Teixeira, bullpen ensure sweep of White Sox

(Originally posted for Baseball Digest)

Mark Teixeira drove in four runs and the Yankees bullpen pitched six innings, allowing only one earned run, in the team’s 8-3 victory over the Chicago White Sox.

Teixeira hit a sacrifice fly in the first and then hit a three-run home run in the five-run seventh inning to pass 100 RBI on the season.  He has now reached 30 home runs and 100 RBI in six straight seasons.

Starter Joba Chamberlain only went three innings, as the Yankees instituted their revised version of the “Joba Rules.”  They are essentially simulating spring training and will get him up and around 100 pitches near the end of the season.  He threw 35 pitches, allowing four hits and two earned runs.

Alfredo Aceves relieved Chamberlain, pitching three shutout innings, to earn his ninth win of the season.  Damaso Marte, David Robertson and Phil Hughes combined to pitch two shutout innings.  Phil Coke allowed a solo home run in the ninth.

On the offensive side, Derek Jeter and Jorge Posada each had two hits, while Johnny Damon was the other Yankees aside from Teixeira to drive in more than one run (he hit a two-run home run in the third to give the Yankees the lead).  The home run, which was his 24th, ties a career-high.  Damon left the game in the seventh with cramping in both calves.

With the sweep of the White Sox, the Yankees are now 34 games over .500.  They now embark on a seven-game road trip with the first stop being in Baltimore for three games starting tomorrow night.