"As the seventh inning came to pass, the Yankees' lead was a touchdown on a sweltering July night. The Oakland Athletics were continuing a miserable procession out of their tattered bullpen as the fans began to taper out, assured that victory was in hand.

The Yankees already had scored a knockout with a nine-run third inning, ingited by Nick Swisher's three-run homer and capped by Mark Teixeira's grand slam. Ahead in this seventh inning lay a few more runs used to set the record for the most at the new Yankee Stadium, as Swisher scored Brandon Laird and Curtis Granderson on a line-drive single to left field.

In front of 46,917 fans blanketed by 100-degree heat, the Yankees' bats exploded in a 17-7 victory over the Athletics tonight. Forcing Oakland to use seven pitchers, the offense ignited at a time where, players agreed, it was needed to break them out of a sleepwalking state that began a little more than a week ago.

After a series in Tampa in which the offense was stymied, splitting their second straight series coming out of the All-Star break, 10 Yankees registered hits and five had more than one. Ten different players scored.

"That's exactly what we needed, man," Swisher said. "