Bronx, N.Y., August 22, 2010 — Yankee fans and baseball enthusiasts looking to bask in the glow of Sunday’s 10-0 destruction of the Seattle Mariners in Yankee Stadium might be disappointed reading this report. As one of the Pinstriped persuasion who feels brought low by losses both big and small, and who agonizes over every pitch in a close game, I love a good old blowout as much as anyone. But if you’re looking at the Sunday contest through 10-0 glasses, you’re missing much of what transpired in the Yankee palace.

True, I was not one of the fans who booed when interim Seattle manager Daren Brown ordered Mark Teixeira walked with Derek Jeter and Nick Swisher on third and second base via a walk, single and error, respectively, in a 1-0 game in the fifth. I was thinking of a Luke French/Robbie Cano confrontation with the sacks stuffed with eager anticipation. One pitch is all it took to turn the one-run squeaker to squeals of delight from the hometown throng.

A promising 5-0 lead once Cano’s drive cleared the wall, the margin would grow when Robbie drove in two more in a three-run sixth, and singleton tallies in the seventh and eighth resulted in the lopsided final. Kerry Wood got five outs and Joba Chamberlain four for a double-digit score in a game that would have gone final in 2:44 if not for the downpour that interrupted matters before the bottom of the sixth. Yippee.

But though it blew by, most of this battle was anything but an easy win. True, the Yanks had ace CC Sabathia on the mound in search of an AL-leading 17th win, and the Mariners looked to have no chance to score through the early frames. In fact, rookie catcher Adam Moore’s swinging bunt down first leading off the third resulted in their only baserunner through four. Oddly ruled an error on Mark Teixeira because he dropped the ball while trying to scramble to pick it up, then race back to the bag, it was clearly an infield single, but perhaps the fact that CC had a no-no going was a mitigating factor.

Sabathia barely broke a sweat, striking out six in these four innings on 53 pitches. CC, who would not return after the rain delay in a game with a comfortable lead, threw 13 of 22 first-pitch strikes. He approached a 3-to-1 ratio with 56/22 strikes/balls, and not only did the big lefty not walk a batter; he went to a three-ball count once, when Chone Figgins fouled off a few two-strike pitches in the first. But CC would eventually allow three hits. He is human.

The Yanks, meanwhile, were not having their way with southpaw French, but they did cause some sparks, much of it self-extinguished. Jeter singled up the middle on the young Seattle hurler’s first pitch, but Swisher hit into a 6-4-3 on the next. Two walks around a Jose Lopez error on an Austin Kearns grounder loaded the bases in the second, but Casey Kotchman prevented Eduardo Nunez from being the hero two days running on a fine play running back to snare the rookie’s soft liner over first.

A hit and run after a one-out Teixeira single in the third backfired, as shortstop Josh Wilson, covering second, needed to make the slightest of course corrections to snare Cano’s hard bouncer up the middle for an inning-ending 6-6-3. And not only were these offensive starts and stops frustrating, the gathering clouds in the sky were only partly a metaphor for the continuing disappointments. It was clear rain was coming, the wind started whipping, with hot dog wrappers and tissue paper blowing all over the field.

Even though the left field flags were blowing in when Thames drilled French’s first pitch of the home fourth, left fielder Matt Tuiasosopo seemed to settle under the ball, but it kept carrying and took him all the way to the wall. Another out later, the direction of the wind became moot when Kearns unleashed a missile to left center that was in the stands in no time. With the weather worsening in a contest four outs from being a complete game, it seemed a huge break. Gardner bounced out, and CC took the mound for the top of the fifth.

There were raindrops falling by now, intermittent, but getting harder, when Franklin Gutierrez knocked us all back on our heels by doubling past Nunez’s attempted dive, down the left field line. Sabathia got Kotchman to fly to short center, with the speedy Gardner, with Curtis Granderson sitting this one out, racing to keep up as the ball was blown further and further toward the infield. But Moore lined a single to right, and Swisher charged, scooped, and heaved the ball toward home. The throw was true, Jorge Posada snatched it just left of the plate and applied the tag. The crowd erupted in joy. The tension grew a bit as Tuiasosopo was hit with a 1-2 pitch, pushing Moore to second, but CC struck out Wilson, and the crowd relaxed.

Then came the fifth and Cano’s big blast, and CC notched his eighth strike out in retiring the Ms in the sixth. The rains came with the home team holding a lead much greater than the 1-0 edge they had scratched to get and retain an inning before. Five more runs in the late innings, and the result was the big 10-run shutout that ensured the team would win its second straight series, in a 5-2 home stand.

Cano is certainly making a statement as the fourth place hitter with A-Rod sidelined. With six big rbi’s Sunday, two the day before and three on Thursday, Alex may have to work to wrest the spot from him. Posada homered for the second straight day, and he looks fresh and healthy after a week of catching more often than not. Teixeira had two hits and walked three times, eight Yankees scored, and five drove in runs. And CC did nothing to endanger his reputation as an an ace, a stud who can carry a team, particularly in the season’s waning months.

It goes without saying that this is just one of many pennant races the Yankees have taken part in the last 90 years, and they have often picked up a player to help them in the stretch run. On August 22, 1949, they purchased the contract of Johnny Mize from the Giants. A slugger who had dominated NL offensive categories with the Giants and Cards for years, Mize would never match those numbers playing in the Bronx, but he was a valuable team asset. Kearns, on the other hand, a 1998 first-round draft pick for the Reds, has not dominated the game, but he has had some serviceable years, mostly with the Reds and the Nationals, before the Yanks picked him up from Cleveland last month.

So let the fanbase bask in the 10-run outburst, in CC’s dominance and in Cano’s offensive outburst. But around 2:00 Sunday afternoon, in my mind we were looking at a 1-0 rain-shortened victory with the offense supplied by Kearns. Mize never led the offense in the Bronx once he arrived. All he did was play here five years, and earn five rings for his trouble. I like what Kearns has done since his arrival, and look for much more. I recommend Johnny Mize as a player Austin could emulate in the current Yankee team mix.

10-0? Forget the zero. The Yanks won this one early, and they won it 1-0.

BTW,TYW
YANKEE BASEBALL!!!