By Tim Britton / MLB.com NEW YORK -- Jorge Posada's second grand slam in as many days propelled the Yankees to a 9-5 win and a three-game sweep of the Astros on Sunday at Yankee Stadium. Posada, whose third-inning grand slam broke a 2-2 tie on Saturday, came up again with the bases loaded in a 3-1 game in the fifth on Sunday. Batting left-handed this time against Casey Daigle, Posada clubbed a 2-0 fastball into the seats in right field for his ninth career grand slam. He became the first player since Carlos Beltran in 2006 to hit grand slams in back-to-back games. Posada's home run capitalized on the generosity of the Astros' pitching staff, which issued a season-high 10 walks on the afternoon. A whopping seven of them came in the fourth and fifth innings alone, in which the Yankees scored seven of their runs. Houston pitchers walked the bases loaded in each of those frames, and five of the seven Bombers who walked in those two innings eventually came around to score. Robinson Cano started the fourth with a one-out solo homer to right off Astros starter Brian Moehler. Moehler then issued three consecutive two-out walks to Posada, Brett Gardner and Chad Huffman before Ramiro Pena blooped a two-run single to right to break a 1-1 tie. An inning later, Moehler and reliever Gustavo Chacin loaded the bases again with free passes. Houston manager Brad Mills opted to bring in Daigle to turn Posada around. It didn't work. Posada's grand slam gave the Yankees and Phil Hughes a 7-1 lead. Hughes, however, couldn't survive the next half-inning, giving up a two-run single to Tommy Manzella and two-run homer to Kevin Cash with two outs. Those were the last two batters Hughes faced, as he finished having yielded five runs on seven hits in 5 2/3 innings. It was the first time in his last four starts that Hughes didn't complete six innings, but he still notched his ninth win. With the lead cut to 7-5, the Yankees responded quickly with two more in the sixth on RBI singles by Nick Swisher and Gardner to push the margin back out to four.
