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HOUSTON -- With next season and possibly his career on the line, New York Yankees third baseman Alex Rodriguez is looking forward to the start of the appeal of his 211-game suspension for violating the joint drug agreement and the collective bargaining agreement on Monday.

"Let's get it on," Rodriguez said after manager Joe Girardi confirmed the third baseman would sit out the rest of the weekend's games. "It starts on Monday. We've got to face it head on."

Rodriguez and his team of lawyers will start the appeals process in front of the three-man panel at Major League Baseball's offices in Manhattan on Monday. The hearing is expected to take five days, and then the group is expected to decide within the next 25 days if it will either uphold, reduce or overturn the suspension.

A representative from the MLB Players Association and the commissioner's office join the independent arbitrator Fredric Horowitz on the three-man committee. Horowitz is expected to cast the deciding vote.

Rodriguez, 38, called the entire process a "big burden," so he is happy to finally be facing it.

"I'll be there every day," Rodriguez said. "I'm fighting for my whole life, my whole legacy. I hope everyone is there."

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Many ESPNNewYork.com readers don't want to see Alex Rodriguez in pinstripes next year.

A-Rod may not be on the field anyway, due to a pending suspension for his involvement in the Biogenesis scandal, but if he wins his appeal of MLB's ban and is allowed to suit up, a lot of Yankees fans won't be happy.

In ESPN New York's Yankees Take 'Em or Trash 'Em poll, 64 percent of the more than 12,000 responders, as of late Saturday morning, want the Bombers to break ties with Rodriguez.

That will be difficult, considering the Yankees owe him $76 million over the next four seasons. But the Yankees may not have to pay him next year. If an arbitrator holds up MLB's full ban for Rodriguez in the Biogenesis case, he will miss 211 games.

Rodriguez spent the first four months of the 2013 season recovering from hip surgery. Once he returned, he was bothered by leg injuries. If he doesn't play this weekend in Houston -- and he says he won't -- A-Rod will finish the year batting .244 with seven homers and 19 RBIs.

There are a few surprising races on the Take 'Em/Trash 'Em page. Readers are split on Ichiro Suzuki coming back next season. He's hit .260 this season and is under contract for next season.

Readers want Vernon Wells and Eduardo Nunez out, but it's a close call for Nunez (57/43).

As far as the pitchers go, voters are tired of seeing Phil Hughes and Joba Chamberlain on the mound. Ninety-seven percent of the voters want Chamberlain gone next year; 95 percent of voters want the Yanks to let Hughes go as well.

Click here to vote!

HOUSTON -- Alex Rodriguez doesn't think he is going to play at all this weekend, because of his sore legs.

"I don’t think I'm playing this weekend," Rodriguez said after the Yankees' 3-2 win over the Astros. "My calf is pretty sore still."

Rodriguez has not played the last two games because of his calf and his hamstring injuries. Rodriguez is hitting .244 with seven homers and 19 RBIs in 44 games.

On Monday, Rodriguez's appeal of his 211-game suspension for violating the Joint Drug Agreement and the Collective Bargaining Agreement is expected to start. A-Rod added that no final decisions about his playing time this weekend have been made yet.

THE END OF JOBA: While Joba Chamberlain did not have much to say about what could very well be his final appearance as a Yankee, Chamberlain said it had not sunk in that seventh inning in which he allowed two inherited runners to score could be his last. His manager did go into a little detail about Chamberlain's year.

"He has been through a lot," Joe Girardi said. "With the injury to his ankle and then he started off pretty good this year and had the rib cage injury and never really got back on track for us. It is tough. I think he is better than what he pitched. But he struggled."

Chamberlain is 2-1 with a 4.93 ERA. He is a free agent after this year and the Yankees are not expected to re-sign him.

WARREN IMPRESSES: Girardi's original plan was to have Adam Warren just go 50 pitches and three innings. Since he breezed so smoothly through the Astros' lineup, Girardi let Warren pitched five innings and throw 64 pitches. He did not allow a run. Warren will be a candidate for the No. 5 spot next season.

D-ROB UNDERSTANDS: When David Robertson entered in the ninth, he was booed.

"I definitely heard the boos when I was coming in," Robertson said. "I tried to push them out of my head and tried to make some good pitches. I do not take any of the boos personally. I can understand why the fans really want to see Mariano [Rivera.] The final three games, the fans kind of hope to see him pitch again. We'll see what happens."

