With the Yankees’ 4–2 win over Tampa Bay Wednesday afternoon the Bombers’ clinch their third straight postseason berth and 16th time in 17 seasons dating back to the strike-shortened season of 1995.

Reliever Hector Noesi made his first start of the season and made it to the third inning before being replaced by a string of seven relievers—culminating in Rivera’s 603rd career save—none of whom gave up a run.

The 24-year-old Noesi gave up two runs on four hits, including a home run to fellow rookie Desmond Jennings that put the Rays up 2–1—a lead that stood until New York’s three-run eighth inning rally put them ahead for good.

Eduardo Nunez, playing second base and hitting eighth, led off the frame with home run—his fifth of the season—off Ray’s starter James Shields.

After leadoff hitter Brett Gardner’s one-out single and subsequent steal of second—his 46th swipe of the season—Derek Jeter induced a walk, prompting Tampa Bay manager Joe Maddon to pull his starter in favor of lefty reliever J.P. Howell to match up with the lefty Cano who was pulling DH duties.

After getting ahead in the count Cano promptly drilled Howell’s 3–1 offering over the head of center fielder B.J. Upton scoring Gardner and Jeter leaving the rest up to Rivera.

SEATTLE — Unheralded Luis Rodriguez put Mariano Rivera’s pursuit of the major league saves record on hold.

And he kept the New York Yankees from expanding their lead on Boston in the AL East.

Rodriguez led off the bottom of the 12th inning with a solo homer off New York reliever Cory Wade, and the Mariners delayed Rivera’s chase for the saves record with a 2-1 win over the Yankees on Wednesday night.

Rodriguez, who doubled in his previous two at-bats, golfed a 2-1 pitch from Wade (5-1) into the right field seats and sent the Yankees off to Toronto looking to get Rivera career save No. 601 on Friday night against the Blue Jays.

New York also missed on a chance to gain another game on the slumping Red Sox after Boston lost at home to Toronto 5-4. The Yankees lead in the AL East remained at four games.

“We lost a lot of one-run games on this trip and that’s the hard part,” Yankees manager Joe Girardi said. “We lot three games by one run each. But our club has been pretty good to win two out of three. You’ve got to keep doing that.”

Much of the night was spent waiting to see if Rivera would get his shot at tying Trevor Hoffman’s major league record, a night after becoming just the second pitcher in baseball history to reach 600 saves. And the Yankees bullpen did their part, going 3 1-3 scoreless inning and avoiding trouble on multiple occasions waiting for New York’s offense to score a run and give Rivera the opportunity to pitch for 601.

It never came. Wade left a change up over the plate and Rodriguez made him pay.

“It’s rough. Everybody has gone out and contributed and did what they needed to do and it came down to me and I made a mistake and it got hit out of the ball park,” Wade said. “He did just what he’s supposed to do with that pitch.”

The Yankees only offense came from Nick Swisher’s 23rd homer in the top of the seventh inning that ended a strong start from Seattle’s Jason Vargas.

The Yankees had other moments taken away by the Mariners defense. Ichiro Suzuki robbed Curtis Granderson of extra bases with a leaping catch on the warning track in the top of the ninth. Michael Saunders robbed Mark Teixeira of at least a double and possible a homer with his leaping catch just in front of the wall in deep right-center field to end the 11th.

And rookie Trayvon Robinson made a difficult catch on a tough liner to judge off Brett Gardner’s bat to end the 12th. Robinson’s catch helped make a winner out of Seattle reliever Steve Delabar (1-0), who was a substitute teacher earlier during the baseball season before being signed by the Mariners. It was his first major league victory.

But the biggest defensive play came early when Seattle’s Mike Carp was the beginning of a relay to throw out Andruw Jones at the plate trying to score on Eduardo Nunez’s double in the third inning.

“It looked like (Granderson) had a game-winner and it looked like (Teixeira) had one,” Girardi said. “It just wasn’t meant to be.”

While the Yankees missed out on the sweep, they did get an impressive showing from Nova, who was equal to Vargas. Nova threw 7 1-3 innings and gave up just five hits. Seattle’s only run off Nova came in the fourth when Carp scored after Nova saw a 1-2 pitch to Miguel Olivo slip and sailed behind Olivo’s head. Russell Martin did his best, but the pitch glanced off Martin’s glove and bounced far enough away from the plate to let Carp score.

“It was a curve ball that fell out of my hand a little bit,” Nova said. “It’s going to happen sometimes.”

Derek Jeter’s two-out, two-strike single in the sixth inning snapped a streak of 10 straight Yankees set down and extended his hitting streak to 13 games. It also gave him 150 hits for the season, his 16th straight season with at least 150 hits. It’s tied Jeter with Pete Rose for the second longest streak in baseball history with 150 hits. Hank Aaron holds the mark with 17 consecutive seasons of 150 hits.

