Bronx, N.Y., June 13, 2004 — One of the statistics being loudly proclaimed in 2004 among Yankee fans and baseball enthusiasts in general is the amazing and growing number of games this Yankee team has come from behind to win when trailing by four runs or more. My question is this: If they come back from two down, and later by another three, does that game make the list?

Whatever the case, the rubber game of three the Yanks and Padres played in the Bronx Sunday didn’t figure to be one that would lead fans to discussions of thunderous offense. This matchup between returning Prodigal David Wells and winner of five in a row Javier Vazquez had all the markings of an old-fashioned pitcher’s duel, and that’s exactly what it was.

Vazquez dominated the Padres for eight innings, allowing just two hits apiece by Jeff Cirillo and Terrence Long, and one each by Mark Loretta and Khalil Greene. He threw 21 of 31 first pitches for strikes, threw 78 of 113 over the plate, walked none, and struck out eight while blowing 19 pitches past swinging San Diego clubs. On any other day, he could have been expected to turn the ball over to Mo for the save following that outing. But when he retreated to the dugout after eight, he was in danger of suffering his fifth loss, because he had allowed a homer to Greene and an rbi double to Long, while his West Coast counterpart had been largely flawless.

David Wells, in his second start after a disabled list stint, quickly reminded the Yanks and their fans what it was that they liked about him over a couple of two-season stays in the Bronx. In remarks to the Press he had let on that although he felt he deserved to be welcomed back warmly, he wasn’t sure he would be. He needn’t have worried. Although the cheers cascading down to the field once he took the mound for the bottom of the first started slowly, they quickly grew into a long and loud appreciative roar, and he was visibly shaken as he doffed and twirled his cap to the fans.

Bernie Williams’s first-pitch single to left appeared to snap Wells back to reality, and he went to work. He sped through the hometown lineup almost three times, taking just 76 tosses to negotiate seven innings. His first-pitch strike count was 16 of 26, his strikes/balls ratio 51/25. The no walks is no surprise, but Wells threw as many as three balls off the plate to only two batters all day. He employs the yang to Vazquez’s yin in pitching style, as he only made the Yanks swing and miss five times, but four of them were on punch-outs. He allowed five hits, all singles, and struck out Jeter in his only close call, with runners on the corners with one down in the third. Perhaps emblematic of the degree of his mastery was his last frame, as he retired the Yankees on six pitches despite a one-out error by his shortstop and a Matsui single.

The Yanks and the Pods, respectively, mounted nothing against each other’s setup men in Otsuka and Gordon, but those in attendance did have the tiniest sign that we were not in for a conventional ending. San Diego catcher Ramon Hernandez lofted the next-to-the-last pitch in the top of the ninth 100 feet foul and in a rising arc over the right field tier, until it was prevented from leaving the premises altogether by hitting the lights stanchion. A ball is hit out of the Stadium (never fair, of course) on average about once a decade, so this was almost a very rare day.

The home team found themselves down 2-0 entering the bottom of the ninth against Padre closer par excellence Trevor Hoffman. The Bombers had treated Hoffman pretty rudely when they faced him in the 1998 World Series, but that was six seasons ago, Ricky Ledee is a backup in Philly and Scott Brosius has retired. Despite a long drive off the bat of Giambi (who hit the ball four of five times to the left of second base) to left center, things looked pretty bleak when Posada went down swinging on five pitches.

Hoffman threw two off the plate to a struggling Hideki Matsui, then came inside and paid for it, as the Yankee left fielder penetrated the right field bleachers with his blast to a point deeper than he has ever reached (until now). During his at bat, Ruben Sierra had come out on deck for Tony Clark, a move I favored then, and one I had wished Torre to make two innings before, when Tony stayed in and bounced into a 6-4-3 with two on on Wells’s last pitch of the day. But as Matsui touched them all, Sierra was strangely called back and replaced by center fielder Kenny Lofton, who just came off the DL Saturday. The fans cheered as Hoffman fell behind 2-0 yet again, envisioning maybe a walk, stolen base and tying single, but Lofton fouled the next pitch and the Stadium quieted. The fans were wrong, however, and Joe Torre was, oh, so right, as Lofton drilled the fourth pitch into the lower seats in right. Perhaps 40,000 of the original almost 53,000 attendees thanked their lucky stars that they had stayed to see this glorious moment. Two jacks to tie with two outs in the bottom of the ninth is pretty heady stuff.

