Bronx, N.Y., August 26, 2005 — The hottest show in New York performed to raucous crowds and cascading applause yet again Friday night. But this was no song and dance revue with a few jokes. One hears the raves about Spamalot in 2005, and Avenue Q for a few years; it seems Chorus Line and Les Miz threatened to run forever. But the longest-running smash in New York has been appearing in the same house for 82 years, and in 2005 it will draw more fans than it has in any season before, since the House That Ruth Built was constructed and opened in the Bronx in 1923.
The 2005 version of this New York Yankee show continued this night with the first of three between the Yankees and the upstart K.C. Royals, a struggling gang of young players that broke a 19-game losing streak just six days ago. But they’re responded to adversity, having won four of their last five, and they came to town owning a three-game sweep of the Yankees that they joyfully applied in early June. Randy Johnson, who suffered one of those three defeats, got the Yankee start vs. young righty Mike Wood.
Both pitched superbly, but The Unit was better. Dominating the young Royals batters with slider after slider, Johnson relied on his powerful fastball only rarely. He kept his pitch count down by throwing lots of strikes, and it took him only 69 pitches to hold Kansas City scoreless on just two hits through six innings. He would face 28 Royals batters over eight innings, and in all that time went to a three-ball count just once. He threw 20 first-pitch strikes to those hitters, and his final strikes/balls ratio of 78/26 computes to an exact 75% strike percentage.
Wood was good also, though he struggled to survive a first inning in which the Yanks left the bags juiced after 24 pitches. This was not to be second-place hitter Hideki Matsui’s night with the stick; he went 0-for-4 while seeing just nine pitches, and twice he quickly defused innings that Derek Jeter started with hits. Jeter doubled into the left field corner leading off the first, but Matsui’s first-pitch bouncer to third held the Yankee shortstop right there. After a Gary Sheffield fielder’s choice, Alex Rodriguez was hit with a pitch and Jason Giambi received the first of three straight walks, but although Bernie Williams smacked Wood’s 1-2 pitch, it was stroked right to first baseman Mike Sweeney. After a quiet second, Jeter led off the home third with a 1-1 single to center, but Matsui took a strike and grounded into a 6-4-3. Sheffield followed with a double into the corner, but Wood coaxed an A-Rod popup to close the frame.
The Yanks had something going with a Giambi walk and Williams single leading off the fourth, and Jason scurried to third after Tino Martinez’s long fly to right. Backup catcher John Flaherty has certainly been making his salary mostly for his work with pitchers, particularly Johnson, which is good, because he has struggled at the plate all year. But he deserved better when he spanked Wood’s next pitch down third where it would have broken the scoreless tie had not young Mark Teahen made a great stop, finishing the play by pegging to second to start a 5-4-3 that closed the inning.
The Yanks’ bats were measuring Wood now, and they were hitting balls hard, though his count was low and he stayed ahead of batters aside from the three free passes to Giambi. The night was pleasant with a gametime temp of 78 degrees and just 45 percent humidity, and the game was zipping by. Johnson was mixing in a few more fastballs as the innings passed and he set the Royals down 1-2-3 four times in the first six innings. Although Wood retired the Yanks in order in the bottom of the fifth, Robinson Cano lined hard to center, and both Jeter and Matsui flied deep to right. Not skipping a beat, Johnson responded by closing the top of the sixth with 96 miles per hour heat that K.C. left fielder Chip Ambres took for strike three. The clock read 8:26; it was just 76 minutes after the 7:10 first pitch.
Then Alex Rodriguez drove the first nail into the coffin of Mike Wood’s night by blasting the first one-out pitch he saw several rows back in the black seats in dead center field for a 1-0 Yankee lead. Alex is having a great year and is out ahead of the rest of the league with his 38th home run, but to give a little bit of historical perspective, it was this day in 1961 that Roger Maris drilled his 51st! Following Alex, Giambi had to work hard for walk no. three, fouling off a potential third strike four times before getting his free pass, which was huge because Bernie Williams lined the next pitch over the wall in right center for a 3-0 lead. But the Royals did not give up, and Sweeney doubled to left off Johnson to start the Kansas City seventh. Emil Brown lined softly to second but 2003 Rookie of the Year Angel Berroa had a great at bat against The Unit, and singled in Sweeney after fouling off five Johnson attempts.
Randy closed that inning with a swinging strike out of catcher John Buck, and he closed the top of the eighth with his sixth and last whiff, as centerfielder David Dejesus took strike three that followed two harmless flies to left. Tom Gordon had been up during the frame in case Johnson ran into any trouble, and with the meager two-run lead, Mariano Rivera warmed for the ninth. Righty Jonah Bayliss had come on for Wood and retired the Yanks in order in the seventh, but he hit Sheffield squarely in the back starting the home eighth. A-Rod struck out and Giambi popped to third, which brought center fielder Bernie Williams up. Bernie, who already had a great night going, with a single, a home run, and a hard grounder, made Bayliss pay once the count went full. He really turned on the power, blasting a fastball to the right field upper deck about 10 to 15 feet fair, for a 5-1 Yankee lead. The Yanks briefly sat Rivera and got Gordon up, but Mo finished the game around two K.C. singles.
Regular season baseball in the Bronx has taken on the trappings of a very extended Spring Training in the Joe Torre years. The Yanks have been playing well of late, and finally find themselves in position to snatch the postseason spot that has seemed to belong to them during this decade-long run. Randy Johnson, certainly the biggest and most critical addition to the 2005 team, has “struggled” through more than four months to a 12-8 record (now) with an era over 4. Not the dominating numbers anyone expected to be sure, but not horrible either. But The Unit was not brought to New York to get the Yanks to the post. That was the job of younger mound additions Carl Pavano and Jaret Wright, along with 2004 holdovers Mike Mussina and Kevin Brown.
No, Randy Johnson is in New York to pitch in October, although anything he does to get the team to that lofty month, the one most teams are not invited to, will be huge. The acquisition looks iffy now, but if he wins a Game Six against some other team’s ace, he’ll be worth every penny. That is how Randy Johnson’s first season in Pinstripes will be judged. He sprinkled four hits with no walks through eight this night, a great job, and he notched six punch outs on 78 strikes.
The biggest upset involving the number 78 Friday was that that is the number by which the crowd failed to reach the expected 54,000, as the Yanks had to settle for just 53,922 paying faithful. This Yankee phenomenon is becoming one the likes of which we have never seen. Four titles in five years did not get 4,000,000 to the big Cabaret in the South Bronx, but they’re on the way to that number now. English novelist Christopher Isherwood would have been 101 this day. The hit Broadway musical and movie Cabaret was based on his Berlin Stories and on his tome, “I Am a Camera.” The Yankees invite one and all, near and far, to their cabaret in the South Bronx. As if to prove it, when “New York, New York” blasted from the Stadium speakers this evening postgame, it didn’t feature Frank Sinatra, but rather Liza Minelli, who starred in that play and film.
- What’s the use of sitting
all alone in your room?
Come see the Yankees play.
BTW,TYW
YANKEE BASEBALL!!!