Rivera, by the way, told Girardi he was unavailable Friday.

NEW YORK -- Yankees GM Brian Cashman branded a report in a New York tabloid that Alex Rodriguez had been granted permission by the team to skip this weekend's final road trip to Houston in order to prepare for his hearing with Major League Baseball on Monday morning as "false."

"Totally false," Cashman told ESPNNewYork.com this afternoon. "Why wouldn't he be going?"

Informed of the report, Cashman said, "There's been no request for him not to go. Our manager hasn't been informed of it, our training staff hasn't been informed of it and I haven't been informed of it. As far as I'm concerned, he's going."

"Certain publications have reported inaccurate information, as has been done in the past," A-Rod's spokesman Ron Berkowitz said. "Alex will be in Houston with his team, as you would expect."

Rodriguez pulled himself out of Wednesday's might game after three at-bats, telling Joe Girardi his "legs weren't great." It is unknown whether that explanation sat well with the manager, who has made a point of not allowing injuries or fatigue to be used as an excuse for the Yankees failure to make the playoffs for only the second time in 19 seasons.

Girardi did not rule out the possibility of Rodriguez playing in tonight's home finale against the Tampa Bay Rays, saying he would make lineup decisions on a day-to-day basis over the final four games of the season.

Girardi said he had no knowledge of the situation.

"I know some reports came out, but we expect him to be there," Girardi said. "He does not have permission not to be there ... We expect our players to be there. If they're able bodies we expect them to be there. I'll see if he's available to me tonight but there's no indication that he won't be."

NEW YORK -- On the same day Andy Pettitte announced he would be leaving baseball at the end of this season, a vintage CC Sabathia returned to the Yankees, and not a moment too soon. Sabathia's best performance in more than three months, coupled with a historic and dramatic home run by Alex Rodriguez, gave the Yankees reason to believe in miracles, for one more day at least.

Their 5-1 win over the San Francisco Giants and Tim Lincecum, pending the outcome of the Rays-Orioles and Rangers-Royals games, could move them to within 2 1/2 games of the second AL wild card with eight games left to play.

Move over, Lou: Rodriguez came into his fourth at-bat of the game with one hit in his previous 25 at-bats and the game on the line. He came out of it with baseball's all-time career grand slam record, and the Yankees had a 5-1 lead. A-Rod belted a 2-1 fastball from ex-Yankee George Kontos into the right-field seats with the bases loaded and two out in the seventh, his seventh home run of the season, No. 654 of his career (six behind Willie Mays) and the 24th grand slam of his career, breaking the record set more than 70 years ago by the Iron Horse, Lou Gehrig.

Good to CC ya: Despite working with men on base in each of his first four innings, Sabathia turned in his best outing since May 31 -- that's right, it wasn't even summer yet! -- working into the eighth inning and holding the Giants to just one run on seven hits and three walks. Sabathia got help from his infield, which turned two double plays behind him, and from J.R. Murphy, who threw out Hunter Pence trying to steal in the second inning after a leadoff walk. It was the first outing in which Sabathia allowed fewer than three runs since July 3.

Sweet 16: Alfonso Soriano belted his 16th home run as a Yankee -- and 33rd overall -- on an 0-2 pitch from Lincecum leading off the second to give the Yankees a 1-0 lead. Soriano's pace in 51 games as a Yankee translates roughly to 51 HRs and 160 RBIs over 162 games. Wait'll next year!

No lead is safe: Sabathia continued his destructive practice of giving back leads this season by surrendering the one-run edge Soriano's HR gave him by walking the Giants' No. 9 hitter, Brandon Crawford, leading off the third, and surrendering an RBI double into the left-center gap to Juan Perez. Sabathia allowed six baserunners -- four on hits, plus two walks -- in the first three innings.

What's next: Game 2 of this three-game series, Ivan Nova (8-5, 3.36) vs. RHP Ryan Vogelsong (3-5, 5.73), first pitch Saturday at 1:05 p.m.

NEW YORK -- Apparently, Alex Rodriguez didn’t get the news release.

Approached by reporters about teammate Andy Pettitte’s retirement Friday, A-Rod had no clue.

“Tell me what happened,” he said.

Reporters then pointed to one of the TVs in the Yankees’ clubhouse, where Pettitte was having a news conference to announce that he was hanging up his cleats at the end of the season.

“What do you want me to say?” A-Rod said before finally answering a couple of questions.