With Lofton’s game-knotting blast, a new contest began, one where the hitters took over, with the pitchers surviving rather than dominating. The day was another beauty in the Bronx, so nice that some San Diego fans (I assume) brought a beach ball that had to be run down in short left and removed during Vazquez’s fourth-inning strike out of Payton. Fans in the left field corner certainly had their fun. An appreciative crowd cheered one gloved enthusiast right at the corner where the stands turn toward the foul pole when he made a leaping, stabbing catch of a Payton foul in the second, before Jay went down on strikes on the next pitch. The fans were much less appreciative, however, of the man in the first row wearing a Yankee cap in the same area who denied Matsui the chance to peg Payton (again) out trying for second on a grounder down the left field line in the 11th. Our only consolation, I guess, is that although this moron saw the back-to-back ninth-inning jacks, he was escorted out of the park before the stirring comeback that was to come.

Tom Gordon got through the 10th with a fine pickup by A-Rod on a Greene hopper and a Loretta fly to left after Burroughs singled. (Burroughs, by the way, had made probably the play of the game when he speared an A-Rod bid for a first-inning double with a dive to the line and a long peg to first.) Scott Linebrink walked the bases loaded in the bottom of the 10th, but escaped on Jorge’s pop to left. Paul Quantrill gave up two safeties in the top of the 11th, but he held the Padres scoreless because Posada made a strong throw to catch the speedy Kerry Robinson trying to steal second, once he went in to run for Nevin. Linebrink rebounded for a strong bottom of the 11th, retiring the Yanks in order on 11 pitches.

Then came the ugly 12th, and Saturday Yankee hero Bret Prinz was every bit as bad Sunday as he had been great the day before. He loaded the bases with one out on Hernandez and Greene singles and a Burroughs walk, and fell behind Mark Loretta 3-0. After a call strike Loretta lofted a sac fly to Matsui whose bobble came after making the catch, the umps thankfully (and correctly) ruled, and the Pods led 3-2. When Prinz missed on his next pitch to lefty hitter Giles, Torre had seen enough and called for southpaw Felix Heredia. But Giles lined a hard single to right on Heredia’s first pitch. The ball caromed off a charging Sheffield, and when the dust cleared, the Padres had a 5-2 lead with Giles on third. Pinch hitter Nady’s liner to Wilson (who took second, with Cairo sliding to first after Tony Clark left the game) ended the Padre uprising.

But there had been another of those “signs” during the 11th inning, and I supected this game would not go quietly. A squirrel emerged from the area of the Yankee dugout (how?) one pitch before Cirillo grounded to third to close the frame’s top half. He was patiently and quickly encouraged to drift to right field and disappeared through the door in the fence, and the Yanks followed by going down in order. But they certainly did no such thing in the bottom of the 12th.

The burly righthander Rod Beck who came on to pitch the 12th also had some negative playoff history with the Yanks, having allowed Bernie Williams a game-winning home run and being hit hard throughout the 1999 ALCS when he was a member of the Boston Red Sox. And it had taken Beck 29 pitches to negotiate a scoreless bottom of the eighth on Saturday. He threw first-pitch strikes to Williams and Jeter, but Bernie watched four off the plate for a walk and Jeter doubled into the right field corner. After a Rodriguez fielder’s choice, Sheffield and Giambi each hit 1-1 singles to left, and the Yanks were within one run.

Ironically, it would be a 1-1 pitch to Posada that was the turning point too, but Mr. Beck had been retired after 17 pitches, three hits, one out, and one walk, and ex-Yankee Jay Witasik was brought in. Acquired for Yankee draftee and infielder d’Angelo Jimenez from this Padre team during the 2001 season, Mr. Witasik did not do well in New York then, and did not do well Sunday either. Posada lined his third pitch down the right field line for a barely fair game-tying grounds rule double, and Matsui received an intentional pass. Once again Ruben Sierra emerged from the dugout to a rumble of crowd anticipation, as the Padres brought both the outfield and infield in. Sierra took ball one, swung and missed, then (a 1-1 pitch again) drove a ball to deep center. Jay Payton retreated to deny Ruben a hit, but he could do nothing to deny him the game-winning sac fly.

As a huge Babe Ruth fan, David Wells was surely aware that it was this very day in 1948 that the Bambino made his final Yankee Stadium appearance, as the club retired his number 3. And on June 13, 1986, former Big Band leader Benny Goodman passed away. Despite being held to six singles through eight, the Bombers had just blasted two to extend this home stand three innings. Then down three, they bunched together four hits on 1-1 counts, two walks and a sac fly in the 12th to storm back and win. Ruth was called the Sultan of Swat; Benny Goodman the “King of Swing.”

After the ninth and 12th frames this day, this whole Yankee team are the Kings of Swing.

BTW,TYW

YANKEE BASEBALL!!!