Bronx, N.Y., May 9, 2005 — Although I’m as enamored of Tino Martinez as any Yankee fan, he surprised me with a new facet to his game Monday night. With the exception of one ugly moment Friday, he has been supplying stellar defense at first base for the Yankees all season. And he has been swinging a hot bat of late that has Manager Joe Torre moving him up from the eighth to the sixth spot in the batting order. He comes to the ballpark every day ready to play, but what I didn’t know is that he has a sense of history too. One day after grabbing the major league lead among active players in Mothers Day home runs, he punctuated that achievement by blasting yet another exactly 91 years after President Wilson first proclaimed the honor to moms everywhere.
And it came at a dramatic moment, in a tight ballgame. The Yanks had bunched a walk and two singles to take a first-inning 1-0 lead over Gil Meche and the Mariners Monday night. But the pesky combination of shortstop Wilson Valdez and right fielder Ichiro Suzuki collaborated with Randy Winn for the tying run off Randy Johnson in the top of the third, and Meche settled in after the shaky first to give the Yankee bats all they could handle. Meche retired the Yanks in order in the second, and he survived Derek Jeter’s single over third in the third by picking Tony Womack off first once he had forced Jeets at second. After two outs in the fourth, A-Rod, whom Meche had gotten on a 4-6-3 to close the first on a 3-0 pitch, doubled to right center. Martinez, who has been backing Rodriguez in the lineup the last few days, took Meche over the wall and the Yanks had a 3-1 lead.
Randy Johnson was effective but showed a little rust after a 10-day break due to a tight groin. But he had the crowd holding its breath early as Joe Torre and the medical staff came out to the mound to check him in the first with a 1-2 count on power hitter Richie Sexson. Johnson assured one and all he was OK, and then barely kept Sexson in the park, as center fielder Hideki Matsui ran under his long drive to almost dead center. But Randy had whiffed tough out Ichiro to start the game, he added two K’s in the second, and piled on two more in the fourth after Valdez had knotted things at 1-1. When the Unit overpowered Wiki Gonzalez and Willie Bloomquist to start the top of the fifth, the crowd began to get comfortable with the Martinez-forged 3-1 lead.
But light-hitting Valdez struck again, doubling into the left field corner, and the troublesome Ichiro promptly delivered him with a single past shortstop. The crowd felt some satisfaction when Randy picked Ichiro off to close the fifth, but things got dicey when the lanky lefthander lost the plate in the top of the sixth. Seattle third baseman Adrian Beltre led the major leagues in home runs for the Dodgers last year, but he came into this game with a low batting average and only two 2005 homers. After retiring Winn on a grounder for the first out of the sixth, Johnson fell behind Beltre 3-0, and snuck a strike by the powerful righthanded hitter, but not two. Beltre lined the 3-1 pitch into the netting over the retired numbers in left center, and the game was tied at three.
Johnson was scuffling with his control now. Sexson and Bret Boone had been his last two strike out victims, but he fell behind Boone 3-0 after Sexson singled on a 3-2 pitch. But this time after a strike he made an effective 3-1 pitch, and young Yankee second baseman Cano made a fine and quick shovel pass to Jeter to notch a 4-6-3 against Boone on a pitch that wasn’t hit very hard. The Yanks responded with three weak ground balls to close the frame, and Johnson pitched around a one-out seventh-inning single to Gonzalez on a ball that was the first I’ve seen that Tony Womack should have caught in left, but didn’t.
A-Rod walked to start the home seventh, but Posada stroked his first-pitch single to left after Tino grounded into a 3-6-3. But that was it for Meche, and lefty Thornton came in and got lifeless DH Giambi looking on five pitches. Jason’s average plummeted through the .200 mark this night, but he did hit two balls up the middle. He is making no progress, but he is trying. We learned afterward that Mel Stottlemyre had told Johnson to empty his tank in trying to survive the eighth, with Tom Gordon warming. And that’s what Randy did. After retiring Ichiro on a ground ball, Winn singled, and he made second as Beltre bounced to A-Rod. Choosing his poison, Johnson walked Sexson intentionally, and ran off the mound pumping his fist when he struck Boone out on three pitches.
Johnson dominated and he struggled, but he gets more than a passing grade. He allowed three runs on seven hits over eight, struck out seven, and one of his two walks was intentional (although the other did, of course, score). He pounded 15 of 32 first-pitch strikes, and the 76/43 ratio of strikes to balls was good. The only number still undetermined, however, was his win total. Could the Yanks push across a run to make him a winner?
If Giambi in the .190’s is hopeless, what is Cano in the .090’s? With Bernie Williams struggling too, Ruben Sierra hurt, and Andy Phillips swinging and missing too often, Torre hasn’t had a lot of options to kick-start the offense. But the Yankees have been proving in the last few days that with well-pitched games, good-enough offense is sometimes just that: good enough. Joe’s multi-year run to glory got its start 10 seasons ago, and in five days we’ll celebrate the ninth anniversary of Doc Gooden’s no-hitter over this Seattle ballclub. They scratched but two sixth-inning runs on that ’96 evening in the Bronx, but they played well and they would win a lot of games, including the season’s last one. The bottom of Torre’s order that night consisted of centerfielder Gerald Williams, second baseman Robert Eenhorn (with Andy Fox pinch-hitting in the seventh), and a raw rookie shortstop named Derek Jeter.
With options like that, fans should be delighted that Joe had Rey Sanchez waiting on his bench this night. Hitting for Cano against Seattle (and ex-Yankee) right hander Jeff Nelson, Sanchez looked overmatched on strikes one and two after taking a pitch for a ball. But he turned on the 1-2 Nelson fastball and smacked it into left for a single. Sanchez barely gets to see action these days, but he could play a key role on a currently thin bench. He was a solid Yankee contributor in 1997, and he proved he can still be that this night. And just like he would have that night nine years ago, Derek Jeter promptly sacrificed Rey to second on a 1-4 he almost beat out. Tony Womack took a strike, and when his grounder up the middle got through, Sanchez scored the go-ahead run.
The Yanks scored four early in a 5-0 win two days ago, and yesterday piled four runs into the eighth to win going away. But this game was knotted until the end, and fans did the Mo dance as Enter Sandman issued from the Scoreboard loudspeaker to start the ninth. The 38,000-plus had lasted through eight innings of drama, and Rivera seemed to sense that, making quick work of the Mariners. After coaxing quick grounders by Ibanez and Gonzalez, Mariano blew strike three past lefty pinch hitter Dobbs, and the Yanks had a 4-3 win, and a three-game winning streak.
A band called the Cyrkle had a hit called Red Rubber Ball back in the 1960’s, something we commemorate on this, guitarist Don Danneman’s 61st birthday. Penned by Paul Simon, the song is a jaunty protestation from a jilted lover that he’s ready to take his lumps and move on. The early 2005 Yankee season has had a number of bumps and bruises for players and fans alike. Lots of ugly losses and enough bad press to hold America’s often fickle attention. But the staff has come up with four consecutive solid starts, and with the way the team has played on this current three-game win streak, perhaps we can all sing along with the Cyrkle:
- And I think it’s gonna be alright
Yeah, the worst is over now
The mornin’ sun is shinin’ like a red rubber ball.
BTW,TYW
YANKEE BASEBALL!!!