Asked what he thought of Pettitte as a teammate, A-Rod said: “Andy’s just an amazing human being. He’s been an icon on the field, and a world-class friend and teammate, and a leader off the field and here in the clubhouse as well.

“Just one of the greatest all-time winners.”

Yeah. It’s just A-Rod being A-Rod.

TORONTO -- As the Yankees fold, there are excuses you can make for them and ones you can't.

In the batter's box, they might have scored only six runs in 27 innings in Toronto because after this long, injury-filled season, their bats are spent. On the mound, Hiroki Kuroda continued to fail to be the ace that he was the first 4½ months, but, as his manager put it, he was "gutsy," pitching out of trouble all night and giving his team a chance to win by allowing just three runs during an arduous six inning.

But in relief, Joba Chamberlain might have concluded his amazing spiral from the top of the baseball universe in 2007 to being just a guy in the bullpen -- and not a very good one at that -- by giving up a three-run homer to break the game open. Still, Joe Girardi didn't think he had any better options in the seventh inning, and he might have been right.

However, where you can't make excuses for this team -- 3.5 games back of the wild card with nine to play -- is in sequences like the one that took place in the second inning. Alfonso Soriano -- just like the team's best player, Robinson Cano -- didn't hustle around the bases and was thrown out at second. It left his manager to do one of the things he hates the most: cover for a player when he knows the player is wrong.

"He just has to make a better decision when he goes and sees [left fielder Anthony] Gose pick up the ball," Girardi said of the hard shot into the corner. "Gose has a good arm."

It looked like Soriano didn't hustle. Can you explain what you mean?

"I don't know," an exasperated Girardi said after the 6-2 loss to the Blue Jays.

Soriano didn't think there was a problem. He just said he turned on the speed when he saw Gose pick it up.

The Yankees' lack of hustle is not why they lost the game, but it is why this season probably won't end in the playoffs. The Yankees have been an impressive, tough group, but as of late, they are not just tying the final knots of what could have been an impressive 2013. After winning three of four in Baltimore to start this road trip, the Yankees were just one game back in the wild card going into Boston.

"We ran into the Red Sox wave, and we haven't recovered," Alex Rodriguez said.

That Fenway Park sweep ended with Girardi unsatisfied with his team's effort, which he told them about last Sunday night. In Toronto, Soriano first outed the club for not having enough "energy" during Tuesday's loss, and then, by Thursday, he wasn't busting it out of the box. The Yankees lost six of the final seven games on the trip and now need a miracle to extend Mariano Rivera's career.

"We have to run the table," Mark Reynolds said.

The schedule is forgiving. The Yankees face the San Francisco Giants for three this weekend, culminating with Sunday's celebration of Rivera. Then, the Yankees will need to sweep the Rays at home. They end in Houston against the worst club in baseball. Besides being 3.5 games back with nine left, the Yankees have five teams in front of them.

"We are still breathing," Reynolds said. "We still have a chance. No one in here is giving up."

The last wild card is a reward for mediocrity, so no one should be too surprised that no team is grabbing it and making it their own. The wild cards are the fourth- and fifth-best teams in a 15-team league, so the Yankees continue to have a shot, even if it is not a good one.

"Somehow or another, we are still in the mix, and somebody wants us in -- that's for sure -- because we keep getting help from other people," Rodriguez said. "At some point, we have to do it ourselves."

Rodriguez is 1-for-23 and only playing DH these days. He might try to give it a go in the field at home, in what could be his final homestand in the Bronx if his 211-game suspension for violating the drug policy holds.

Overall, the problem with the Yankees is really not that complicated these days. They don't have enough exceptional players, and the players they do have aren't giving their best effort.

In the seventh, Yankee fans on Twitter might have blown up the social media site when they saw Chamberlain coming in, but Girardi said he had no better choice. Chamberlain hadn't allowed a run in his past two innings, while Shawn Kelley had struggled, and Girardi was saving Adam Warren for later, the manager said.

"He used to pitch in a lot of close games," Girardi said of Chamberlain. "That's who he was. Tonight, he didn't get it done."

None of the Yankees did, and now they have to run the table to even have a chance at the playoffs. Are there any believers left?

TORONTO -- There was another pitcher who went to see Dr. James Andrew on Monday -- and he also doesn't need surgery.

