Bronx, N.Y., June 13, 2010 — Hall of Famer Dave Winfield, despite having a tough 1981 postseason with the Yankees, had a string of All Star seasons playing for the team, years where his numbers were comparable with those of any offensive star in the American League. Aside from his premier year in New York, the slugger posted 100-plus-rbi seasons six straight years, and in six of seven, before back surgery cost him the the 1989 season. It easily could have been eight straight too, except for what befell poor Dave in 1987.

In 1987, the player hitting in front of cleanup hitter Winfield was the beloved Don Mattingly, who not only tied a record by homering in eight games in a row that year; he also set one of his own by clearing packed bases six times. Six times Winny could have hit with all those rbi chances clogging bases in front of him, only to have Donnie Baseball wipe the slate clean and leave Dave with nary a runner to plate with anything but a four-base hit. Robbed of those 18 potential rbi chances, Winfield had to settle with a below-par 97 season rbi’s.

Brett Gardner, the player who has had to hit behind Jorge Posada the last two days (though he entered Saturday’s tilt once Marcus Thames left with an injury), thankfully has a game predicated on speed, defense, and run scoring, not driving runs in. For this reason, it’s doubtful Brett will be petitioning Joe Girardi to move him out of the seventh spot, behind Jorge Posada. Because, you see, Jorge now looms as the 2010 Yankee “rbi hog,” as he has now homered with the bases loaded, grabbing four rbi’s at a shot, on back-to-back days.

In perhaps more headline grabbing news, Phil Hughes nabbed his ninth win of the year, the Yanks completed a three-game sweep of the awful Houston Astros, and the Bombers moved into a first-place tie with the Tampa Bay Rays. Despite being nicked for a first-inning run after Posada’s throw on a double steal hit Houston batter Carlos Lee in the batter’s box, Hughes put up five fine frames in notching the win before running into trouble in the sixth. He allowed just the one run on three singles and two walks through five while striking out five. But after Houston wildness and Yankee power gave him a 7-1 lead after the fifth, a terrific at bat by light-hitting (until this weekend) Tommy Manzello burned him. The Houston shortstop’s nine-pitch at bat turned a mildly annoying sixth inning into a rally, as his single beyond Derek Jeter’s try scored two, and ex-Yank Kevin Cash followed with a rare home run around the pole in left to close the game to 7-5.

But in a wild and ugly game on a wild and ugly day, New York replied with two quick tallies on Nick Swisher and Gardner rbi base hits following a Marl Teixeira double and an error on a Robbie Cano grounder. It was Cano, to the surprise of absolutely no one, who had homered to tie the game at 1-1 in the home fourth, the 100th round tripper of Robbie’s stellar major league career. Houston starter Brian Moeller then lost the plate to disastrous results, both for him and the two bullpenners who followed him. Moeller walked three around a strike out, and light-hitting Ramiro Pena, in at third for the ailing Alex Rodriguez, singled in two.

Once a walk to Curtis Granderson pushed Moeller’s pitch count to three digits in the fifth, lefty Gustavo Chacin came in and walked Cano and Swisher on 10 pitches to load ’em up for Jorge. Houston hurlers issued 10 free passes Sunday afternoon, the real cause of the team’s loss, but you’ll have to forgive the almost 47,000 attendees if they point rather to what happened next. Righty Casey Daigle came on and fell behind 2-0; Jorge was ready for the ensuing get-me-over fastball and deposited it over the right field fence for his eighth rbi over two at bats through two days.

The game never got neater and the rains had the overflow crowd scurrying in the latter innings, but it would end at the 9-5 score the two-run Yankee rally in the sixth forged. Hughes, who had his low era damaged by the four-run sixth, still posted his 250th career strike out against Hunter Pence in the fifth inning, finished with six Ks, and is on a serious track for All Star game selection based on his 9-1 record. Damaso Marte, Chan-Ho Park, Joba Chamberlain, and Mariano Rivera finished the visitors off, with a strike out each by Marte and Park and two by Mo bringing the team total to 10, matching the too high number of walks the Stros issued.

Gardner was the only Yank to have two hits, Cano scored three times, Jorge crossed home plate twice, but Ramiro Pena gets big kudos for the two-run single that gave the Bombers their first lead. But also requiring mention is mlb-debuting right fielder Chad Huffman, who despite being thrown out in a base-running blunder following the Pena hit, electrified the crowd and his (in attendance) parents by beating out an infield single during his first ever big-leagues at bat.

The oddest experience of the game, perhaps, was the long wait for justice for Mark Teixeira who, despite being thumped with a Moeller fastball at roughly 1:24 during the first inning, wouldn’t be rewarded first base by home plate ump Ted Barrett until 4:24, when righty Jeff Fulchino hit him for a second time seven innings later. Apparently Barrett felt that Mark’s painful hop and stumble after the first inning missile clearly struck him belonged more to Sunday night’s TONY Award competition for Best Actor than to a ballgame.

With all the buzz accruing from the soccer World Cup going on in South Africa, it’s easy to pay tribute to what would have been the 118th birthday of actor Basil Rathbone, born this day in Johannesburg in 1892. Although an accomplished Shakespearean actor, Rathbone will forever be known for his portrayal of super sleuth Sherlock Holmes. I’m sure Basil could straighten Brett Gardner out the next time he stands on deck with the bases loaded but arrives at the plate with no runners to be seen. The Case of the Empty Bases is elementary, really.

The DH/catcher did it.

BTW,TYW
YANKEE BASEBALL!!!