Bronx, N.Y., May 25, 2003 — Hit It Hard. Hit It Where They Ain’t. The Yankees finally got one half of the equation right today. If only they hadn’t trespassed against the third commandment — You Gotta Hit ’em When It Counts.

Yes, I know it would be easy to look in at certain points during Sunday’s 5-3 loss to the Blue Jays, and conclude that it was just the same funk we’ve seen for the last two and a half weeks. But you’d be wrong. You could wonder when the bats would wake up perhaps, when with a look at the line score you would see that we got a leadoff single from Derek Jeter in the first, and failed to cash it in.

But ask any of the thousands of people seated in the lower boxes if the Yanks went meekly today. Yes, Derek was on in the first with no one out, and that’s where he was after Hideki Matsui lined a 1-1 pitch to left center that hung up just a bit too long. On the very next pitch Alfonso Soriano bounced hard up the middle, but the back of Doug Davis’s abdomen came between my visions of base hit and first and third and the actual 1-3, fielder’s choice we ended up with, once Davis recovered and pegged Alfonso out. Davis was tentative to Giambi, falling behind 2-0 before sending a pitch across the strike zone, and Giambi punished it — on a long liner to left that just barely failed to clear Frank Catalanotto’s outstretched glove.

Jeff Weaver, meanwhile, was dealing, striking out the first two Jays and pounding through the first two innings on a mere 24 pitches,. He barely batted an eye after Dave Berg’s one-out hit in the third, finishing the Jays on a pop to Jeter and a bouncer back to the box.

When Jorge Posada came to the plate leading off the second, he swung at Davis’s first pitch, lining it off the camera box past the visiting dugout down third, where it rolled to third base ump Marty Foster, who kicked it back to the ball boy. Davis threw ball one and two, got a strike call from Fieldin Culbreth behind the plate. But Jorge then put on a foul ball display that had people whose seats ringed the field scurrying for their lives, so to speak. One young person behind the Yankee dugout, I’m sorry to report, needed medical attention during the ensuing mayhem. Pitch five was struck to right. Jorge followed with a liner foul down into the left field corner, then a rising missile to the Tier boxes 50-60 feet foul down the right field line. Ball three followed, two more hard fouls, and then Jorge lined the 11th pitch of a great at bat into the left field boxes for a leadoff home run and a 1-0 lead.

Up and down the lineup today, the Yankees hit, and hit hard. A desperate Joe Torre redesigned his lineup, and the hits came. Derek Jeter led off for the first time this season, lined a single on Doug Davis’s fourth pitch of the day, and homered off Pete Walker leading off the seventh. Hideki Matsui singled in the fifth and seventh after his first-inning liner hung up; Soriano followed his hard-luck first-inning bouncer with a first-pitch single in the third and a homer in the ninth, again on the frame’s first toss. Juan Rivera chipped in with a single and long double to the left center field gap, Todd Zeile walked and singled, and Jason Giambi walked twice and singled up the middle in the ninth after the deep liner to left had sent out a scare in the first.

On the other hand, young Jeff Weaver was tried by fire in the fourth, and he came up wanting, or the meager runs we scored may have been enough. The travesty that was the visiting fourth began on another careless bobble by rising superstar Alfonso Soriano, this one on Frank Catalonotto’s grounder toward the hole. Weaver was tested, and he failed, falling behind Wells 3-0 and eventually walking him. He started power hitter Delgado with a ball, coaxed a foul, ball two, strike two. The 2-2 pitch was pivotal, as it would be to Greg Myers one at bat later. Jeff came inside to Delgado, too far inside, the resulting hit by pitch loading the bases with no one out.

The lefty-hitting Myers then fouled a pitch, took a ball, then a strike, and the crowd thought we could see a little daylight. But Weaver wasted the fourth pitch and found himself at that 2-2 crossroads again. His fifth offering was hard and inside again, and Myers skipped out of the way. But he was ready for the fast ball that followed and he doubled to the right field corner for two runs. Phelps followed with a long sac fly that Matsui tracked nicely, but both runners advanced, and Myers scored the frame’s fourth run when Juan Rivera trapped Hudson’s soft liner to short left.

