Bronx, N.Y., August 23, 2005 — The introduction of Felix Escalona the hitter to the crowd at Yankee Stadium in 2005 could hardly have been more inauspicious. When asked to bunt over two hitters in a Monday start at short, he served a 1-0 soft lob right into the third baseman’s glove, a disappointing performance that apparently did not escape the eye of Toronto Manager John Gibbons. Escalona got better, bouncing hard into a 5-4-3 and then singling past short, but Gibbons’s mind had apparently been made up.

Tuesday night, Blue Jays closer Miguel Battista had failed to close a potential 4-3 Toronto win when Hideki Matsui lined a home run into the short porch in right leading off the bottom of the ninth. Making matters worse, Battista walked Jorge Posada and Robinson Cano around an infield grounder and a strike out, and fell behind Derek Jeter 2-0. In a flurry of eighth-inning moves, Joe Torre had replaced number two hitter Bernie Williams with Escalona, who came on to play first once Tony Womack ran for Tino Martinez. Spying the young Venezuelan with the good-glove, no-hit rep in the on-deck circle, Gibbons had the winning run moved 90 feet closer by having his closer finish the walk to Jeter intentionally, a curious move when you consider that the slow of foot Posada carried the Yankee hopes; an outfield single would not be a sure game-winner with Jorge running from second.

Gibbons looked brilliant as Escalona swung and missed and then took strike two. He fouled off the next offering; Miguel was still way ahead, but his fourth pitch got too much of the plate, and Felix lined a single to center to win the game for the Bombers, 5-4. For what it’s worth, had Posada still been on second and Jeter stroked a hard single like Escalona’s, Vernon Wells would have easily thrown the Yankee catcher out.

This contest was closely played, and the 30,000 or so in attendance paying attention to the game (when they could do so around the roughly 20,000 who waved through much of an intense back-and-forth eighth inning) got their money’s worth if they stayed to the end of this nail biter. Pitching for the Yanks was disappointing lefty Al Leiter, but although the aging southpaw did fall prey to three 20-pitch-plus innings and went to 12 three-ball counts, he kept his teammates in the game through seven long innings by retiring Toronto without scoring in every inning but the fourth, when the visitors pushed across two. Leiter allowed just five hits and a walk in the first seven, and he notched five strike outs, mostly on a devastating sinking curve.

Generally those kinds of results would set a pitcher up for a win, but Blue Jays righthander Josh Towers was dominant, retiring 15 Yankees in a row after Jeter smacked a 1-0 fastball to right field for a single to lead off the home first. Twice Towers retired the Yanks on less than 10 pitches, and he managed to throw just 72 through seven innings by never tossing more than 14 in any inning. Trailing 2-0, the Yanks reached Towers for three straight singles leading off the sixth, but they plated just one on a Bernie Williams sac fly before Gary Sheffield bounced into a 5-4-3 twin killing with the Yanks down 2-1.

The visitors had reached Leiter on a long fourth-inning home run to left by center fielder Wells followed by a double by young third baseman Aaron Hill. Leiter fell to 3-2 to catcher Greg Zaun, who then bounced a seeing eye single up the middle just out of the reach of Leiter, Jeter, and Cano. One imagines that either middle infielder could have at least knocked the ball down if they did not have to avoid one another, but it bounced through untouched and Hill rounded third and scored.

And the Jays threatened to restore the two-run cushion after Bernie’s sac fly when Zaun started the Toronto seventh by bouncing a double down the right field line. But already into triple digits in pitches thrown, crafty lefty Leiter held Zaun right there as he served up a grounder, a popup, and a strike out to the next three batters.

Making the Jays pay for not moving Zaun along, the Yanks rallied for the tying run on another sac fly, this one by Jorge Posada after Matsui and Jason Giambi singles had placed a Yankee runner on third with one down in the bottom of the seventh. Early on it had seemed impossible Leiter would make the sixth, but Torre actually trotted him out to start the eighth frame despite a count of 117 (the Scoreboard had 118). Leiter coaxed a weak grounder from shortstop Adams, but when it glanced off Tino Martinez’s glove for an infield single, it set up the ex-Marlin, Met, Blue Jay and Yankee for a possible loss. The inconsistent Tanyon Sturtze came on and retired the Jays, but not until he allowed Adams to score on two singles and a walk for a 4-3 Toronto lead.

But off two Yankee one-run rallies, Gibbons removed Towers to start the eighth despite a low pitch count, with lefty batters Martinez and Cano due up. Southpaw Scott Schoenweiss fell to 3-0 to both hitters, and he was replaced by righty Justin Speier once Martinez had walked and Cano bunted pinch runner Tony Womack to second. Even though Jeter swung and missed for out number two, Torre’s little ball approach was successful when the one and only Bernie Williams singled Cano home on a 2-2 pitch.

With setup man Flash Gordon out with an infection, closer Mariano Rivera came on to pitch the ninth, but Torre’s decision to put Escalona at first rather than lose his DH by moving Jason Giambi there burned the Bombers almost immediately. Speedy Orlando Hudson rolled a one-out soft grounder into the shortstop hole and when Jeter’s rushed throw drifted to Felix’s right, he momentraily came off the bag and Hudson was safe with an infield single. Posada did well to pounce on Adams’s 10-foot grounder in front of the plate and peg him out, but Hudson advanced to second, from where he scored the go-ahead run when Reed Johnson smacked a single to A-Rod’s left on a Rivera 0-2 pitch. 4-3 Jays.

Worthy of mention are the two big rbi’s provided by Bernie Williams; the 2-for-4 night of Mr. Matsui and his game-tying blast; and catcher Posada, who knocked in a game-tying run and later scored the winner. Jorge takes a lot of criticism for his work behind the plate, but he saved Leiter from wild pitches on balls left and right in the dirt all night. In addition he turned in two sparklers in the sixth, retiring Wells on a foul pop by leaning well over the Yankee dugout rail and then nabbing Shea Hillenbrand with an off-balance throw after a swinging bunt in front of the plate. Derek Jeter returned to the lineup with two singles (the second setting up Bernie’s first-run sac fly), two strike outs, and the walk that put Posada on third before he scored. The team played well and scratched for late runs on the rare night when Gary Sheffield and Alex Rodriguez combined for an 0-for-8 line.

But a ninth-inning rally was needed, and neither slugger figured to be involved. Wave or no wave, the baseball fans among us knew the game wasn’t over, as the Yanks had plated a singleton run in three consecutive innings, and the fans roared for a similar outcome. And that is when Matsui tied it and unexpected hero Escalona came up to the plate with the pressure on.

Amid a year where injuries to the starting rotation have focused attention and ridicule on many of Yankee GM Brian Cashman’s moves, some great ones have gone unnoticed. There is the emergence of second baseman Robinson Cano, and the work turned in by Chien-Ming Wang before he got hurt. Cash gave up almost nothing in a trade for Leiter, and little in acquiring Shawn Chacon. Jaret Wright looks impressive after a long recovery, and the book on Randy Johnson won’t be written until he appears in the playoffs. More surprising still is the work of emergency starter Aaron Small, who was signed in February.

But the headliner after a thrilling victory in a nip-and-tuck Tuesday battle in the Bronx is the one he made on March 30, 2004. Yankee fans have been largely “unhappy” with the work of relievers Felix Heredia (in 2003 and 2004) and Felix Rodriguez this year. But the signing that night of Felix Escalona to a free agent contract brought smiles in the Bronx this night.

BTW,TYW

YANKEE BASEBALL!!!