Bronx, N.Y., April 27, 2006 — It wasn’t just the home team’s victory that made Thursday night baseball in the Bronx so much more pleasant than the 10-inning, 4-2 Yankee loss to the Devil Rays Wednesday. To begin with, the temperature was 10 degrees warmer, and you can double that difference if you take the harsh Wednesday wind into account. Also, 10,000 more fans piled into the Baseball Cathedral to watch this one than the night before. Finally, the crisp 2:42 playing time was a full hour and 14 minutes shorter than the Wednesday night marathon.

Even better news than the 4-1 win was another fine outing by a Yankee starter not named Mussina or Johnson. Chien-Ming Wang produced his second solid performance in the last three Wednesday, and Shawn Chacon cashed in tonight’s win while improving on his stellar work in Saturday’s win over the Birds. Wang beats opponents on a hard fastball and a sinker that won’t be denied; Chacon confuses them with four or five pitches over which he has comparable command. Included in the 13 tosses he retired the Rays around a Russ Branyan double in the first was an 88-mph fastball (which later topped 90), a curve that fluttered across at 76, and a change clocked at a crawling-by 61 mph.

Chacon was every bit effective as he had been down the stretch in 2005, and it was a good thing, because Tampa southpaw Mark Hendrickson was retiring most of the Yankees without breaking a sweat. The Yankee righty retired nine of 11 through three frames on 43 pitches, which couldn’t quite match the visitors’ lefty: nine of 10 on just 42. The Yanks threatened in the fourth with a single, double and hit by pitch, but a double play blunted the rally, and Hendricksen retired Hideki Matsui on a first-pitch grounder to second with two on to close the inning out. Chacon wasn’t as fortunate in the fifth when Damon Hollins followed Toby Hall’s long drive to left with a double into the left-field corner. The pesky Joey Gathright, who ignited the Rays’ winning rally the night before, delivered the first run of the game with a single into short left.

Gathright had already cost the Yanks two runs in the first when he raced to the left center field fence and made a leaping grab of Gary Sheffield’s bid for a home run. It would have been a fine play if he were stationed at the wall and timed his jump. That he arrived at the fence around the same time as the screaming liner on a dead run and made the play gives it standout status. And after the momentary glitch, the way Hendrickson settled in made the play even bigger. The Rays got close before their tally on a home run bid of their own, but DH Johnny Gomes’s upper deck blast to left in the fourth barely went foul.

The Yankee bats never did get to the Tampa lefty. After two ugly swinging strike outs, Johnny Damon, DH’ing again with the ever popular Bernie Williams playing center, flied harmlessly to center to start the home sixth. But Derek Jeter, whose singles in the first and fourth threatened to ignite rallies that fell short, worked a six-pitch walk. Sheffield smacked a hard grounder right at Russell Branyan at third, but it squeaked through his glove and the Yanks had two on. Alex Rodriguez, who received his 2005 MVP Award in a pregame ceremony, and who had broken his recent slump with a long double to right center in the fourth, walked on six pitches too, and the Yanks had the bases loaded with one down. Jason Giambi tied it with a broken-bat squiggle down to first, bringing the slumping Matsui up with two down and “ducks on the pond.” Hideki’s second consecutive first-pitch grounder found the hole up the middle and the Yanks had a 3-1 lead. Matsui’s 10-hopper was the first and only hit of the three-run rally.

Matsui followed with two fine plays in left field, cutting off Toby Hall and Gathright hits and holding each to one base. The latter came off lefty specialist Mike Myers, in for Chacon with one down and one on. Myers, who has been superb, fell to a 3-0 count on Hollins after the Gathright bingle. But he stuck with his slider, got a called strike and then a soft grounder to third. When he coaxed a swing and a miss from Carl Crawford after four fouls, the last best Tampa chance had passed. Kyle Farnsworth replaced Myers, and cracked 100 on the speed gun while closing out the Tampa eighth.

It was a delightful evening, and the fans enjoyed the win. The crowd has had some trouble handling foul balls into their midst in the early going. A Jeter liner to the back of the Tier boxes in section 17 in the sixth caromed off no less than seven bodies, and found its way all the way to and over the rail, becoming a souvenir for a lucky fan in the more costly field boxes below. And when Gathright fouled the pitch before his run-scoring single in the fifth into row A of Box 622 below me, a lucky father snatched it and gave it to his young son — who promptly joined the game in progress by tossing the ball off the Upper Deck.

A few numbers on Chacon: He threw just 53 of 93 pitches for strikes, and his first-pitch strike ratio was only 13-12. But he coaxed two ground outs each in the first through fourth innings, and 10 overall. He walked two, struck out three, and allowed just one run on four hits through 6.33 frames. With Wang going seven Wednesday while allowing just three walks and three hits, the Yankee world has taken a bizarro twist. A week ago, the New York back pages alternately proclaimed the explosive lineup while lamenting the lack of pitching. Now the team has produced two earned runs on 11 hits over 19 innings, with superb back-to-back outings from guys who were throwing under a cloud of doubt.

But it’s a crazy game, in a crazy world. The Yanks received 14 free passes Wednesday, and didn’t score even one of them. Tampa pitching walked three tonight, and all three scored. The other tally was Shef, who reached on an error. Mark Hendrickson arrived in New York without having allowed an earned run in 2006; he leaves with that mark intact, but with a loss.

But even under the weird conditions, “fundamental things apply,” as the lyric from As Times Goes By from the classic film Casablanca tells us. The Yankees threatened four times Thursday, the first three times precipitated by two Jeter singles to left and a walk. In the eighth, Damon worked a walk, and the Yankee Captain calmly lifted a double into the right field corner for an rbi and run number four, producing the final 4-1 tally. The Yankee shortstop is hitting .408 thus far, has 19 rbi’s, and he is carrying this team, fundamentally.

And speaking of Fundamentals, a guy named Mariano Rivera came on for the 1-2-3 save.

BTW,TYW

YANKEE BASEBALL!!!