Bronx, N.Y., September 13, 2003 — It was an easy decision really. With the intermittent rain all day, and the two June 19 Tampa Bay Tier Box rain-out tickets in our pockets, my brother and I decided to catch this game from downstairs, with something solid protecting our heads from the intermittent sprinkles. We knew the game would be sparsely attended. I love watching games from the Tier, and have done it for years. But we decided it was time to revisit the lower levels.
We initially slipped into the Section Three Main Reserved seats that fall just beyond the screen behind home plate on the first base side so if a righty wanted to line a foul back our way, at least we’d be in play. But Security was swarming and we had to shift a little further out, settling in the Section 7 Main Reserved. In fact, my seat was directly behind the seats John Madden sat in the other night — the ones we are all so used to seeing Rudy Guiliani inhabit, adjacent to the Yankee dugout on the home plate side, but we were about 30 rows back.
Mike Mussina was not his dominating self, but he was good enough. He got off to a bumpy start with speedy Tampa Bay left fielder Carl Crawford singling to left on a 1-1 pitch, and shortstop Lugo following with a perfect hit-and-run single to the vacated second baseman’s spot, as Enrique Wilson had moved to take a potential Posada throw at second. Jeter made a fine play going back and to his right to snag Aubrey Huff’s foul pop to hold the Rays scoreless, and the Yanks looked to have a chance to escape as Rocco Baldelli grounded hard to Giambi at first. Jason brings a fine glove to the first base bag, but not much of an arm, and when his throw sailed to the outfield side of second base and into left field, the Rays took a 1-0 lead with runners on the corners again. Travis Lee wasted little time as he delivered Lugo with a sac fly to right and the Yanks trailed, 2-0.
Carlos Reyes was in similar trouble in the frame’s bottom half, with identical results. Jeter led off as Soriano was given a seat on the bench for the nightcap, and Derek singled past short. Bernie Williams stroked a 3-1 pitch to right field and the Yanks had a first-and-third, no outs setup of their own. Giambi topped a ball that rolled a few feet down third and beat it out for a base hit, so they were loaded up. Closing in on 100 rbi, Jorge Posada delivered Jeter on a sac fly to center, and DH Ruben Sierra singled past third to plate Bernie and we had a tie game.
Mussina waltzed through the second and third, despite a walk to Hall and single by Crawford with two outs in the second. In the fourth he again allowed lead-off back-to-back singles, this time to Rolls and Anderson, but Piniella started the runners on a 1-0 pitch to catcher Toby Hall. The ensuing one hopper to an Aaron Boone who was already moving toward the third base bag resulted in a bing-bang 5-5-3, and Moose was through four innings on 49 pitches once Jared Sandeberg closed it out by bouncing right back to the box.
Reyes meanwhile, survived a one-out double by Wilson in the second, but fell behind Jason Giambi leading off the third. The Yankee first baseman made amends for his first-inning miscue by blasting the 2-0 pitch over the wall in right, and the Yanks had a lead they would never relinquish.
Mussina was quietly effective. Among the league leaders in strike outs, he managed only one, as he got Travis Lee swinging leading off the sixth. By the time he left after the seventh, he had walked two, and given up only four hits (all singles, with one a slow bouncer to short that the speedy Crawford somehow legged out) after the two-run first. The 18 out of 30 first-pitch strikes that he threw was good, not great, and the 62/36 strikes to balls breakdown among his 98 pitches was fine, keeping to a ratio similar to the 17-7 win/loss record he enjoyed once Mo closed this one out.
And the Yankee offense was not finished after Giambi’s home run, though it got some help. Carlos Reyes walked none through four, but he issued three free passes in the fifth, though Jeter was out trying to steal third. The fuming Piniella could take no more, and brought in the lefty Switzer for his third appearance after Reyes threw ball four to Posada. And Switzer would pitch well, but not until after Sierra, turning around to swing from the right side, lined his 2-1 pitch hard to the wall in left center. Even Giambi and Posada had no trouble scoring from second and first, respectively, and the Yanks had a little breathing room, 5-2.
The Yanks added a scratch run in the sixth on Bernie Williams’s second hit of the game. Bernie, who had already homered twice in the first game on this, his 35th birthday, was in a generous and celebratory mood, sharing a little of his first-game flash with we hearty souls who braved the wet in the evening. He hit the ball hard four times in game two, and rewarded Torre for penciling him in, yet again, in the two spot, as Nick Johnson got the game off.
The game’s final 6-3 score was forged when Travis Lee hit the foul pole on a two-out 2-2 pitch from Jeff Nelson in the eighth. That was OK with us, though, as it got Mo Rivera in for his 36th save, and second on the day. He threw only four or five pitches to close out the Rays in game one and and may have been better in the evening tilt. After throwing an 0-1 ball to the second baseman Marlon Anderson, he came back with eight straight strikes: a single, three-pitch swinging strike-out, three-pitch swinging strike out, and a hopper to Giambi who threw to Mo covering.
Although the look was different from down in the Main Level, and the day was a success, I’ve decided I like the look from upstairs better. From our seats down below, the Yankees just looked too awful running the bases. (They’ve had some adventures earlier this week, too, but I’m attributing those to unfamiliarity, a byproduct of some struggling hitters who have come to life.) Although Jeter successfully reached all the way to third base for a steal as Giambi walked against the overshifted Rays’ defense in the fifth, he came off the bag and was tagged out. And in the sixth, Boone committed the cardinal sin of making the first out at third by trying to race there from first on Juan Rivera’s single, as Crawford’s throw nipped him. Even worse, both Enrigue Wilson and Jorge Posada were caught off second base on grounders right in front of them to shortstop!
But the Yanks won anyway and we enjoyed watching the people and the out-of-town scoreboard along with the game, just as we do from the Tier. And it was impossible to miss that Bartolo Colon handled Tim Wakefield and the Red Sox, 3-1. It was a welcome sight on a day the Yanks sliced a healthy three games from the number needed to clinch the East, with that result and the sweep of the Rays. The number is nine and, yes, it is magic.
But even with the wins and staying dry, I’m a bit frustrated really. Aside from today being Bernie’s 35th birthday, it was also the 49th birthday of Peter Cetera, classic rock group Chicago’s lead singer. One of their most lasting single hits is entitled 25 or 6 to 4. I know that number 25 broke the tie in the second game. But we beat the Rays twice, 6 to 5, and 6 to 3.
Where does the 6 to 4 fit in?
BTW,TYW
YANKEE BASEBALL!!!