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NEW YORK -- Alex Rodriguezs record-breaking grand slam was a big one for the Yankees, who can only hope it came in time for a last-gasp run at the playoffs. Rodriguez set a major league mark with his 24th career slam, passing Lou Gehrig with a tiebreaking shot in the seventh inning that sent New York to a 5-1 victory over the San Francisco Giants on Friday night. "It means Im getting old," said Rodriguez, 38. "Its hard to think about things like that right now. Were really on a sprint to the end here and every win is huge for us." A-Rods drive helped CC Sabathia (14-13) beat Tim Lincecum in a matchup of former Cy Young Award winners having subpar seasons. More importantly for the Yankees, it carried them to their second win in seven games as they cling to faint playoff hopes. New York, which has eight games remaining, pulled within three of the second AL wild card -- with three other teams in between. The Indians 2-1 rain-shortened win over Houston, moved them a half-game ahead of Texas, which began the day tied with Tampa Bay atop the standings but lost 2-1 to Kansas City. The Rays beat Baltimore in 18 innings to keep the lead. "Its an unbelievable accomplishment and its a big one for us," Yankees manager Joe Girardi said. "I dont know if we can afford to lose any more games." Alfonso Soriano also homered and New York opened its final homestand with a much-needed victory, hours after pitcher Andy Pettitte announced his plans to retire -- again -- following this season. The news about Pettitte hardly came as a surprise, but the 41-year-old lefty put to rest any speculation he might be back next season. Pettitte, who stepped off the mound for a year before returning in 2012, is scheduled to start the series finale Sunday -- the same day the Yankees will honour retiring closer Mariano Rivera in a pregame ceremony. Rookie outfielder Juan Perez, back home in the Bronx, hit an RBI double for the Giants. The defending World Series champions have spent all week in New York -- they took two of three from the Mets at Citi Field, where a large throng of vocal San Francisco fans made them feel right at home. Giants rooters came out in the Bronx, too, easy to spot in their orange or black jerseys. An audible chant of "Lets go Giants!" quickly drew boos from Yankees fans in the crowd of 41,734. "Theres a lot of Giants fans here. I noticed that. They travel well," Rodriguez said. With the score tied at 1, Eduardo Nunez grounded a single through the right side to start the seventh. Lincecum (10-14) hit Brendan Ryan with a pitch and walked Ichiro Suzuki with two outs, loading the bases and ending the right-handers night. Rodriguez, hampered by a sore leg lately, reached out and lofted a 2-1 pitch from George Kontos toward the hitter-friendly dimensions in right field for his 654th career homer and seventh this season. "Just tough to watch and tough to put somebody in that kind of situation," Lincecum said. "Just wasted a lot of pitches that inning, didnt attack the zone as much as the previous six, and I felt like I couldve gotten out of that better than what happened." The hit snapped a 1-for-25 slide for A-Rod, who returned Aug. 5 from hip surgery. It was his 14th slam for the Yankees, moving him ahead of Joe DiMaggio for second place on the franchise list behind Gehrig. "Im a huge fan of Lou Gehrig, everything hes done, going back to his college days in New York," Rodriguez said. "Hes kind of the gold standard for a Yankee. Special moment. Ill think about it someday." Sabathia was pulled after a leadoff single in the eighth and walked off to a warm ovation. David Robertson got Perez to ground into a double play, and Rivera worked a perfect ninth. But it was Rodriguez who delivered the big blow. "Unbelievable -- especially at that moment. He came up big for us again," Sabathia said. "Hopefully we can just keep getting big hits like that and keep winning games." Lincecum, who had won four straight decisions, was looking for his first five-game winning streak since early in the 2010 season. He was charged with four runs and five hits in 6 2-3 innings. He threw 66 of 121 pitches for strikes. "He pitched great," manager Bruce Bochy said. "Its some tough luck there in that last inning." NOTES: Giants CF Angel Pagan was rested in favour of Perez. ... DH Buster Posey singled in the sixth to end a 1-for-23 skid on the road trip. ... Rodriguezs previous slam came in Atlanta on June 12 last year. ... Looking to spark his struggling lineup, Girardi moved a slumping Suzuki into the leadoff spot, partly because he had faced Lincecum several times in the past few years. ... LHP Boone Logan (elbow) was available, Girardi said. ... After the Yankees got in late following Thursday nights loss at Toronto, C Chris Stewart was rested in favour of rookie J.R. Murphy. "Physically, I just think its too hard," Girardi said. Philadelphia Phillies Gear . "Im not doing enough to help them," Durant told The Oklahoman on Monday of his 28-9 team. "Im shooting too much. Im shooting too many threes. Im not helping them out at all. Cheap Phillies Jerseys . - The Green Bay Packers got back to work on Friday without star quarterback Aaron Rodgers. https://www.cheapphilliesjerseys.us/ .That means, of course, that John Wall beat the Spurs for the first time ever — within weeks of his first wins in head-to-head games against nemeses Chris Paul and Derrick Rose. Philadelphia Phillies Store . - After a back-and-forth battle throughout the season, Alex Guenette has earned the 2013 rookie of the year award for the NASCAR Canadian Tire Series presented by Mobil 1 by just one point over Ryley Seibert. Phillies Jerseys 2019 . Both moves were announced Tuesday. The Titans had waived Matthews on Saturday when they promoted wide receiver Michael Preston from the practice squad.