Bronx, N.Y., May 16, 2006 — Sue and I held the same debate we often do when Bubba Crosby came in as a defensive replacement in the seventh inning of the Yankees/Rangers game in the Stadium Tuesday night. As one who eagerly and loudly lends his voice to supporting the team when they’re home, I consider “Bubba” one of the best names to yell, and I said so. She likes him too, but claims his name is “all about football.” All I can reply after the scintillating, comeback, 14-13 Yankee win is, “Point taken.”
After jumping on Shawn Chacon for three straight two-out, first-inning singles and a 2-0 lead, the Rangers poured it on once the Yankee righty got timid with his location in the second. With the bases loaded on two walks around a hit by pitch, Texas ended Shawn’s night with three more safeties for four scores. When Chacon threw ball one to third baseman Hank Blalock already down 6-0, Joe Torre had seen enough and replaced him with 2005 hero Aaron Small. Aaron brought cheers when he poured in a fastball for strike one, but not when Blalock lifted the next offering into the seats in right. The Rangers were up 9-0.
Once right fielder Kevin Mench followed with a single, it seemed Small’s disapppointing 2006 season would continue, as would the recent troubles in Yankee land. But when all was said and done, on a night when a formerly moribund Yankee offense got off the mat and battled their way back in on the strength of some standout performances, Aaron Small was the unsung hero of this big win. He escaped the second no further scathed, surrendered run no. 10 the next inning on two doubles, but stopped the Texas juggernaut for the next 3.7 during which his teammates made it a game.
It started small when an Andy Phillips double (the first of two for this too long invisible bench guy, until now) and a Miguel Cairo single plated one in the second. In the third the game tone was set when Derek Jeter drove in run number two with a double, and Jorge Posada delivered Jeets with a 3-2 single to center. Jorge and Derek have been wowing us in the Bronx for a decade, and each had four productive at bats for a combined nine rbi’s, five runs scored, and two home runs this night.
Jeter started the rally that drove rookie John Koronka from the mound before the required five innings in a game the lefty had led 9-0 when he walked leading off the fifth. Alex Rodriguez, who twice smoked liners that found outfield gloves, doubled to right, and two runs would cross on a Posada sac fly and a Robinson Cano fielder’s choice: 10-5 Rangers.
The Rangers were stymied in an attempt to plate an 11th run in the sixth when Jeter relayed a two-hop strike to Posada as Mark Teixeira tried to score from first on a Blalock double to left. Out by 10 feet, Teixeira bowled Jorge over, but the game catcher held the ball for the out. Teixeira gave Jorge no quarter with the jarring collision. Good hard-nosed baseball many will claim, and I’ll go along. But should either of the next two games not be close, I hope Mark will feel the same way about the fastball behind his right ear that often accompanies playing that “hard”-nosed.
Young Melky Cabrera started the six-run sixth with his second single. A work in progress, Cabrera sometimes appears overmatched at the plate until he strokes a hit. He’s a mixed bag in left field too. Tracking balls can be adventurous, but his arm is for real, as Teixeira and another Rangers baserunner would discover.
Once a Johnny Damon walk pushed Melky to second, Captain Jeter homered to right for three runs. But it wasn’t over. Yankee Stadium has been hosting a Bernie Williams love fest in 2006, and Tuesday was no exception. After a couple of walks his double to right scored one run and set up two more, and when Cairo delivered a two-out, 3-2, two-run single to center, the Yanks had not only erased the huge deficit, they had forged an 11-10 lead. The double and rbi for Williams were historic, by the way. His 424th two-bagger tied Babe Ruth for fourth on the Yankee all-time list, while he passed Bill Dickey and moved into fifth place all-time among the Pinstripers with his 1,210th rbi.
In a game where the hometown team had to recover from a quick three-field-goal (oops, make that nine-run) deficit, it goes without saying that nothing comes easy. Scott Proctor started the seventh by issuing a four-pitch walk to Mench and then falling victim to left fielder Brad Wilkerson’s first-pitch homer. 12-11 Rangers, just like that. Jeter bunted for a hit when trying to sacrifice in the bottom half, and Mr. Posada tied the score with his second sac fly.
The Yanks and their fans would be tested once more. Both teams went down quietly in the eighth, with Kyle Farnsworth unhittable with two strikes outs. But Mench blooped a lead-off ninth-inning single off Mariano Rivera. The gutsy Texas (and ex-Yankee) Manager Buck Showalter shocked us all when Wilkerson bunted pinch runner Adrian Brown to second with two strikes. Mo dug the hole a bit deeper with a walk, and catcher Rod Barajas broke the tie with a line double down left. With the infield in, Cano made a dandy stop and hold on a Gary Matthews, Jr. bid for a hit to right, and Rivera closed the inning when he took Cano’s toss at first to retire shortstop Young.
The Yanks got a decent start to the bottom half of the ninth when Damon’s bouncer down first off Texas closer Akinori Otsuka took a bad bounce off Teixeira’s face for a single. Jeter moved Johnny to second on a high hopper to the mound, and A-Rod’s first-pitch liner to center was almost right at Matthews. Otsuka fell behind Posada 3-0, and fans looked to the ondeck circle where Robby Cano prepared for his chance. Otsuka got a called strike, but Jorge drilled the next fastball over the wall in right and the Bronx broke into bedlam on the walk-off jolt.
The Scoreboard shared that this was the fourth time in Yankee history that the team had managed to win after having been as much as nine runs down. I know that mid-May has always had some Bomber comeback magic. In the ’96 “return to glory” season, the Yanks rallied to beat Chicago 9-8 after trailing 0-8 on May 12. And on May 13, 1985, an identical shortfall to Minnesota was overcome when current hitting coach Don Mattingly laced a three-run walk-off. The Montreal Expos/San Fran Giants tilt on this day in 1997 bears looking at, too. Not only did the Expos rally to win by an identical 14-13 score, they did so after having fallen behind by nine runs!
The late Billy Martin, fiery Yankee second baseman for one tour in the Bronx and Manager for five, would have been 78 today. Exactly 50 years ago, Martin was benched for the first time in favor of Bobby Richardson by Manager Casey Stengel on the 28th anniversary of his birth. One year later, Martin and some very famous teammates toasted his big day over drinks at New York’s famed Copacabana night club. One fight, several summonses, and fines all around later, the Pinstripers would make headlines on the front page every bit as big as those they routinely make on the back.
With tonight’s huge comeback win, it’s great to see that very little has changed in five decades. With apologies to Barry Manilow, this club, when playing in the Big Ballpark in the South Bronx on May 16 and all through the season, shows that,
- Music and Passion
Are Always the Fashion
BTW,TYW
YANKEE BASEBALL!!!