Later Weaver would leave the game after allowing double, single, single to lead off the sixth, and the bullpen came in and did another great job. Chris Hammond stilled the uprising he was brought in to face after a soft fly to left by Hudson. The second out was special-delivered on a 2-5 caught stealing on the first pitch to Berg on a rare Blue Jay hit-and-run attempt. Chris got six outs and through the seventh on a mere 22 pitches despite Reed Johnson’s one-out single to left in that inning. Sterling Hitchcock came in for another efficient two innings. The smack of his called third strike into Jorge’s glove that left Phelps standing at the plate and ended the eighth had 90-mph fastball written all over it, and he survived a leadoff double by Hudson in the ninth when he caught the diminutive second baseman leaning after the third strike to Berg, the ensuing 1-4-5 rundown leaving the Jays with two out and nobody on.

I’ll admit that a bystander who walked in during any of designated hitter Bubba Trammel’s three at bats would be one hard to convince that anything has improved in Yankee land. The life of a bench player is a tough one, but Bubba’s rare start today wasn’t against an elite righty but a middling lefty. The trade that brought Trammell here had more to do with moving Rondell White and on the tall lefty prospect we acquired in return. The lanky southpaw Mark Phillips has managed a 3-1 record in Tampa, but the 21 walks in 27 innings are a concern, so the fruits of this trade may end up being judged by the 2003 seasons the principals manage. White is playing regularly, and he has exactly four times the at bats that Bubba has at this point in the season. White has 47 hits, with nine homers and 27 rbi. After today’s grounder to first, pop to second and fielder’s choice bouncer to short, each a bit softer than the one before, Trammell has nine hits (four doubles), four rbi and no home runs.

As I’ve said, part-time hitter is a hard role to fill, and Bubba should get some more time, but if “Designated” describes what his roll has been, “Hitter” defines what it hasn’t. Group Trammell’s at bats today with Raul Mondesi’s (0 for 5 with three strike outs), and the team looks like it did during last weekend’s sleep walk against Buck Showalter’s Texas Rangers. But Raul has been a day-in, day-out contributor to this team, and his hard, long — and depressingly foul — shot past the left field foul pole with two on in the seventh gave today’s crowd their most uplifting moment of the day.

The Yanks scored three runs today, and each scored on a singleton home run. But it was not the display of three long balls that convinces me that we are ready to turn the page, but rather the 12 hits. Teams get out of sync, and this one certainly is now. We failed to hit on seven opportunities with men in scoring position. We had back-to-back base hits twice, and both times it was homer first, then single, and we singled after the other homer too, only one out later.

The continued losses through injury of key performers, Bernie Williams being the latest, have been devastating, but the team fought and clawed today. Endless amateur GM debates go on as to whether Joe should hit Soriano first or Jeter first, moving Soriano’s power into an rbi spot. And Joe, to his credit, is trying to “shake it up,” batting Derek first today with Alfonso third. To no avail. They both hit bases-empty homers.

But the crowd was lively and into it from the second-inning short-lived lead through another bottom of the ninth that came up a bit short. Freddy the fan was seemingly everywhere with his brightly painted two-sided sign exhorting on the fans to “be patient” with the Yanks on the one side, and to “help change” their fortunes on the other. He was among us in the Tier boxes behind home in the second today, and I spied him down among the main boxes behind the Yankee dugout after Jeter’s homer in the seventh. The aging Freddy carries a pep-squad-filled load of enthusiasm with him every game, and this number one fan celebrated another birthday just the other day, so please encourage him in his efforts and heed his appeals for cheers next time you make it to the Bronx.

On May 25, 1962, the Isley Brothers had a moderate hit when they recorded the Bert Russell/Phil Medley rock anthem, “Twist and Shout.” The Beatles would turn the song into solid gold in less than a year. And Monday, weather-permitting, the halls of history will be visiting the Bronx, as Roger Clemens goes for his 300th win. Mr. Torre has already shown a willingness to take the lineup and “shake it up,” if it will snap the team out of this funk. During Posada’s 11-pitch endeavor in Sunday’s second inning, I screamed to him, “Great at bat, Jorge. Work it, work it!”, reminiscent of that song’s “work it on out.” Then Jorge went yard, and the crowd exploded. They clapped, they pointed, they swayed, and I’m sure there was a twist or two in there, a “Twist and Shout,” if you will.

We are coming out of it, and we are doing it quickly. Boston comes in just in time.

“Well shake it, shake it, shake it, baby now.
Twist and shout!”

And win.

YANKEE BASEBALL!!!