A "huge win" and a black eye for Burnett -- a real one

That was the phrase making its way around the Yankees' clubhouse -- as well as "black eye" but that's another matter -- after tonight's 4-3 victory.

Alex Rodriguez delivered the huge hit that's been missing much of this trip, a hit that the Yankees, who nearly lost for the ninth time in their last 11 games, hope jumpstart them for the stretch run.

“We’ve run into a wall here,” Rodriguez said. “We’ve played a lot of one-run games and been on the wrong side of things. For us, today was a big game.”

Jorge Posada started the inning by getting a single off Koji Uehara, winning the 11-pitch battle.

“When you’re down and you win like that, coming from behind, they’re all pretty big,” Jorge Posada said. “Especially the way we’ve been playing. We’ve been playing with not a whole lot of luck.”

Said Joe Girardi: "We needed it. This has been a frustrating road trip for us. As I said before, we were 1-5 and we probably could have won four or five of the games and we had only won one. So I think this was a big win for us.”

*** As for Burnett's black eye (his right one), neither he nor Girardi had much to say about it.  

"I understand you guys have to ask," Burnett said. "But I'm not going to comment on it. I think there's more important things going on right now with this team than my eye." 

"I knew that question was going to be asked," Girardi said. "I'm not going to comment on it. The story is he pitched well tonight and that's all we're concerned about." 

That, of course, raises more questions that it answers, but on this night Alex Rodriguez was able to overshadow everything else.