NOTES: Seattle 1B Justin Smoak left the game in the fourth inning with a mild right groin strain. He was replaced by Kennedy. … The Yankees decided not to have 3B Alex Rodriguez participate in batting practice on Wednesday, but the plan remains to have Rodriguez back in the lineup on Friday night in Toronto, Girardi said. … Seattle SS Brendan Ryan missed Wednesday’s game with a sore upper back that forced him to leave Tuesday’s game early. … … Both New York and Seattle have off days on Thursday. The Yankees open a three-game series in Toronto on Friday, while Seattle hosts Texas. … LHP CC Sabathia will start the series opener in Toronto.

BOSTON (AP) — Josh Beckett found a way to beat the New York Yankees this season, over and over again.

The Red Sox right-hander pitched well enough for Boston to win 9-5 on Wednesday night, improving to 4-0 against the Yankees this season with a 1.85 ERA. Last season, his worst in the majors, he was 1-2 with a 10.04 ERA against his team’s longtime rivals.

“The Yankee-Red Sox thing has been here before I got here for a long time and it’ll be here long after I’m here,” Beckett said. “The big thing is we’re both really good teams and there’s a reason why you’ve got to play those games a little differently.”

Boston is 5-0 in his starts against New York, but he credited his slugging teammates for Wednesday’s win. Jacoby Ellsbury hit a tie-breaking two-run homer in the sixth, making it 7-5. David Ortiz and Jason Varitek also had two-run shots.

“I might get the win next to my name,” said Beckett (12-5). “I’d say I contributed by eating up some innings, but the guys that probably stuck out all year, they stuck out again today.”

He said the difference from last year, when he was 6-6 with a 5.78 ERA, is his ability to execute pitches in key situations.

The Red Sox, who lost the series opener 5-2 on Tuesday night, extended their AL East lead over the Yankees to 1½ games and improved their record to 11-3 this season against them.

“We can’t think about what happened up until this point,” Derek Jeter said. “If we did, we might as well let them have the rest of the games.”

The Yankees had one big inning against Beckett, scoring four runs in the sixth — the same amount they managed in his previous 32 innings against them this season — and went ahead 5-4.

“I wouldn’t say we’ve figured him out,” Jeter said. “We were able to score those five runs. It wasn’t enough.”

In the bottom of the sixth, Phil Hughes (4-5) retired the first batter. Then he went ahead of Josh Reddick 0-2 before walking him, and Reddick scored the tying run on Varitek’s double. After Marco Scutaro flied out, left-hander Boone Logan came in to face lefty Ellsbury. On a 3-and-1 count, Ellsbury hit his 24th homer into the left-field seats above the Green Monster.

“I know (Ellsbury) has been tougher on right-handers,” Boston manager Terry Francona said, “but he’s no day at the beach for left-handers..”

Beckett allowed four earned runs and six hits through seven innings. He struck out eight and walked three.

Daniel Bard and Jonathan Papelbon each pitched a scoreless inning and the Red Sox improved to 62-3 this season when leading after six.

The Yankees had taken a 1-0 lead in the third on Jeter’s RBI single. The Red Sox went ahead 2-1 in the bottom of the inning, scoring on Dustin Pedroia’s groundout with runners at second and third and on Jed Lowrie’s RBI single.

Jeter got his second single in the top of the fifth, moving into 20th place all-time, ahead of Craig Biggio, with 3,061 career hits. He was left stranded.

Boston made it 4-1 in the fifth on Ortiz’s homer deep into the center-field bleachers after Adrian Gonzalez singled. It was Ortiz’s 28th homer of the year and extended his hitting streak to 14 games.

The Yankees regained the lead in the sixth, helped by an error by right fielder Reddick.

Mark Teixeira was hit by a pitch leading off the inning, took second on a wild pitch by Beckett and scored on a double by Robinson Cano. Nick Swisher then walked and Eric Chavez followed with a liner down the right field line. It got by Reddick and Chavez was credited with a double. The error allowed him to take third and Swisher to score. Eduardo Nunez’s sacrifice fly put the Yankees on top 5-4.

Varitek gave the Red Sox a four-run cushion in the eighth with his 10th homer.

But Ellsbury struck the big blow for Boston, against Logan.

“He threw me a couple of pretty good sliders I laid off of,” he said. “He threw me a pretty good pitch away. I was able to put a good swing on it.”

Besides the 24 homers, Ellsbury, in the last year of his contract, has 36 stolen bases, a .313 batting average, 97 runs and 84 RBIs as the leadoff hitter.

“That’s going to be a fun arbitration case, isn’t it?” Beckett said.

Notes: Al Nipper in 1987 was the last Red Sox pitcher to go 4-0 against the Yankees. … New York 3B Alex Rodriguez missed his fourth straight game with a sprained left thumb. … Red Sox 3B Kevin Youkilis, on the DL since Aug. 18 with a low back strain, played his second straight rehab game for Triple-A Pawtucket and can be activated on Friday. … Boston RF J.D. Drew missed the second game of his scheduled two-day rehab assignment at Pawtucket on Wednesday night with a sprained middle finger. He was hurt Tuesday night when he went 3 for 3. Plans for the Red Sox to activate him on Thursday may change. He went on the disabled list on July 26, retroactive to July 20, with a shoulder injury. … Yankees C Russell Martin, with a sore left thumb, missed the game. Manager Joe Girardi said he planned to use him Thursday night in the finale of the three-game series. … Struggling RHP A.J. Burnett (9-11) faces LHP Jon Lester (14-6) on Thursday night.

