st when David Wright drove in Jose Reyes in on a single. In the 2nd inning, Brian Schneider hit a two-run home run, his fifth of......

Mets 5 Atlanta 4: Sometimes the other team gives you a gift and the Mets got two of them Thursday night. Carlos Delgado went 5-for-5, but two of those hits were questionable at best. It doesn’t matter for the Mets who used those miscues to score the trying run in the seventh and the winning run in the ninth. Pedro Martinez went seven innings while Luis Ayala pitched part of the 8th and the 9th......

Yankees 5 Toronto 1: If they had lost the Yankees would have been in a tie for third place, but they won and for a second, everything seems right in their world again. It is probably a fleeting moment, because the deficit is just too big, but for now the Yankees have life again. Andy Pettitte was good, shutting down the Blue Jays over seven innings and Derek Jeter crept closer to Babe Ruth in......

Mets 7, Braves 3: The bad-bullpen shoe is on the other foot, at least for one day. The Mets jumped out to an early lead -- what else is new? -- on a David Wright sacrifice fly and a Fernando Tatis ground-rule double in the first. The Braves got three back off Oliver Perez in the third, however, and the Mets' bats were shut down. Trailing 3-2 in the eighth, the Mets got a two-run......

If there is one area of concern for the Mets heading into the stretch, it has to be the bullpen. Sure, Billy Wagner might be back any minute, but that only solves the problems at the end of the game. What are the Mets going to do with the 7th and 8th? Monday it was the pen that put an end to a six-game winning streak. Brian Stokes allowed two Pittsburgh runs in the sixth......

Mets 4, Pirates 0: Times have changed. Now when a Mets game involves of the worst teams in baseball, those watching know which squad it is. Johan Santana threw a three-hit shutout for the Mets' sixth straight win. Carlos Beltran (hot again) and Brian Schneider (he'll take what he can get) each went deep. All six of the wins have come against the lowly Nationals and Pirates, but that doesn't make a difference in......

Yankees 3 Royals 2 (13 innings): With every inning you could feel the entire season slipping away. Time and again, the Yankees’ offense threatened only to come up empty, leaving 13 runners on base. Another loss to the Royals and the Yankees would have to really start making plans for 2009. But, the bullpen was great, keeping the Royals off the board and the offense finally showed up in the 13th. It wasn’t pretty, but......

Mets 2, Pirates 1: If the Mets keep playing bad teams, they could be a lock for the playoffs. Against the Pirates, all Mike Pelfrey needed was 2 runs in the top of the first inning to earn his 11th victory of the season. Singles from the first three Mets batters led to the first run of the game and a wild pitch gave the Mets their second run. Pelfrey was replaced by Duaner Sanchez......

Mets 9 Washington 3: Good teams need to beat bad teams in August and that is exactly what the Mets did to Washington this week. Thursday they capped off the sweep with a strong start from Oliver Perez and some timely hitting. Brian Schneider hit his fifth home run of the season and Carlos Delgado added his 26th in the sixth inning. Fernando Tatis went 1-for-1 with three walks and Damion Easley added a pinch-hit......

Mets 12, Nationals 0: Any time Brian Stokes is hitting in a game he didn't start, Jerry Manuel must be either smiling or sleeping. He was smiling Wednesday as the Mets routed Jason Bergmann, who entered the game with a 4.13 ERA. After Monday's disgusting come-from-ahead loss, the Mets have bounced back with two straight impressive wins. Tuesday's was a nail-biter, but Wednesday's was anything but. Fernando Tatis, who has been cooling off slightly, hit......

Graphic from the NY Post, with a sad Mr. Met added in Tickets for top of the line Mets tickets at will nearly double next year when they move into Citi Field. That means that seats right behind the dugout will go for just under $500 a pop. At Shea this year, Mets tickets are already the fourth most expensive in the league. Demand is likely to rise next year not only because of......

Yankees 9 Minnesota 6: Do you think Johnny Damon took being benched against a lefty last night personally? Damon showed why he should be in the lineup every night by leading off the game with a home run. It was a desperately needed spark for a team that came into the game having lost 11-of-16. Mike Mussina kept up his unbelievable season with seven strong innings, allowing three runs while striking out five. But, Mariano......

Twins 4, Yankees 0: As the season winds on, the Yankees are doing their best to make young opposing starters feel good about themselves. Last week, they gave some Texas arms a confidence boost. On Monday, Glen Perkins was the recipient of the Yanks' good will. He and Stony Brook product Joe Nathan combined to shut the Yankees out, and Sidney Ponson's latest middling effort -- 7 2/3 innings, four runs -- wasn't enough. The......

Photograph of New York Yankees manager Joe Girardi (27) argues with third base umpire Bill Welke, right, as Alex Rodriguez, far left, is restrained by third base coach Bobby Meacham by Ric Francis/AP Angels 4 Yankees 3: The Yankees started well and finished terribly again. Damon and Jeter reached base in the first and scored to give New York a 2-0 lead, but it didn’t hold up. Andy Pettitte gutted out seven innings, allowing......

Mets 8, Marlins 6: When this weekend's series started, the Mets trailed the Marlins and the Phillies. Now they trail only the Phillies. Brian Stokes became the latest fill-in starter, and he benefited from a ton of run support against Florida starter -- and Mets whipping boy -- Scott Olsen. Daniel Murphy hit his first Major League home run in the critical three-run sixth. That rally helped Scott Schoeneweis become the pitcher of record. Some......

Yankees 3, Rangers 0: Mike Mussina and the Yankees can't afford to keep splitting four-game series. But when the team enters the finale having lost two of the first three, what choice do they have? Derek Jeter hit a home run as the game's second batter. Mussina followed that up with seven scoreless innings, striking out six and walking one. That's an impressive outing against the best offense in baseball. Brian Bruney, Damaso Marte and......

Yankees 5 Texas 2: The news before the game wasn’t good; Joba has tendinitis of the rotator cuff. The plan is to shut him down for a week and then see if he can throw. Who knows if Joba returns, and Ian Kennedy will now start for the Yankees this weekend, but at least the news on the field was good. Sidney Ponson did enough to keep the team in the game and Wilson Betemit......