Do you love your job?

Oh, joy
Originally uploaded by vegacura.

I'm slightly older than Randy Johnson. I wish I could show this much pleasure at work.

Another great game. The "Summer of Excitement" may very well have begun and the Yanks can begin to crawl back to .500 and perhaps, perhaps, join the penant race.

Johnson admitted he was holding back in the middle innings, pitching warily after the injury scare, but he was back firing by the seventh. Johnson had lost a pitcher's duel with Toronto's Roy Halladay in his last start, on April 29, and he did not want to lose again.

"The last two innings, he really had a lot of determination," Torre said.

Still, Johnson's effort would have earned no decision had the Yankees not scored in the eighth. The rookie Robinson Cano, a left-handed hitter, was scheduled to lead off against a left-hander, Matt Thornton. Torre inserted Rey Sanchez, a veteran right-handed hitter he had used in just one of the previous 12 games.

Seattle Manager Mike Hargrove countered with the former Yankee Jeff Nelson, and Torre was comfortable with the matchup.

"It was a matter of having the kid up there against a left-hander, or having Rey up there against a right-hander," Torre said. "You just go with experience there."

Sanchez singled, and Derek Jeter sacrificed him to second base with a bunt. Womack followed with a bouncer up the middle that scored Sanchez with the go-ahead run, and Mariano Rivera finished with a 1-2-3 save, his fourth.

14-19. A long way to go, but maybe the pitching staff that Joe Torre thought would be the best he's managed is beginning to get going.