Just like Matt Harvey, Boone Logan had his elbow examined by Dr. Andrews in Florida. Logan has no structural damage, but does have a bone spur on his left elbow. Dr. Andrews informed Logan he can't hurt it any further, so Logan plans on throwing a bullpen session on Wednesday and then, if everything goes right, he could be ready for action on Friday in the Bronx against the Giants.

"My mind is more at ease," Logan said.

Logan said his focus is on winning, but admitted needing to have the elbow cleaned up in the offseason is not exactly the best timing since he will be a free agent.

ALL HIT, NO FIELD FOR A-ROD: Joe Girardi indicated that Alex Rodriguez might not be in the field anytime soon, at least not here on the turf in Toronto. If Rodriguez's legs hold up, Girardi made it sound like A-Rod will stay in the DH role for the next few days. Here is our news story on Rodriguez.

GOOD JOB, GOOD EFFORT: Joe Girardi claimed he has no problem with his team's effort, but he does have a message for them as they approach the final 12 games.

"There was a lot of frustration in that room," Girardi said of the postgame clubhouse in Boston on Sunday. "You have to get by that. There is nothing we could do about those three games. I just want to make sure everyone is by that and we just move forward and go out and win games."

Girardi said on Monday he spent the off-day doing "nothing," except a little prep work, eating some meals out in the city and watching some NFL and some exhibition hockey on TV.

AUSTIN NOT READY: Austin Romine (concussion) was in the original lineup, but he was scratched because he doesn't feel that he is ready yet. Chris Stewart is the starting catcher.

BOSTON -- On Thursday, an ESPN poll of fans voted Alex Rodriguez the Face of Baseball. On Friday, A-Rod sounded more like the King of Denial as he tried to put the best face on a devastating 8-4 Yankees loss to the Red Sox.

"I think we’re in a good place," he said. "I think tonight was fun. [John] Lackey had some really good stuff. We worked some deep counts, got some big hits, tied the game and I thought we had a good chance. They just had one more big hit than we did. No big deal."

That's one way of looking at it. Another way is to acknowledge that to lose a game such as this while your rivals for the second American League wild-card spot are all winning is pretty damaging to your chances.

And especially the way the Yankees lost, battling back from a 4-0 first-inning hole to tie the game in the top of the seventh, only to see it all explode in the bottom of the inning on a grand slam by Jarrod Saltalamacchia, the third grand slam hit by the Red Sox against the Yankees this season and the second to cost the Yanks a game in the space of a week.

To make things worse, A-Rod's physical condition is a prime reason the Yankees lost this one. Maybe not as important as the early ineffectiveness of Hiroki Kuroda and the late ineffectiveness of Preston Claiborne, but damaging enough. With his strained left hamstring limiting him to a designated hitter role and slowing him to a virtual walk on the basepaths, A-Rod's injury cost the Yankees at least two runs Friday night.

In the top of the seventh inning, he was on first when Robinson Cano hit a bases-loaded double that should have scored three runs and given the Yankees the lead. But he was barely able to hobble into third, and the Yankees never did get his run home when Alfonso Soriano grounded out to end the inning.

Then, in the bottom of the inning, A-Rod's inability to play the field cost the Yankees when Eduardo Nunez was unable to come up with Shane Victorino's hot smash to third. It was scored a hit; however, as Joe Girardi said, "It's a tough play but it's a play he can make."

The leadoff single led to Girardi yanking Kuroda, who had settled down after a four-run first, and bringing in Cesar Cabral, who hit David Ortiz with a pitch. That led to Girardi bringing in Claiborne, who gave up the back-breaking home run.

A-Rod was hitless Friday with a walk and two strikeouts, but his bat has been effective lately, and since he came back, his mere presence has helped Cano and Soriano immensely. But unless he can play the field and run at full speed, on balance he is a liability to the Yankees both offensively and defensively.

Asked whether it appeared Rodriguez was "lacking a gear" due to his injury, Girardi said, "It looks like he's lacking a couple."

And Girardi, who had hoped to use Rodriguez at third base Saturday, admitted that no longer looked like an option. "I’m not sure what I’ll have tomorrow," he said. "I’ll have to check with him. It’s a concern of mine, yes."

But there's really nothing for Girardi to agonize over because, as Rodriguez said later, there's no way he's playing third base tomorrow or at any time in this series. "Tuesday, maybe," he said, sporting a large ice pack wrapped around his left thigh. "We got to be careful with the hamstring. I'm just trying to go to where it doesn't blow out."

