Jorge plays 2nd, nearly gets Swisher hurt

As the Yankees were expanding their lead to double digits, Jorge Posada was searching for a fielder's glove and chirping away at Joe Girardi, determined to get in the wild game.

"He said, 'If we get two more runs, I'm going out there,' " Girardi said. "There was no one happier when Curtis [Granderson] hit that grand slam."

Posada played second base in the ninth inning of the 22-9 win, his first appearance at the position in the majors. He played second for Class A Oneonta in 1991 before becoming a catcher.

Of course, the final grounder of the game went right to him. He fielded it cleanly, crow-hopped and threw a one-hop laser to Nick Swisher, who stretched toward the outfield, snared the ball, sprawled in the dirt and managed to avoid being killed on the play, no easy feat. "I threw it too hard. I just got super-excited," Posada said. "That tells you right there why they moved me behind the plate."

For all the negatives of Posada's season, he seemed genuinely pleased to be able to trot out to second in a blowout win and get a rousing ovation from the Yankee Stadium crowd. "With everything Jorge has done for this organization and what he's been through this year," Girardi said, "it was hard to say no."

Jeter touches .300Derek Jeter tripled to lead off the first and had three hits, the last of which got his batting average to .300. But he struck out in the eighth and sits at .299. He is hitting .358 in his last 43 games.

Jeter, who went 3-for-6 with a walk, broke a tie with Rickey Henderson and, with 3,058 hits, moved within two of Craig Biggio. He finished the season series 18-for-36 against the A's. "Season's not over," he said when asked if he noticed. "I'm just trying to have good at-bats."

Burnett goes tonight

A.J. Burnett makes his first start Friday night since his mini-meltdown Saturday. "We need him to pitch well, no doubt," Girardi said. "It's a big start. We're trying to determine how to get down, if we're going to get down to a five-man rotation -- God knows if we're going to be able to do it with all these doubleheaders we have -- but it's a big start for him.''

Extra bases

Granderson, who drove in five runs and scored four, leads the majors in runs (119) and RBIs (103). Mark Teixeira has 98 RBIs and Robinson Cano 93 . . . The Yankees scored 20 runs in their final four innings, batting around each time and sending 40 batters to the plate. They had 15 hits, 13 walks and a hit batsman in that span.