Bronx, N.Y., August 31, 2004 — Another huge crowd at Yankee Stadium was “treated” to a strange sight, something never witnessed there before, on Tuesday night, but it was not a joyful apparition. While nine New York batters went down meekly on just 36 pitches to ex-Yank Jake Westbrook through three, 21 Indians batters had already fashioned a 9-0 lead on totally ineffective Yankee starter Javier Vazquez and Tanyon Sturtze in relief.

Fans felt a sigh of relief when Sturtze retired the visitors in order in the fourth after three consecutive three-run frames, but the Indians were just taking a breather. Cleveland added six runs in both the fifth and the ninth, and set records in shutting out the Yankees 22-0 on 22 hits and nine walks. One day before teams would be able to expand their rosters, Joe Torre used lefty C.J. Nitkowski and new bullpenner Esteban Loaiza after Vazquez and Sturtze to stitch together nine ineffective innings. With all the threes and sixes plastered over the board (and zeroes for the Yankees), the singleton the Tribe plated off Nitkowski in the sixth had the effect of ruining a fine pattern.

On the visiting side, with no pressure early Westbrook was golden. The five K’s (just one swinging) he notched matched the number of Yankee hits off him through seven. He and home plate ump C.B. Bucknor were on the same page all night as Jake garnered a very high 26 called strikes while coaxing the Yanks to swing and miss just two times.

Offensively, Travis Hafner tripled with the sacks filled in the first to start the ball rolling and knocked in four on the night. Coco Crisp, Jody Gerut, and Victor Martinez homered, though the last two plated six in the ninth after the score was already 16-0. Omar Vizguel went 6-for-7 with four rbi’s and three runs scored, and had a chance at the major league record 7-for-7 until he popped to Lofton in right in the ninth.

The Yankee offense consisted of Gary Sheffield and Hideki Matsui doubles, and singles from Miguel Cairo, Alex Rodriguez, and John Olerud. Ironically, the Yanks bunched two each in two different frames, but the only real scoring chance was lost when Matsui was caught off second when Westbrook bobbled Posada’s comebacker for the only official error of the game.

And there lies a tale as well. It is hard to imagine that with what he showed Vazquez could have done any better this evening, but Miguel Cairo made a pivotal and unfortunate decision to wheel and try for Omar Vizguel at second with one down in the first on Lawton’s hard grounder into the hole. When the throw short-hopped Jeter as Vizguel barreled in, the fielder’s choice (the official ruling) had the doubly bad effect of costing the Yanks and Javy an out, and placing one more guy on base when Haffner came up after Martinez walked.

And things continued from there. It is not certain that Bernie Williams could have caught up with Belliard’s hard double to dead center on Vazquez’s first pitch of the second. Calling Bernie’s pursuit a “bad break” would be charitable; he simply did not look ready. Lofton’s failure to reach Vizguel’s two-run double in the third was a bad break, however, a slow and indecisive one, as was his failure to make a throw on Crisp’s single the batter before. But perhaps most emblematic of the night’s frustrations was Nitkowski’s brain lock on Haffner’s roller up the first base line in the six-run fifth. C.J. probably could have gotten Travis out; he certainly could have prevented the ball from rolling back fair. He did neither, watching the home plate ump as Haffner reached safely and Olerud prevented Vizguel from scoring. But only temporarily, as the rattled Nitkowski proceed to walk in a run and allowed a two-run single before getting the third out.

But this one really belongs on the pitchers, and on what they did with their arms, not their gloves. Both Vazquez and Nitkowski threw 41 pitches, with the starter getting four outs on that, and C.J. five. Sturtze allowed seven runs on 61 tosses through three innings, while Loaiza actually righted things a bit by blanking Cleveland in both the seventh and eighth. But it took 10 batters for Esteban to negotiate that, and what he experienced in the ninth is the same problems he has had with teams when he has started. When they saw him a second time, they lit him up, extending him to 74 pitches through his three, and stroking two three-run bombs in the ninth.

On July 24, 1999 (six days after David Cone’s Perfect Game), the Yanks manhandled Cleveland’s Mark Langston and three relievers on a Saturday afternoon in Yankee Stadium, as Hideki Irabu went seven in a 21-1 Yankee win. The home team accumulated 21 hits to compile that score, and the Indians used 22 this night to plate 22. But aside from the one run the losers scored five years ago, there was another difference. Westbrook threw 98 pitches to go seven tonight; Irabu an even 100 to go the same distance in 1999. But when all was said and done, the Yankees threw 141 pitches to the Indians’ 186 in 1999 (with Ed Yarnall struggling through two scoreless frames). On this night, Westbrook combined with Jimmy Guthrie to throw 124. The four Yankee hurlers out-counted them by a hefty 93 pitches Tuesday. In short, from a Yankee fan perspective, the game was just as ugly as the score.

An almost full house greeted the Yanks back from their road trip, and they were excited and happy on a gorgeous night in the Bronx after days of hot and steamy weather. Once things went south early, they pleaded with the Yanks to turn it around for a time, before going into heavy “Boo”ing mode. But this too did not last. When the realization that no comeback was coming settled in, many drifted toward the exits, but some stuck around, realizing the historical significance of the evening. I had read recently that the 15-0 White Sox shutout of the Bombers in 1950, matching one by the same franchise against the Highlanders 45 years earlier, was the worst Yankee shutout score ever. So as two friends drifted past during a 16-0 seventh inning, I advised them that if the Yanks did not score they would be present at the Bombers’ worst-ever shutout, and they turned around. Undeniably, there was a palpable sense of that history among the fans that stayed to the end.

And history is what they got. Ninety years ago today, the actor Richard Basehart was born. Among other credits, Basehart starred in the hokie TV adventure series Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea almost 40 years ago. Facing sea serpents, extraterrestrials, and human malefactors, Basehart as the Admiral would turn to David Hedison playing the Captain each week and invariably say, “Take her, down, Captain.”

He could have delivered that same line to Manager Joe Torre and Captain Derek Jeter today.

YANKEE BASEBALL!!!