CLEVELAND - Before Alex Rodriguez stole the headlines with his pursuit of his 600th home run, A.J. Burnett had drawn attention for all the wrong reasons.  Burnett put himself back in the middle of things Wednesday night, but this time it was with a dominant performance on the field. The righthander stifled the Indians in an 8-0 win, getting plenty of help from a previously frustrated lineup that took out its anger early and often against Cleveland's Fausto Carmona.  "That's the most I've felt like A.J. in a long, long time," Burnett said. "That's probably because I was able to throw a curveball for a strike."  That hook helped Burnett through 6-1/3 shutout innings, lifting his record to 9-8 while dropping his ERA to 4.52. Burnett allowed seven hits and three walks, striking out seven.  Even with the two-inning, four-run outing that led to him cutting his hands in a run-in with a clubhouse door on July 17, Burnett is 3-1 with a 2.00 ERA in five starts this month.

"We're really happy with what he's done," Joe Girardi said. "He's throwing the ball well. It was an unfortunate situation that happened, but it happens. You move on. He's done a good job of putting it behind him."  A-Rod remained stuck at 599 home runs, although he had a productive night at the plate even as his homerless drought reached 26 at-bats. Rodriguez went 2-for-5 with an RBI, contributing to the Yankees' 13-hit attack.  The bottom three hitters in the Yankees' lineup - Curtis Granderson, Francisco Cervelli and Brett Gardner - combined to score five runs and drive in three, and started a three-run rally in the second inning that gave Burnett a cushion to work with.  "We did a good job," Girardi said of his hitters. "I thought we did a nice job keeping the pressure on (Carmona)."  Burnett, whose last start was cut short Friday night after five innings thanks to rain, had to wait out a 45-minute rain delay before Wednesday night's game began. Once it did, he gave Girardi and the Yankees exactly what they were looking for.

As uneven as Burnett's season has been, Wednesday night's outing marked the seventh time in 21 starts that he has held the opposition scoreless. On the flip side, he's also given up six runs or more six times, leaving him cautiously optimistic about his past two starts.  "That's the best I've felt in a long time as far as me staying within myself and with my delivery," Burnett said. "But two, three or four (outings) aren't going to cut it. We need to keep a good run going and take it into my next start."  Having been limited to four runs on nine hits over the first two games of the series, the Yankees took a quick lead in the first on A-Rod's RBI single. Mark Teixeira's two-run single capped a three-run second, then the Yankees chased Carmona in the third with three more runs, taking a 7-0 lead.  Robinson Cano tacked on a solo homer in the fourth against Hector Ambriz, pushing the lead to eight. Burnett didn't need nearly that many runs as he moved through Cleveland's lineup with relative ease.  Burnett put a man on base in each inning, including the leadoff hitter in each of the first five frames, but he never let the Tribe get the hit it needed to start a big rally. Double plays in the third and sixth helped his cause, as he worked into the seventh for the first time since the All-Star break.  "It feels good," Burnett said. "We need to keep it going for a couple months and into the playoffs. Then I'll feel good about where I am."