Former New York Yankees pitcher Hideki Irabu has been found dead of an apparent suicide at a home in a wealthy Los Angeles suburb.

Los Angeles County sheriff’s Sgt. Mike Arriaga says the 42-year-old Irabu was found dead at 4:25 p.m. Pacific time Wednesday at a home in Rancho Palos Verdes.

Arriaga says it was an apparent suicide but other details haven’t been released.

NEW YORK – Joba Chamberlain was placed on the 15-day disabled list Wednesday with a stiff elbow, leaving the New York Yankees short two setup men in the bullpen.

Rafael Soriano also is sidelined, with inflammation in his right elbow, and is not expected back until perhaps the All-Star break. David Robertson is likely to assume the eighth-inning role as Mariano Rivera’s primary setup man, and manager Joe Girardi said he’ll look to mix and match in the seventh.

In other news, first baseman Mark Teixeira was back in the lineup after leaving Tuesday night’s series opener against Boston when he was hit on the right kneecap by a first-inning pitch from Jon Lester.

“It’s a lot better than I thought,” said Teixeira, who treated the bone bruise with plenty of ice. “I didn’t sleep great last night but I woke up this morning and as soon as I started moving around, I didn’t have any problems.”

Girardi said he received a text message about 10 a.m. from Teixeira saying he was healthy enough to play.

“I was really surprised,” the manager said.

Yankees catcher Russell Martin, however, was out because his back locked up the night before.

Francisco Cervelli was slated to catch and bat ninth. Girardi wasn’t sure when Martin will return.

Also, designated hitter Jorge Posada was not with the team because his son was having more surgery on his skull. Jorge Jr. has a condition called craniosynostosis, which causes problems with the growth pattern of the skull, and has had several operations throughout his childhood.

Posada is expected back Thursday. He replaced Teixeira on Tuesday night and showed signs of breaking out of his season-long slump, going 3 for 3 to raise his batting average to .195.

Alex Rodriguez was in the DH slot Wednesday night, with Eduardo Nunez penciled in to play third base. That left the Yankees with two healthy players on the bench: outfielders Andruw Jones and Chris Dickerson.

“We’ve had a number of things that have hit us in a short period of time,” Girardi said.

New York added two fresh arms to the bullpen, claiming right-hander Jeff Marquez off waivers from the Chicago White Sox and recalling righty Amauri Sanit from Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre.

Right-hander Hector Noesi was optioned to Triple-A after throwing six solid innings in relief Tuesday night during a 6-4 loss. Noesi saved the bullpen following Freddy Garcia’s ineffective start, but won himself a ticket to the minors because the long outing made him unavailable to pitch for four days.

“You’ve got to make sure that you’re covered,” Girardi said. “He did everything that we could have asked of him.”

Chamberlain, who has not given up a run in his past eight outings, said he’s been receiving routine treatment on the area where his forearm meets his elbow for about 10 days or two weeks. He said it hasn’t bothered him in games, but his elbow would tighten up after he pitched.

“It’s just one of those things when it was at the point where I was like, you know what, I’ve got to say something,” said Chamberlain, who threw 35 pitches in his most recent outing Sunday. “I didn’t feel it when I pitched. It was when I was done. That’s kind of I guess the thing that kind of raised the red flag for me.”

The right-hander had an MRI exam Wednesday that revealed a strained flexor muscle. He will be shut down for 10 to 14 days before beginning a throwing program and is likely to miss several weeks.

He was placed on the DL retroactive to June 6.

“His stuff had been great,” Girardi said.

The Yankees traded Marquez to Chicago as part of a package for right fielder Nick Swisher in November 2008. He was signed to a major league contract Wednesday and added to the 25-man roster, and his flight was expected to land in New York about 5 p.m.

To make room for Marquez on the 40-man roster, the Yankees transferred reserve infielder Eric Chavez (broken left foot) from the 15-day disabled list to the 60-day DL.

Sanit was with the Yankees from May 12-21, making three relief appearances. He allowed six earned runs and eight hits in 6 1-3 innings.

TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — A.J. Burnett threw three perfect innings in his second spring training start and a New York Yankees split-squad beat the Philadelphia Phillies 7-1 on Monday.

Last year was marked by a lack of control on and off the field for Burnett. The right-hander cut both hands smacking a clubhouse door out of frustration, came to work with a mysterious black eye and went 10-15 with a 5.26 ERA.

Burnett allowed two hits over two scoreless innings last Wednesday against Houston. On Monday, he had one strikeout — Ryan Howard swinging in the second — during a 45-pitch outing that included 30 strikes.

Eduardo Nunez hit a three-run homer and Curtis Granderson also connected against Phillies right-hander Roy Oswalt, who yielded five runs in 2 2-3 innings.