Still, Rodriguez tried to put his best Face of Baseball face on the plight that confronts him and the Yankees now, having lost a game in the wild-card chase and having fallen to fourth place in the wild-card standings, behind Texas, Tampa Bay and Cleveland.

Asked whether he thought this loss was worse than some of the others the Yankees have suffered recently, Rodriguez said, "No, I think losing’s part of it. But I do like the intensity we’re playing with. I think Kuroda came back and fought really hard, gave us a great performance and a great chance to win after those first couple of innings. And I thought we were very close to scoring seven or eight runs today."

• Kuroda, who was a Cy Young candidate in July, was charged with the loss and now has not won a game since Aug. 12. In his past eight starts, he is 1-5 with a 5.22 ERA, and his overall ERA has soared from 2.45 to 3.13.

• Cano had his fourth four-hit game of the season, including three doubles, one of them a perfectly placed bunt up the unprotected third-base line that thwarted a Boston shift.

• Brendan Ryan was 2-for-4 including a home run, his first as a Yankee and fourth of the season, matching his career single-season high, set in 2007 with the St. Louis Cardinals.

BOSTON -- On Thursday, Joe Girardi said Alex Rodriguez's left hamstring strain was still an issue, and on Friday night, for the opener of the weekend series against the Red Sox at Fenway Park, it apparently remained so, since for the third straight game A-Rod is in the lineup, but not on the field.

Rodriguez will be the DH tonight while Eduardo Nunez plays third base.

"My hope is tomorrow," Girardi said when asked when A-Rod could return to the field. "I really believe I could have played him today. I didn't even ask him. But my plan is to play him there tomorrow."

Over the past two games, Rodriguez has performed well as the DH, homering in Tuesday night's 5-4 Yankees win over the O's and scoring a run in Thursday's 6-5 win. But he seemed to run rather gingerly scoring on Vernon Wells' single in the third inning.

"I think he's just playing it safe," Girardi said. "I think I mentioned to him to just be smart about it. If he needed to run, I think he can run."

• Girardi acknowledged he might be without David Robertson, who got lit up for three runs in the eighth inning Thursday, allowing the Orioles to tie the game, and Mariano Rivera, who appeared in his fourth game in five days and was awarded the win after pitching a 1-2-3 ninth. In that case, Girardi said, "It will probably be closer by committee" tonight.

• Girardi said Austin Romine (slight concussion) felt better today, and did well on his ImPACT test, but was unlikely to play this weekend. "I'm not sure what we have, exactly," Girardi said. "I'll check with him every day to see where he's at, and check with [trainer] Stevie [Donohue] every day to see where he thinks he’s at."

• Girardi said Boone Logan (elbow soreness) "may have turned a corner" and could be available for the Toronto series, but was unable to play catch before tonight's game because a pregame rainstorm kept the infield covered until less than an hour before the scheduled first pitch.

• Ivan Nova (triceps soreness) is still scheduled to make his start in Sunday night's series finale, "as far as I know," Girardi said.

• Girardi said he didn't have a problem with Marc Jacobson, the official scorer on Thursday night, awarding the win to Rivera in what was a typical save situation, invoking a rule that denied the win to Robertson, who should have been the pitcher of record, because his outing was "ineffective and brief." Said Girardi: "I'd like to see [Rivera] get a save, but when I woke up this morning, it didn't change my life."

According to a survey conducted by ESPN, Alex Rodriguez is the face of baseball. Here is Jayson Stark with the details.

Amazingly -- or, then again, maybe not so amazingly -- Alex Rodriguez was the first player named by 22 percent of the 1,028 fans polled by Turnkey when they were asked, with no names and no other info provided: "What MLB player would you define as the 'Face of Baseball' today?"

When A-Rod was taken out of the equation, another Yankee stepped in. Here's Stark again.

To help turn this conversation in a different direction, Turnkey then gave the same group of fans a list of 29 active players -- a list that did NOT include Alex Rodriguez -- and asked them to choose up to three players they would identify as the Face of Baseball today.

The No. 1 name on their list was a fellow A-Rod may have heard of.

In one of the least surprising revelations in this survey, Derek Jeter not only got the most votes, he got nearly as much support (38 percent) as the next two players combined -- Miguel Cabrera (25) and David Ortiz (17).

To read Stark's full story click here

NEW YORK -- Alex Rodriguez's appeal of his 211-game suspension is scheduled to begin Sept. 30, the day after the regular season ends, if the Yankees don't make the playoffs, a source told ESPNNewYork.com on Friday.

