"Nick Swisher mentioned a newspaper headline. It was over a story about how the Yankees had recently been shut out. It read "Power outage." He paused for effect.

"I thought that was kind of funny," Swisher said tonight, after hitting the two-run homer that lifted the Yankees past the Baltimore Orioles, 3-2.

The humor stems from the fact that Swisher is on a binge. The homer was his sixth in his last seven games, and his third in a four-game set against the Orioles. His outburst comes at a perfect time now that the Yankees are looking for heroes.

Derek Jeter could be on the shelf for Tuesday's series opener against the rival Boston Red Sox with a bruised knee, even though he has a better chance of playing than Alex Rodriguez. The slugger might be out of the series entirely because of lingering pain in his left thumb. Though an MRI today revealed no major damage, the injury was severe enough for manager Joe Girardi to label Rodriguez's status for the Sox series as "really questionable.""