(SportsNetwork.com) - The Tampa Bay Lightning will have to wait until after the Olympic break to get star centerman Steven Stamkos back, but the club hopes to avoid a fourth loss in five games when it hosts the Toronto Maple Leafs without him on Thursday night. Stamkoss teammate, Lightning captain Martin St. Louis, was named as his replacement for Sochi earlier on Thursday. You can listen to all of the action live on TSN Radio 1050 at 7:30pm. There was talk earlier this week that Stamkos would return for Saturdays home game against Detroit, the Lightnings final tilt before the NHL goes on hiatus for the Winter Olympics in Sochi, but on Wednesday it was announced that the sniper has not been cleared for game action by Dr. Ira Gutentag. The decision not only postpones Stamkos return to the Lightning, but also will prevent him from representing Team Canada at the Winter Games. The 23-year-old suffered a fractured tibia in a game against Boston on Nov. 11 and has missed the last 39 games while recovering. Stamkos was tied for the NHL lead in goals (14) and points (23) before the setback. "After reviewing the CT scan this afternoon, Dr. Gutentag made it clear to me and to Steven that the tibia is not completely healed and therefore he should not be participating in game action at any time in the near future," said Steve Yzerman, who is the general manager of the Lightning and the executive director of Team Canada. "Although the doctor was very pleased to this point with the healing process, he explained that the callus surrounding the fracture site is not 100 percent consolidated, and Steven will not be cleared to play in a game until that happens. It was a pretty clear cut decision, no gray areas at all." Stamkos will continue to rehabilitate and is expected to be re-evaluated in 2- to-3 weeks. The Lightning will resume play after the Olympic break on Feb. 27 at Nashville. "Today is obviously very disappointing for me," Stamkos said. "I honestly believe that we did everything possible in order to have my injured leg ready in time for the Olympics, but I realize you cant force healing." St. Louis will be participating at his second Olympics and first since the 2006 Turin Games. The 38-year-old winger has 25 goals and 54 points to lead Tampa this seasson.dddddddddddd The Lightning have performed extremely well without Stamkos in the lineup over the last few months and they enter Thursday in second place in the Atlantic Division. However, Tampas 1-3-0 record over a recent four-game road trip has helped the Leafs and Montreal Canadiens move within three points of the Lightning for the divisions second spot. The top-three teams in each division receive automatic bids to the playoffs. The Lightning downed the Canadiens 2-1 in overtime Saturday in Montreal before losing in regulation Tuesday night at Minnesota. Darcy Kuemper stopped 34 Tampa Bay shots in the Wilds close victory in St. Paul. Valtteri Filppula scored in the loss and Ben Bishop made 24 saves for the Lightning. "We worked harder (than the last game) we just didnt work smarter," Tampa Bay head coach Jon Cooper said. "That was a big problem." The Lightning fell to 16-13-2 as the guest after its recent trip, but will play their final two games before the break at Tampa Bay Times Forum, where they are 16-6-3 this season. The Maple Leafs will try to rebound on Thursday after having a three-game winning streak halted with Tuesdays 4-1 loss at Florida. David Clarkson provided the lone goal for Toronto, while Jonathan Bernier allowed three goals on 47 shots in the setback. "The word to describe it is, we didnt have anything going except one person in the lineup is outstanding for our hockey club and that was our goaltender," Maple Leafs coach Randy Carlyle. "We didnt seem to have any jump or passion to play the game, and its kind of mind-boggling right now." After completing its two-game tour of the Sunshine State tonight, the Leafs will complete their pre-Olympic schedule on home ice when they host Vancouver on Saturday. Toronto is 20-10-1 as the home team this season compared to a sub-par 10-12-5 mark as the guest. The Leafs recorded a 3-2 regulation win over the visiting Lightning on Jan. 28, as Bernier stopped 40-of-42 shots and Nazem Kadri provided two goals for Toronto. It was the first of four scheduled meetings between the clubs this season and it was Torontos sixth win in the last eight meetings against the Bolts. The Lightning have won two straight and five of the last seven meetings in Central Florida. ' ' '