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More than two months after acquiring Kerry Wood from the Cleveland Indians for the proverbial Players-To-Be-Named, the Yankees finally named those players today: 24-year-old right-hander Andrew Shive, who went 1-2 with a 4.56 ERA as a reliever in A ball this year, and infielder Matt Cusick, who hit a combined .243 with three homers and 35 RBI in 88 games for AA Trenton and AAA Scranton. And oh yeah, the Yankees picked up $1.5 million of the $3.6 million remaining on Wood's $10.5 million contract for 2009. His contract includes an $11 million team option for 2011.

Not bad for a guy who has become a staple of the Yankees bullpen.

Four relievers from the suddenly reliable Yankees bullpen held Toronto hitless over the final 4 1/3 innings.

Boone Logan entered the game with two out in the fifth and retired Lyle Overbay on a strikeout. Dave Robertson relieved Logan with one out in the sixth. He got out of a two-out jam with runners on second and third by striking out Mike McCoy.

Kerry Wood replaced Robertson with one out in the seventh and - after a scoreless 1 2/3 appearance - handed the ball to Mariano Rivera. Rivera pitched a scoreless ninth.

Wood was awarded the win by the official scorer, who made the judgement because starter Ivan Nova was pulled prior to completing five innings with the Yankees leading 5-3.

PICTURE TIME: A clubhouse attendant handed out team photos to all of the players after Friday's game. Alex Rodriguez, who missed the team photo shoot because he didn't see it on a schedule posted in the clubhouse, was photoshopped into the shot, next to Alfredo Aceves and Joba Chamberlain.

PENA SHOWS POP: Ramiro Pena, filling in for the injured Rodriguez (calf) at third, went 2-for-4 and has hit safely in nine of his last 12 starts. He has multi-hit games in each of his three starts against the Blue Jays this season.

The Yankees-Red Sox rivalry didn’t live up to the hype for Kerry Wood.

“You know, I think it was a little bit subdued this weekend,” the Yankee reliever said of the atmosphere at Yankee Stadium for the four-game series against the Red Sox. “…. I think it was a little bit low-key.”

Wood said the Yanks and Red Sox were “pretty much all business” during the series. After hearing so much about the “intense” atmosphere of The Rivalry, Wood was a little underwhelmed by what he saw first-hand.

“As far as the players and stuff going on in the stands fights and things like that it was tame,” said Wood, who pitched a scoreless seventh inning in relief of Phil Hughes.

UNFUL-PHIL-LED: Phil Hughes faced 12 hitters and threw 58 pitches in the first two innings of his Monday afternoon start against the Red Sox. It was 92 degrees when Hughes threw his first pitch and he said he “didn’t have much left in the tank” after the first two frames, in which he allowed two runs on five hits.

So Hughes simplified things in the third. He found his curveball and started to find the strike zone in that inning and went on to retire 14 of his final 15 hitters before being pulled for Wood in the seventh.

“I knew I had to change something; make an adjustment and get us some length. I was able to get on a pretty good run,” Hughes said. “Jon (Lester) was good today, so it wasn’t enough.”

Hughes (13-5, 3.92 ERA) lost for the fourth time in his last eight starts.

Hughes is also at 128.2 innings pitched on the season. The Yankees have Hughes on an innings limit for the year, believed to be around 175. If Hughes continues to throw every five days and pitches six innings per start, he will reach the 175-inning plateau on Sept. 18 at Baltimore.

So the Yankees will either have to skip Hughes periodically before the end of the year or put him in the bullpen in mid-September to keep him under 175 innings.

Hughes is 1-2 with an 8.04 ERA when pitching on six or more days rest this season.

He’s 8-3 with a 3.60 ERA when pitching on the standard four days rest.

If were up to Hughes, he would pitch every fifth day.

“That’s what I’m used to,” he said. “Just going out and getting the ball and doing my normal schedule.

“But if they feel like something needs to be adjusted in that way then that’s up to them.”

Hughes didn’t know if or when he’d be skipped in the future. He believes his struggles in starts following more than six days off are just coincidental.

“My first couple starts after that weren’t great, but I don’t think it was anything physical,” he said.

MISSED OPPORTUNITIES: The Yankees went 0-for-9 with runners in scoring position on Monday and finished just 2-for-17 with runners on base.

Lester struck out Curtis Granderson with no out and the bases loaded in the seventh and Boston reliever Daniel Bard relieved Lester and struck out Derek Jeter and Nick Swisher to end the inning.

“The last pitch he threw me (was) 99 mph. It’s not supposed to move like that,” Swisher said.

The Yanks also left a runner at second in the eighth and ninth.

“We missed a lot opportunities in the last three innings,” Joe Girardi said. “Obviously they have a good back end of the bullpen but (we had) a shot.”