Because Rodriguez has the right to be present for the hearings in front of arbitrator Fredric Horowitz, the process could be postponed if the Yankees still are playing. The team entered Friday night 2-1/2 games behind the Tampa Bay Rays for the second wild card in the American League.

A source said the hearings are expected to take place in New York. An announcement on whether Rodriguez's suspension -- stemming from the Biogenesis and performing-enhancing drug scandal -- is reduced is not expected until after the World Series.

To read the rest of the story click here.

TORONTO -- OK, losing two of three to the Tampa Bay Rays at their dome is understandable.

But losing two of three to the Toronto Blue Jays? Not acceptable, anywhere, at any time, under any circumstances.

And especially when wins are as important as they are to the Yankees right now.

With their 7-2 loss to the Jays tonight -- a game that was over practically before it started -- the Yankees drop to 5½ games out in the AL wild-card race with just 29 left to play. And, needless to say, the games against teams like the Blue Jays are the ones they absolutely, positively have to win if they are ever going to close that gap.

Worst of all? With the season-long mediocrity of CC Sabathia and the recent deterioration of Hiroki Kuroda, the Yankees are now officially playing without a full deck.

A deck without an ace.

Hiroki Corroding?: After allowing seven runs in his last outing, Kuroda was nicked for four in the first inning tonight, and seven overall, though only five were earned. Through his first 24 starts of the season, Kuroda's ERA was 2.33. Over his past three, it is 8.09 (15 ER in 16⅔ IP).

Two-run strikeout: Here's something you don't see every day -- a strikeout that results in two runs scored and no one retired. With runners on first and second and one out, Kuroda threw a third strike past both catchers on the same pitch -- Jays catcher J.P. Arencibia at the plate, and his own, Chris Stewart, behind it. The passed ball allowed Brett Lawrie (double) to score from second, and Stewart's throw to first went awry, allowing Rajai Davis (walk) to score from first.

HRoki is back: Kuroda gave up a career-high four home runs in his last outing against the Rays and gave up another one, a bomb by Edwin Encarnacion, in the second inning with a man on to increase the Jays' lead to 6-0.

A-Clutch: Alex Rodriguez delivered an RBI single, just the Yankees' second hit of the game, in the fourth inning to put the Yankees on the board 7-1.

A-Plod: One batter later, A-Rod inexplicably tried to score from first on Mark Reynolds' double and was thrown out easily at the plate, shortening what could have been a big inning for the Yankees.

Robbie Who?: Filling in at second base, a position he had not played regularly for more than seven years, Reynolds did quite well, especially on a diving stop on Jose Reyes' grounder in the sixth. He also had three hits, including the RBI double on which A-Rod got thrown out at the plate.

Fan dance: The Yankees struck out 13 times tonight, led by Alfonso Soriano and A-Rod with three each. Brett Gardner and Derek Jeter whiffed twice each.

What's next: A flight home, followed by a day off before the Yankees plunge into a stretch of 17 straight games -- the next nine of which are at home -- starting with three against the Baltimore Orioles over the weekend. The Incomparable One, Andrew Marchand, will have you covered on the off day. I'll see you all next week.

On Tuesday, Alex Rodriguez hit home run No. 651 of his career, putting him just nine short of tying Willie Mays for fourth place on the all-time list. The mark now has more financial importance than historical. As part of A-Rod's 10-year, $275 million contract, he has five $6 million bonuses for home run milestones, the first of which is for tying Mays.

One of the major issues hovering over A-Rod's appeal of his 211-game drug suspension is the $86 million he is owed through 2017. If his ban is not reduced, this could be the final month of his career, going on the theory that after missing all of 2014 and part of 2015, either Rodriguez, who by that time would be almost 40, would be unable to physically come back, or the Yankees might just cut him. (Of course, there would be a lot of noise and lawyers so who knows exactly what will happen?)

Right now, A-Rod is on the field and is helping, hitting .284 with four homers and eight RBIs in 74 at-bats, encompassing 20 games. That is a homer every 18.5 at-bats. To hit nine more at that pace, A-Rod would need 167 more at-bats. With the Yankees having just 30 games remaining, Rodriguez figures to have around 110-120 at-bats, if he stays healthy and plays nearly every day. So it seems unlikely he hits the 660/$6M powerball unless he gets really hot.

