Garcia leads Yanks to third straight win

It took three days for the Red Sox to completely erase the good feelings surrounding the Yankees after a West Coast trip in which they won six of nine games.

It took three days for the Yankees to recapture at least some of the positive vibe Boston stopped cold.

Once again, the suddenly hapless Indians were the victim, crushed 9-1, in front of 46,791 yesterday afternoon at the Stadium.

"We didn't play too well against Boston and they played well," said Brett Gardner, who had his fifth multihit day in his last eight games. "But we take a lot of pride as a team of turning the page."

Freddy Garcia certainly did that for the Yankees (35-28), winners of three straight, pitching six shutout innings and allowing one run in 62/3 innings.

Offensively he was backed by 18 hits, including six in a five-run fifth inning that blew the game open. Derek Jeter went 2-for-5 to give him 2,993 career hits. The Yankees have four games left on this homestand before a six-game interleague trip that takes them to Chicago and Cincinnati.

"I hope he gets on a roll and does it here," Jorge Posada said of Jeter reaching 3,000.

Almost everyone, including Posada, was on a roll offensively Sunday, led by Curtis Granderson, who had four hits. Gardner -- two doubles and a triple -- and Alex Rodriguez had three hits, and Robinson Cano, Nick Swisher and Posada each contributed two hits.

Jeter's run-scoring single brought in Gardner, who doubled, to start the scoring in the fifth inning that extended a 1-0 lead to 6-0. A-Rod had an RBI double in the inning, with Cano contributing a run-scoring single and Posada a sacrifice fly.

Posada went 2-for-3 to extend his hitting streak to six games, now 13 for his last 22 to bring his average to .226.

"I'm not doing anything different," Posada said of his approach. "They're just falling."

Said Joe Girardi: "Everywhere we had contributions. Obviously, the big inning where we got the five runs was great. And we just kept putting good at-bat after good at-bat."

Garcia (5-5, 3.60), coming off a 12/3-inning outing against the Red Sox -- the second-shortest start of his career -- allowed one run and seven hits. Garcia was most impressive when the Indians (34-29), losers of nine of their last 10, had runners on, which was every inning. Overall, the Indians left 12 and were 0-for-12 with runners in scoring position, the majority against Garcia.

"It's probably experience," Girardi said of why Garcia has been effective with RISP. "He's able to relax and just make his pitch."

Catcher Russell Martin, back in the lineup after missing four straight games with a sore lower back, said the difference this start for Garcia and last was his splitter.

"His split was awesome today," Martin said.

Garcia left to a standing ovation, and leading 6-1, with two outs in the seventh with one on and two outs, replaced by Boone Logan.

"My fastball, the command, was really good," Garcia said of this start compared with his last one.

Logan, who has been brutal against lefties this year -- they entered 12-for-39 against him -- walked the lefthanded Grady Sizemore to put runners on first and second. After A-Rod's throwing error to second on a fielder's choice loaded the bases, Shin-Soo Choo lined softly to Jeter at short to end the inning.

With their rotation taking a major hit because of the loss of Bartolo Colon to the disabled list, Garcia's outing stood out to his teammates, especially after what the righthader experienced against Boston.

"Last time out was a tough outing for him and he bounced back," Posada said.

The last three days, the same can be said of the Yankees.