Bronx, N.Y., May 9, 2007 — The most faithful of Yankee fans could be forgiven if they were getting a little nervous during the visiting third inning Wednesday night. The Yanks battered Seattle’s Cha Seung Baek for 41 pitches and a quick 5-0 lead in the first inning of Friday night’s game, only to fall when Kei Igawa failed to take advantage of the big score. A quick rally this night was giving the crowd an unpleasant whiff of deja vu.
The Yanks pounded Robinson Tejada for four tallies Wednesday before an out was recorded. But the Rangers were in counterattack mode when Brad Wilkerson homered off Mike Mussina leading off the third. A hard double and walk followed, and veteran center fielder Kenny Lofton moved the runners to second and third on a sac bunt. Moose had retired six straight with two strike outs to start the game, but Mike Young’s fielder’s choice grounder sliced the lead to 4-2.
Although Tejada’s pitch count zoomed past 60 in the inning’s bottom half, he escaped a two-on, no-outs jam by pounding Yankee bats for three popups in the next four tosses. Featuring a hard fastball that routinely registered in the mid-nineties, he appeared to be settling in as the veteran Mussina started to struggle to find an out pitch.
But fans needn’t have worried, because as quickly as Mike weakened, he turned a corner in the fourth. Relying on his 84-mph cutter, the Yankee righty retired the next eight Rangers batters on just 26 pitches. Six of nine Texas hitters in the next three frames fell to weak grounders and infield popups. Young second baseman Ian Kinsler stroked a sinking liner to center with two down in the fourth, but Melky Cabrera, in at center as Johnny Damon DH’d, made a nice running grab. In fact, by the time All Star first baseman Mark Teixeira came to bat with two down in the sixth, the only two hits Mussina had allowed the whole night were the back-to-back extra base shots in the two-run third.
Teixeira must be ready to explode, by the way, and let’s hope he leaves town after Thursday afternoon’s tilt before he does. After a first-inning bloop double in Tuesday’s game, he took the golden Sombrero by whiffing four straight times. He was retired Wednesday in the first and eighth innings on nice plays by Doug Mientkiewicz at first, and lined to left to close the Texas two-run, third-inning rally. So it was understandable that he felt he had something on the line when he lined hard into the right-field corner with two outs in the sixth. Not to be denied, he busted it out of the box, turned the base at first and headed for second. But Bobby Abreu takes a lot of pride in his arm, and he was on the carom like a cat; his strong throw nailed Mark at second for the third out with his club down by four.
Joe Torre took Moose out after 84 pitches and six innings, so the outing represented one additional inning and 20 pitches more than first time out coming of the DL last week. Mike was textbook, with a 58/26 strikes balls count and 14 of 21 first pitch strikes. The two hits and walk in the third were the only blemish until Teixeira was nailed trying to stretch his single.
The early Yankee offense came from yet another Torre lineup wrinkle, as he inserted Abreu behind Damon with Jeter hitting third. It worked like a charm, as they pounced on Tejada for single, double, single, and two quick scores. Alex Rodriguez walked, Matsui singled home a third run, and Robby Cano delivered a fourth tally on a bouncer to second. They failed to score in the third after a walk and hit by pitch and almost again in the fourth when Abreu flied to short right with one down and Mientkiewicz on third. Doug had continued his hot hitting by stroking a double the other way to get it started, and backup catcher Wil Nieves moved him to third on a perfect sac bunt. But once Abreu failed, Captain Derek Jeter singled to left to restore the original four-run bulge. Jeter went two-for-three with three rbi’s and Damon singled twice, walked, and scored twice.
Brian Bruney relieved Moose but got into some trouble, but Mike Myers and Scott Proctor bailed him out. Kyle Farnsworth and Mariano Rivera allowed a single each pitching the eighth and ninth, and the Yanks went to a 5-0 season record vs. Texas with the 6-2 win. It was great to see a bullpen work where one never got the impression that any of the members were overextended coming off their work in the days before. Other notable events: Jeter’s run in the first was the 1,300th he has scored in his Yankee career. And Nieves finally got his first hit following the sac bunt, a sixth-inning single into the left field corner, though he was thrown out trying to stretch it. Although it led to no more scores and was ruled a “no play,” Texas catcher Stewart lost a Damon foul pop in the second, and it fell harmlessly on the corner of the big white “NY” on the grass behind the plate.
The night was even more pleasant than the last two, the 47,000-plus fans never broke into the Wave, and one man in the right field bleachers impressed when he threw back Wilkerson’s third-inning home run. The strong-armed fan reached second base on the fly. Two clueless crowd members tested stadium security in the ninth by running on the field. The first showed some open-field speed at least and ran long enough to touch second, though he was tackled hard on the infield grass as he turned for home. The copycat’s followup was pitifully inept. He emerged from behind the plate and was nabbed almost immediately.
Bobby Abreu made another nice play in the eighth, as he got a great jump on a short Matt Kata fly to right after a Kenny Lofton single, scooping the ball before it hit grass. A similar play in the ninth stopped a few hearts briefly on this night that falls just two days short of the May 11, 2006 anniversary of the night Hideki Matsui broke his wrist trying to catch Mark Loretta’s ball in left field. With two down in the ninth and Sosa on first, Wilkerson lofted a Mariano pitch for a soft fly to short left. Doubting Matsui would make the play, Jeter ran hard to try the over the shoulder catch, and he and Matsui almost collided before Hideki snatched the ball and pulled his wrist from harm’s way at the last minute.
If you believe the crowd was nervous during the Rangers two-run rally in the third, imagine the moment the crowd — and the Yankee team — had then.
BTW,TYW
YANKEE BASEBALL!!!