Bronx, N.Y., July 16, 2010 — Yankee fans were comforted in the first 15 minutes of the Friday night festivities that the team would get the scene and the sounds right as the organization prepares to play the season’s second half minus two of its icons. Cheered by the sights of Derek Jeter’s brief pregame speech, Mariano Rivera’s poignant presentation of flowers to home plate, and the images of the patches that honor long-time public address announcer Bob Sheppard and owner George Steinbrenner, they were also treated to a cathartic and poignant rendering of Taps, a stirring National Anthem, and the graceful gesture by Paul Oldin that no announcer would be calling out player names the first game after Mr. Sheppard’s passing. The Bleacher Creatures even went along by skipping the traditional Yankee roll call. But what wasn’t nearly as clear was, could the team shake off the All Star lull and all the emotional distractions and get the baseball right as well?
On an emotional night leading into what is sure to be an emotional weekend, the young Tampa Rays pestered CC Sabathia and the Yanks for four runs over seven innings in a game they seemed to be about to win on at least two occasions. CC, owner of eight straight wins, was good but not great, and he would not throw another one, two, three inning after shutting the Rays down in order in the first. As a matter of fact, although he went seven, the fourth and sixth innings were the only two where he faced just four Tampa batters. The visitors reached him for single runs in the second, the third, and the fifth. And even more disappointingly, they reached him for a tally in the seventh too, once the home team did the unexpected and suddenly arose to tie matters in the sixth.
The Yanks had scored one run against Tampa righty James Shields in the third as All Star Nick Swisher plated Brett Gardner, who had walked, with a single. But the one-base hit was one of the just two the Yanks managed through the first five innings, and once Mark Teixeira and Alex Rodriguez were retired on six pitches leading off the home sixth, it appeared to be more of the same. But back-to-back, Robbie Cano and Jorge Posada blasted singleton home runs, the latter on a 3-0 pitch, and the game was tied 3-3. It seemed a game-changing moment to a team that had trailed for five frames, but it quickly seemed for naught as Sabathia was in quick trouble in the top of the seventh.
Speed was a factor, as Justin Upton beat out an infield single, and Carl Crawford followed with a hard hopper to right. When Swisher tried to catch Upton speeding to third, Crawford shadowed the play, and Nick’s somewhat offline throw resulted in runners on second and third with no outs. The ensuing Evan Longoria intentional walk was a no brainer, and a strike out of Carlos Pena turned things a bit, but Ben Zobrist’s roller to third was too slow for a play at the plate, and although A-Rod pegged him out the score was 4-3.
Grant Balfour threw a one, two, three seventh against the Yanks, but David Robertson responded by striking out three straight Rays in the eighth. And Joaquin Benoit had the misfortune of running into one Yankee All Star who continues the vibe in the bottom half. Swisher struck out in the first Friday night, and he made an ugly two-base error in the sixth, but he had four straight great at bats. His single in the third had scored the Yanks’ first run, and in the fifth he flied deep to right, a ball that easily would have cleared the fence, but Gabe Kapler made a great catch. But Kapler had no shot at the deep fly Nick lofted down the right field line on Benoit’s fourth eighth-inning pitch. It stayed fair, and the game was tied 4-4.
Things got briefly tense in the top of the ninth when Upton reached on yet another infield single off Mariano Rivera. It was an unfortunate circumstance that both the ball and part of the bat came raining down on Rodriguez at the same time, and Alex could catch neither. If there is a perfect pitcher out there, Mo is it, but who would have expected this night to be a case of an old dog learning new tricks, so to speak. Perhaps because he rarely allows a runner to reach first base, Mariano has never had the best move. But he barely missed picking Upton off on a 1-1 pitch to Crawford, then picked him clean at 2-1. Mo then calmly closed the inning on a fly out and a called third strike.
The Rays brought on one-time Yankee southpaw Randy Choate to face three lefties in the ninth, but the 0-for-3 Curtis Granderson worked through seven pitches, then singled. A sac bunt and walk brought Derek Jeter up, but this was not the Captain’s night, and Dan Wheeler came on to strike him out. Veteran righty Lance Cormier was brought in to face Swisher. Wondering over the move, a scan of the scoreboard brought the impression that Cormier had a 10.37 era, but as it turned out it was 10:37 pm; Lance had thrown to a 4.37 in 2010’s first half. But the misread had me feeling good, and maybe Swish too. Something sure did. Maybe it’s just that Nick is feeling very comfortable in his skin these days, and thinks he can hit anything. Whatever the case, he ripped a 2-1 pitch past second base, and Granderson scored the winning run. Mr. Swisher earned himself a helping of 2010 Yankee pie.
July 16 has been a big day in Yankee history. Babe Ruth set a season record with 30 home runs 90 years ago, and Joe DiMaggio had three hits to stretch his streak to 56 games on this day in 1941. But on a day when the Yanks played and won the first game after both Bob Sheppard and George Steinbrenner passed away, the team made a little more history in 2010.
BTW,TYW
YANKEE BASEBALL!!!