NEW YORK -- After splitting a day-night doubleheader Saturday, the New York Yankees and the Boston Red Sox were exhausted.
And on Sunday, they get to do it again.
Jason Giambi's go-ahead double in the seventh inning lifted the Yankees to a 7-5 win Saturday night that lowered to four the magic number for New York's ninth straight AL East title. The Yankees (90-57) and Boston will play another split doubleheader Sunday -- making it four games in a span of about 36 hours.
"I'm just beat up, tired right now," Giambi said.
New York maintained a season-high 11½-game lead over the second-place Red Sox, who dropped eight games back of Minnesota in the wild-card race. With a sweep Sunday and a loss by third-place Blue Jays, the Yankees would clinch the division before they head to Toronto early Monday for the start of a road trip.
"I think I'm going to focus right now on getting a few hours of sleep before I get here tomorrow," said Bernie Williams, who had a two-run double. "It's going to be a long day."
Jeter had hits in both games to extend his hitting streak to 25 games, the longest for the Yankees since Joe Gordon's 29-game string in 1942. Jeter went 2-for-10 and his average dropped to .343, one point below AL leader Joe Mauer of Minnesota.
"We've got two weeks left. I'm not even thinking about that," Jeter said.
Giambi put the Yankees ahead 6-5 in the seventh with an opposite-field double to left off Craig Breslow (0-2), a drive just over the outstretched glove of Wily Mo Pena, who strained his right quadriceps on the play.
Jorge Posada followed with a run-scoring single against Manny Delcarmen.
Randy Johnson allowed five runs, eight hits and three walks in 5 2/3 innings, striking out six, and Scott Proctor (6-4) got out of a first-and-third, one-out jam in the seventh by striking out Jason Varitek and pinch-hitter Trot Nixon. Kyle Farnsworth pitched the ninth for his fifth save.
Alex Gonzalez and Kevin Youkilis hit RBI doubles in the third, and Gonzalez made it 3-1 with a run-scoring single in the fourth, but Williams' two-run double off starter Julian Tavarez tied it in the bottom half.
Coco Crisp struck out in his first three at-bats against Johnson, hacking at sliders, before doubling off the left-field foul line on a 3-2 pitch with the bases loaded in the fifth. The Yankees came right back in the bottom half on pinch-hitter Hideki Matsui's sacrifice fly off Craig Hansen and Melky Cabrera's run-scoring single.
Torre didn't want to think about clinching Sunday.
"That's too far in advance for me," he said.
Notes
- The Red Sox were 3-for-17 with runners in scoring position in the opener, and the Yankees 0-for-7.
