Bronx, N.Y., August 31, 2006 — It would be easy to say of the Yankees’ 6-4 win over the Tigers in the Bronx Thursday afternoon that the game wasn’t as close as the final score. But although the visitors were outhit 14 -5, and generously handed the Yanks four free passes as well, they did trot three hitters out in the top of the ninth each representing the tying run. Detroit beat the Yanks in sudden and dramatic fashion Wednesday night on a ninth-inning long ball, and they not only hit a two-run blast in this game’s final frame, they scored all four of their runs on drives over the Yankee Stadium walls.
I think it’s fair to say that at least at some point during the 2006 season, both Randy Johnson and hard-throwing righty Jeremy Bonderman have enjoyed the designation of being their respective teams’ aces. Only one of them pitched that way today. The Yanks bunched two singles and a walk in the bottom of the first, only to waste the chance on two infield pops and a swinging strike out. It was a moment most in the crowd “knew” the Bombers would regret, and that missed opportunity reared its ugly head once Magglio Ordonez responded by putting Detroit up 1-0 leading off the second with a long blast into the visiting bullpen in left.
Bonderman held the lead after pounding two quick strike outs in the second, and retired Derek Jeter on a harmless roller to third to start the third. Bobby Abreu lashed a drive the opposite way to the wall in left for two bases, but after a first-pitch Jorge Posada fly to left, Jeremy faced the struggling and conflicted A-Rod with two outs — the perfect escape scenario for anyone who has been paying attention to Yankee fortunes and failures the last few weeks.
After falling victim to countless strike outs during the just-completed road trip, Rodriguez’s latest bete noir has become the infield popup. He lofted two last night and fell victim yet again during the Yanks’ frustrated first. The Detroit righty missed twice on outside tosses, then came in, and Alex splintered his bat and lofted a soft fly over short. But he got just enough carry as the ball fell beyond Neifi Perez’s running try. Alex had singled, and the Yanks had knotted the score.
It’s a baseball cliche that a struggling, slumping hitter can often turn his game around on if he can just catch a break, sneak a grounder through a hole, reach on a swinging bunt, get a hit in any way at all. Well, who can say what the Yankee third baseman will do going forward, but the conventional wisdom hit the jackpot in this game. The Yanks had taken a 3-1 lead by the time Alex led off the fifth. Falling behind in the count 3-0, Bonderman got a called strike on the outside corner, but Rodriguez drilled his next pitch into the left field corner for a double. Both hits may look like line drives in tomorrow’s line score, as the saying goes, but at least the second one looked that way to the paying customers too. Bernie Williams quickly delivered Alex with a ground single up the middle and the Yanks had a 4-1 lead.
At times Bonderman was dominant, but then he would allow three or four hits, and by the time he was removed with one down in the sixth, the Yanks had accumulated an impressive 11 safeties. Johnson, meanwhile, was not only “throwing” the ball by the Tigers’ batters, he was “pitching” too. He got Detroit players to swing and miss often enough to record eight K’s, but he reined in his pitch count with an assortment of grounders, infield popups, and outfield flies. He retired the Tigers in order in five of his eight innings, and Manager Joe Torre let him go for the complete game simply because he could start the ninth with a still double-digit count.
When Omar Infante led off the sixth by battling through seven pitches and then stroking a home run to left, he reached Randy for just the second Detroit hit; a Brandon Inge second-inning hit-by-pitch was their only other baserunner through seven. Alex Rodriguez restored the three-run Yankee lead by blasting a majestic seventh-inning home run to the box seats in left off reliever Jamier Walker to give the New York third baseman a 3-for-4 day with two runs scored and two rbi’s. Robbie Cano followed with a fly to the line in left that ex-Yank Marcus Thames failed to reach, and Bernie Williams took advantage of the opportunity to single home yet another tally for the Yanks sixth and final score.
Not everything went well for the hometown team. Aaron Guiel, filling in for the sore-wristed Jason Giambi at first, struck out his first two times up, and then bounced into back-to-back double plays. And Johnson, stoically surviving two long balls his teammates had more than overcome, may have tweaked something on the softest of hits in the eighth. Infante topped a ball 25 feet down the third base line, and Randy charged it and then pulled up. He may have realized he couldn’t get him; he may have thought Posada had the better shot. But he took a moment to recover on the mound after the Tiger second baseman reached, and seemed to grab his knee. But he retired Ivan Rodriguez on a bouncer to Cano on the very next pitch, and strode off the mound having allowed three hits through eight. Randy answered the call in the ninth, but he seemed tight and couldn’t find the zone. A four-pitch walk followed by a 3-0 count got him in trouble; Thames made him pay with a homer inside the right field foul pole and Johnson’s day was over.
Whether or not it was good that Mariano Rivera would save this one is a matter of interpretation. On the one hand, news that he’ll be getting an mri on his elbow called for the utmost in caution, but it was great to see him on the Stadium mound again, and he was effective in coaxing three weak grounders after an Ordonez double off the wall. It was interesting that switch hitter Carlos Guillen chose to bat against Mo from the right side, a preference Bengals skipper Jim Leyland apparently finds fault with. He followed by pinch hitting lefty Sean Casey for Perez, but Mariano overpowered both batters anyway.
Johnny Damon matched A-Rod in the hit parade with three singles, Jeter singled and walked three times, and Abreu, Cabrera, and Williams had two of the 14 hits apiece. Abreu’s two-run single in the third gave the Yanks the lead for good. The game shared the simple logic of the first two in the series: The team with more hits won.
The Tigers came to town four games up on the Yanks for best AL record; they leave with a lead of three, just two on the loss side. They stole one win in this series, just as they had in the four-gamer in Detroit in May. Although that must give the Motor City bunch a bump, I think the Yanks are comfortable having dominated both series. And they got great starting pitching in all three of these games.
And they just may have gotten their 2005 MVP back too.
BTW,TYW
YANKEE BASEBALL!!!