Bronx, N.Y., June 20, 2005 — When my baseball (i.e., Yankee) fanness was in its infancy, my favorite joke involved the game, and made light of the Christian Bible as well. The premise was that baseball was not only mentioned in that tome’s New Testament but, borrowing from the first few words of the Gospel of the Apostle John (In the beginning…”), it had a prominent part: “In the big inning…” It always cracked me up.

Well, in the big inning, the Yankees belted six hits and scored the tying and two go-ahead runs after being down by four. Then they started to hit. It all started when Cano, Jeter, Sheffield, and Rodriguez singles drove Franklin Nunez from the mound, but Matsui welcomed Travis Harper with a double (the biggest hit I’d say, if I had the impossible task of picking one), and Giambi was walked intentionally to load ’em up with the tying run on third with one out for Bernie Williams. Williams had enjoyed reaching a Yankee milestone in the fifth (more on that to come), and he went for the gold again, as he tied Yankee immortal Yogi Berra for sixth place on the Bombers hit list when his triple to left center cleared the bases, putting the Yanks up 13-11. Jorge Posada, who had pinch-hit for John Flaherty and walked in the fifth, homered to right on a 3-2 pitch for 15-11, and when Cano filed to center for the second out, it seemed the scoring binge would end.

But Ruben Sierra, who had scored a run on a fielder’s choice batting for Womack earlier in the inning, then followed a Jeter single with one of his own, and the long-suffering (this night, anyway) fans screamed for more. Sheffield waited until 3-2 to smash his second bomb to left and notch rbi’s five, six and seven. A-Rod swung and missed just once before unleashing that right field power swing for another fence-clearer, and Matsui closed the circle with the granddaddy of the three, a missile that smacked and caromed up the black seats in deepest right center. When the back-to-back-to-back smoke cleared, 13 Pinstipers had crossed on 12 hits, for a 20-11 lead.

It is going to be so easy to forget that titular ace Randy Johnson was rudely smacked around to start this one because the Yankee comeback was so long in unfolding before the eighth inning explosion. Down 5-0 in the third, they plated singletons in the second and third innings on a Bernie Williams sac fly and a Gary Sheffield single. By the end of the eighth inning that two-player rbi total would mushroom from two to 12. The Rays kept it up with two in the third off Johnson, who left after three down 7-2. Victimized by his own wildness and a key Robinson Cano error, Scott Proctor allowed three in the fourth for a 10-2 Tampa lead. The he turned in a scoreless fifth.

The 2004 Yankees were a comeback machine, and we all discovered then that to be successful in games played that way, your pen has to stop the team with a lead from continuing to score. And the Yankee pen did exactly that, with one more Tampa tally during three innings stitched together among Mike Stanton, Tanyon Sturtze, and Buddy Groom. That run carries a tale too, because Alex Rodriguez almost prevented it with as fine a play as you’ll see from a third baseman all year. Snagging Jorge Cantu’s bases-loaded, one-out bid for extra bases down third with a full-body dive, he scrambled to his feet, touched the third-base bag for a force and airmailed a heave to Jason Giambi at first. It was bing-bang and I tend to believe Fielden Culbreth may have gotten it right when he signaled safe, but that appeased this crestfallen fan not a bit, and the call detracted little from the play for anyone who saw it live. Fabulous.

But let’s not waste time talking pitching and defense on a night when the Yanks stroked 23 hits, blasted six home runs, and scored 20, four of the homers and 13 of the runs in one electrified dose. Had we known the onslaught that would follow, the Yanks could have skipped the slow process of closing the gap in scores. Derek Jeter, who led the runs scored and hits parade with five in each, and Tony Womack singled with one down in the home fifth in front of a Gary Sheffield tater to deep left. Singles by Hideki Matsui and Jason Giambi (who set up the first Yankee run with an opposite-field bloop double) ensued, and when Bernie Williams singled to knock in Matsui and close the gap to 10-6, the Scoreboard feted him on tying Tony Lazzeri for seventh on the Yankee rbi list with 1,154. They did not stay tied long.

Another of the night’s three historic milestones was acknowledged when Mike Stanton entered in the sixth, as this, his 992nd appearance, tied him for 10th in major league history in that regard with ex-Yankee (et al) Lindy McDaniel. After an out and single, Tanyon Sturtze closed the frame, which was highlighted by a fine Cano tag on Jonny Gomes trying to steal. Jeter inched the Yanks closer with a leadoff homer that inning, but the seventh-inning Rays score put them up 11-7 when the fateful Yankee eighth began.

The players deserve to have some other numbers shared. Matsui scored four times on four hits, and knocked in two; A-Rod’s hits, runs, and rbi’s all leveled at two. Both Jeter and Matsui ended up a triple short of a cycle. Cano had just one hit, but he started the winning rally with a single after fouling off four straight, and his fifth-inning drive down first barely missed the foul pole.

I had a feeling arriving for this one that it would be a classic, though 2-1 seemed the more likely score. Johnson notched two strike outs leading off the game, and closed the first after a single. I can’t say if Culbreth’s miscall of what should have been a swinging strike by Eduardo Perez leading off the second bothered Randy half as much as it did me, but he walked Perez on four straight, and after an infield pop he allowed a Damon Hollins homer to left after a called strike. Reserve catcher Dave Cash followed with a blow the same way on the next pitch, and Alex Gonzalez and Carl Crawford scored after the tandem singled, then tripled for a 5-0 Tampa lead. Johnson seemed OK, closing the inning on a popup to second and a roller in front of the plate, but the Rays were back at him in the third on a Perez single followed by a Gomes home run. The Unit seemed to have a good slider early but no fastball, and each throw of the latter variety was hammered. He threw 60 pitches through three, and could be moved up to Sunday, but that would still leave the Yanks short a Saturday starter.

Among the little Stadium occurrences peripheral to the action was an eery start to the game. The Scoreboard clock registered 7:07 as Johnson threw the first pitch, but it flashed to 7:08 as the ball crossed the plate. And the same thing happened on the other end. Jorge Cantu swung and missed at Tom Gordon high cheese for strike three at 10:43, but by the time Jorge tagged him with the ball, which had trickled to the ground, 10:44 had been reached. And I’m assuming the sign honoring Hideo Nomo’s 200th career win on the Section Three Tier facade was hung by some of his countrymen. These fans proved to be resilient. When Nomo couldn’t close the fifth and was removed, the “200” was replaced with a new sign honoring Yankee number 55. Historically, June 21 hasn’t seen a ballgame like this one since Reds righthander Harley “Doc” Parker was forced to go the route as Brooklyn reached him for 26 hits in a 21-3 humiliation on this day in 1901. A long rollercoater ride, this night’s game was depressing, exhilarating, offbeat, and absurd.

No wonder. June 21, 2005 would have been the 100th birthday of French Existentialist Jean Paul Sartre, the “Philosopher of the Absurd.”

BTW,TYW

YANKEE BASEBALL!!!