HOME GROAN:The Yanks finished 3-4 on their seven-game, eight-day homestand against the Blue Jays and Red Sox. They head to Texas for two games in a possible playoff preview and then travel to Kansas City for a four-game series before returning to the Bronx for a six-game homestand.

“It was a tough homestand. We got off to a bad start,” Girardi said. “It’s not exactly what we wanted but we move on.”

TEX IMPRESSED: The bruised and battered Red Sox left quite an impression on Mark Teixeira.

“They’re starting (pitchers are ) as good as anyone’s in baseball and they have arguably the best eighth and ninth inning guys in baseball as well,” said Teixeira, who hit a long home run to the second deck in right off of Bard in the eighth. “…. You put that together with a lineup where a guy like Mike Lowell can hit seventh. That’s a good team. I don’t care how many injuries they’ve had or have right now.”

The Red Sox split the four-game series with the Yanks and remain six games behind the Bombers in the division race.

If you’re a little anxious over the chase for 600, a few things to know about Alex Rodriguez, and the potential debuts for Lance Berkman and Kerry Wood heading into tonight’s matchup with the Blue Jays at Yankee Stadium.

Alex Rodriguez has homered against seven different Blue Jays pitchers. A search of Baseball-Reference.com tells us that the only other team against whom he’s homered against seven pitchers currently on the roster is the Red Sox (makes sense … divisional opponent).

In this case, Rodriguez has exactly one home run against each of the seven Blue Jays pitchers, with one against tonight’s starter, Brandon Morrow.

It would make more sense for Rodriguez to target the bullpen tonight -- Morrow's home run rate (0.64 per nine innings) doesn't quite rank among the best in the American League, but it's close, and he's the league's top strikeout pitcher, averaging almost 10 per nine innings.

If Rodriguez doesn't touch Morrow up today, Tuesday doesn't look too promising, with the Blue Jays starting Ricky Romero. Lefties have been giving Rodriguez a lot of trouble lately. Since homering against Clayton Kershaw on June 27, Rodriguez is 4-for-26 with seven strikeouts against lefty pitchers.

Rodriguez has struck out twice as frequently against lefties in this stretch as he had prior to it, and fouling off pitches with much greater frequency as well. One primary culprit -- fastballs away from lefties, which were the finish pitch in six Rodriguez at-bats vs southpaws in July, without his getting a hit.

Lefties have been giving Rodriguez trouble all season. Rodriguez’s .215 batting average against lefties is just one point higher than Curtis Granderson’s, and ranks 121st out of the 132 hitters with at least 100 plate appearances vs lefties (in other words, 12th-worst).

Rodriguez’s struggles against lefties are mild compared to Lance Berkman’s .188 batting average and one home run in 64 at-bats. Like Rodriguez, hitting the fastball away from a lefty has been an issue. He’s got just one hit and an .063 batting average against those pitches this season.

Speaking of Berkman, if you’re thinking he’ll be a good weapon off the bench, when he doesn’t start, keep this in mind. He’s 5-for-45 for his career as a pinch-hitter

During our trip to Cleveland for the Mets series a few weeks ago, we got the impression of a dislike for Kerry Wood, not quite to LeBron James levels, but still more tangible than expected. Here’s why. Wood’s fastball seems to have lost some zip.

When Wood cranks it to 95-miles-per-hour, he’s very hittable -- our Inside Edge data charts him with a .394 opponents batting average against those pitches (nearly 150 points worse than the league average) and a miss rate of 11.1 percent (slightly better than half the league norm). That may cause a lot more anxiety than the chase for 600 will.

Mark Simon is a researcher for Baseball Tonight.

Kerry Wood arrived in the Yankee clubhouse around 10:25 this morning showing no outward signs of the travel odyssey that took him from Toronto, where the Indians were playing Saturday, back home to Cleveland to pick up some clothes, and finally to Tampa, where he finally got the team hotel about 4 a.m.
"I was really caught off guard,'' he said of the trade deadline deal that was completed just before the 4 p.m. cutoff time. "I got up to get ready to pitch the seventh and then they told me to sit back down again, so I figured something was going on. They told me after the game and my head's been spinning ever since.''
Having pitched to Joe Girardi who was the Cubs' catcher back in the days when the 33-year-old Wood was a 21-year-old starting pitcher, will help him adjust. "Definitely, playing with Joe and knowing him and having that relationship helps,'' said Wood, who has not pitched since July 11, having just come off the DL with a blister on his right index finger. In his 12 year career, Wood has made 14 trips to the DL, two of them this season, beginning in spring training when he strained a muscle in his back.
Still, Girardi thinks Wood is not that far removed from the fireballer who struck 20 batters when he was 20 years old. "He doesn;t quite have the same velocity as when I caught him, he might have lost a few miles per hour,'' Girardi said. "But he'll still get up to 96 and he still has th ebig breaking ball. He's still a power arm.''
Girardi said Wood was available to pitch today if necessary. "He's probably a one-inning guy but I might ask him for four or five outs if we need them.''