It was fitting that Thursday’s Yankees/Phillies contest in Clearwater saw the teams come up with just five hits and no runs between them through six innings, as the nine hurlers who carried the action to that point were led by Philly’s Roy “Doc” Hallday and CC Sabathia from the the Yankees, two of the very best pitchers in major league baseball. Home-standing Halladay, in particular, was midseason nasty, retiring six of seven batters around a Placido Polanco error on 22 pitches, with three strike outs and no walks, while throwing first-pitch strikes to every guy.

Sabathia was good as well, but with less command of the zone. He surrendered the first two walks of the Yankee spring season, the first one to Jayson Werth after going up quickly 0-2. He allowed singles by Polanco and DH Brian Bocock, but subdued the Phils through two on 36 tosses. He was followed by a double-Zac attack, as the Yanks may have set a record by using two pitchers named Zach back to back, Segovia then McAllister, though the former actually ends his first name with a “k.” Ivan Nova followed with a one-two-three fifth and bullpen hope of the future Mark Melancon (a good thought) looked sharp striking out two in the sixth, even if he did allow a John Mayberry, Jr. single.

The Yankee offense was shooting blanks as well, garnering nothing but a Robbie Cano single through five. It was frustrating, as the announced DH Nick Johnson, after pelting the right field wall and the berm beyond it through batting practice, was scratched with a sore back. And the frustration grew when the visitors botched threats in both the sixth and seventh innings.

Starting third baseman Brandon Laird singled to right off Andrew Carpenter leading off the sixth, but center fielder Brett Gardner bunted the next pitch badly. Philly catcher Carlos Ruiz scooped the ball up just inches in front of the plate and forced Laird at second so handily that the Phils actually tried to double up the speedy Gardner at first. Jamie Hoffman, DH’ing for Johnson, promptly singled Gardner to third, and the Yanks were set up nonetheless. The Bombers gambled and tried to hit and run on a 3-1 pitch to Jorge Posada, but the veteran catcher waved at the ball weakly, Gardner held at third and Hoffman was pegged out at second. Jorge ended the frame by swinging at and missing the next pitch.

Speedburner Eduardo Nunez, subbing for Cano at second, created the seventh-inning threat all by himself. He grounded a leadoff single up the middle, then scrambled back to the bag when Philly third sacker Wilson Valdez speared a hot David Winfree liner and fired to first. Nunez then stole second and third two pitches apart, but Wednesday hero Colin Curtis, replacing Randy Winn in left, struck out swinging and when Jose Gil did the same, the Yanks’ second chance had disappeared.

This became even more glaring and disturbing when Philly broke through for a 1-0 lead when shortstop Ozzie Chavez doubled in Freddy Gavis off Yankee righty Romulo Sanchez in that frame’s bottom half. Southpaw Boone Logan relieved and made his first Yankee appearance an effective one, retiring four straight, but the damage was done. And even worse, shadows from the park’s facade were getting longer, and right after the Phillies scored we behind third base lost the heat-giving sun’s rays that had warmed us all day.

I guess in a certain sense these trips to Spring Training in Florida, aside from fulfilling a much-delayed need to see some baseball, are an attempt to cheat nature, to squeeze a little Spring out of late Winter in New York. Well, as a three-decade-old TV commercial once warned, cheating Mother Nature is a tricky prospect. Virtuoso violinist Antonio Vivaldi, who composed a famous piece called Four Seasons, would have celebrated his 332nd birthday this day. Thursday was undeniably a prettier day than Wednesday, a cloudless, blue-skied beauty, but we drove through winds and temps in the forties to the park, and if the hits and runs totals on the scoreboard were largely static all day, they had competition from the temperature, which hovered at 49 degrees most of the afternoon. (It dipped to 48 a few times, and climbed as high as 51 on one or two occasions.) There is warmth in our future though, I’m told. I suppose it will feel just as good to Nick Johnson’s back as it will to me.

The game moved to the ninth with the Phils up 1-0, but this one was far from over. Hotshot prospect Juan Miranda singled leading off the top half, and pinch runner Greg Golson stole second as Phillies southpaw Sergio Escalona recorded two outs. David Winfree, however, singled Golson in to tie the game, and Curtis singled Winfree to second. Then it got weird. Jose Gil bounded a high hopper off the plate, then eluded a spinning Escalona down the line to beat his throw to first. And by the time the staggering Philly lefty righted himself, Winfree and Curtis took an extra base, with the former scoring the go ahead run, 2-1 Yanks.

On March 4, 2010, former Metallica bassist Jason Newsted’s 47th birthday, there was no “Enter Sandman” playing, and no pitcher with the number 42 warming in the Yankee pen. Instead a lefty named Wilkin Arias took the mound. Check the extended roster on the Yankee site for Arias and you’re told, “There are no statistical data available for this Player.” After getting a foul popup he gave up the lead on a Bocock single and backup catcher Paul Hoover’s double into the left field corner. Actually, Curtis, shortstop Reggie Corona and backstop Austin Romine almost pulled off the 7-6-2 relay, but the ball rolled away from Romine and Hoover scooted to third. Arias got a key strike out but Valdez’s comebacker bounded off his body, and pinch runner Duwayne Wise scored the game winner as Valdez raced to first.

It’s something we Yankee fans have been contemplating in darker moments for some time. What do we do when there is no Mo? Thursday illustrated that the usual posture is not an unreasoned one. We are all:

Dreading the Day