In the previous five years, A-Rod has hit nine homers in a month twice. In June, 2008, he hit nine in 121 at-bats on his way to 35 for the season. In September, 2010, he also hit nine in 95 at-bats on his way to 30.

In 2009, he had two months with seven home runs, but no nines. In 2011, he needed to add two months together to reach nine long balls. In 2012, he hit six in one month.

QUESTION: Do you think A-Rod can catch Mays this season?

TORONTO -- If it is true that momentum is determined by today's starting pitcher, then J.A. Happ and Andy Pettitte combined to give the Yankees back their mojo tonight. Happ woke up the Yankees' bats and Pettitte put the Toronto Blue Jays to sleep, and, just like that, the horrors of Monday night -- and the near-horrors of the first inning Tuesday -- are forgotten. For now, anyway.

Their 7-1 victory tonight puts the Yankees four games back in the wild-card race and keeps hope alive as we move into the final 30 games of the season.

Dandy Pettitte: Pettitte turned in his best performance since his first start of the season by shutting out the Blue Jays for seven innings on five hits. Staked to a four-run first-inning lead, Pettitte was aided by two double plays and a terrific throw from center fielder Brett Gardner to cut down the Blue Jays' only real scoring chance of the night. Pettitte needed just 86 pitches to navigate the seven innings and, in winning his third straight start, is rounding back into form just as the Yankees need him the most.

Robbie Oh, No!: The Yankees suffered a potentially crippling blow to their playoff hopes when Robinson Cano was hit on the left hand by a pitch from Happ -- yes, him again -- in the first inning and was unable to come out to play the field in the bottom of the inning. Happ, who broke Curtis Granderson's right forearm in spring training, threw an 0-2 fastball to Cano that ran in on his hands and caught him near the pinkie of his left hand. Cano was in obvious pain as trainer Stevie Donohue tended to him but stayed in the game long enough to score on Alfonso Soriano's home run on the very next pitch. Perhaps in retaliation for the beaning, or maybe just in admiration of the flight of the ball, Soriano dramatically flipped the bat away on contact and stood at home plate watching the ball, which hit the facade of the third deck at the Rogers Centre. Cano was replaced at second base by Eduardo Nunez.

Robbie, Oh, yeah: It took awhile, but by the seventh inning, the Yankees announced that X-rays of Cano's left hand came back negative. He is listed as day-to-day.

Nunie, too?: The Yankees had another scare in the eighth, when Nunez inexplicably collapsed to the turf while moving toward second on a potential double-play grounder. He, too, appeared to be in considerable pain and was worked over for quite a while by Donohue. Not only did he stay in the game, he singled to open the ninth. He was removed for pinch runner Lyle Overbay later in the inning, however, forcing Mark Reynolds to move from first to second. We'll have an update on Nunez's condition shortly.

Slapp Happy: Except for the Cano injury, the Yankees had their way with Happ in the first inning. Gardner led off with a double off the right-field wall that just missed leaving the park, and, after he moved to third on a wild pitch, scored on a single up the middle by Derek Jeter on his first hit and RBI since his return from the DL. Soriano's homer, with Jeter and Cano on base, gave the Yankees a 4-0 lead before the Blue Jays even came to bat.

Milestone blast: Soriano's second blast of the game was less impressive -- this one hit the top of the left-field wall on its way down and caromed into the bullpen -- but it was the 400th of his career. It also gave him 11 homers in just 115 at-bats as a Yankee, which ties him with Vernon Wells for most homers on the team by a right-handed hitter. Wells needed 370 at-bats to get his 11, though.

Gunned: Gardner's one-hop throw from medium center field, combined with a great catch and sweep tag by Chris Stewart, cut down Moises Sierra at the plate as the Jays' right fielder, who had doubled, tried to score on Ryan Goins' single to center.

Tin foil: Otherwise known as Reynolds Rap, a home run to left by Mark Reynolds in the sixth gave the Yankees a 6-0 lead.

Watch out, Willie: Alex Rodriguez's solo shot in the seventh inning was not only his fourth of the season and his second in two nights but No. 651 of his career, putting him just nine behind Willie Mays, who is No. 4 on the all-time list. It also moves A-Rod one home run closer to that $6 million bonus the Yankees are just dying to pay him.

What's next: Series and road-trip finale matches Hiroki Kuroda (11-9, 2.71 ERA) versus RHP Todd Redmond (1-2, 4.44). The first pitch is at 7:07 p.m.