Bronx, N.Y., April 16, 2011 – If there’s such a thing as a “mudder” among baseball pitchers, veteran righty Freddy Garcia may have earned the title. Garcia gave the Yankees six superb innings in his first start of the season in Yankee Stadium Saturday afternoon in as unpleasant a day for a baseball game as you are likely to find. New York weather has been making the Yankees – and their fans – pay for their April-heavy schedule for two-plus weeks.

Off to a better first month than his recent Yankee experience had led fans to expect, Mark Teixeira gave Garcia a quick three-run lead with a two-run home run to right in the first, and a sac fly to left in the third. With lefty Derek Holland throwing effectively for Texas, the game held at that score until the Rangers rallied for two runs in the eighth. But Robinson Cano homered off the foul pole for two runs in the bottom of that frame, allowing Mariano Rivera to come on for the save with the three-run bulge the Bombers enjoyed much of the miserable afternoon.

Yankee fans nervous about the soft-throwing Garcia’s start had their first nervous moment in the top of the second once the righty retired three straight in the first. Adrian Beltre smacked a single to left leading off, and once Nelson Cruz worked an eight-pitch walk, calamity for the home team’s 2-0 lead seemed just a pitch or two away. But Nick Swisher came in for a David Murphy liner to right, and Derek Jeter forced Cruz on a grounder into the hole, as Garcia began a string of nine batters retired in a row on 11, 10, and 10 pitches to coast to the fifth.

Definitely a member of the “hit bats” school of pitching, Garcia’s mid-eighties fastball and slider kept the Rangers off stride, and they stumbled through flailing swings trying to center his 67-mph curve. The closest battle taking place through four innings was whether Freddy would retire more batters via the fly or the ground ball: It was a dead heat at six apiece. But it was critical the veteran keep it up because when Holland surrendered Tex’s sac fly in the third it began a stretch where he set down 16 of 18 Yankees.

Murphy, however, broke Garcia’s spell with a single to lead off the top of the fifth. Freddy shrugged it off though, or would have had it been possible for anyone to be comfortable enough to make such a casual gesture holding his position on the mound bracing against a driving wind and rain squalls that went more than skin deep. No Ranger had swung and missed at a pitch to this point, but Yorvit Torrealba appeared to do just that on a 2-2 pitch, but first base ump Fieldin Culbreth ruled he held up. The Rangers catcher bounced to third with Murphy running on the next pitch, and then DH Mitch Moreland drove a ball high to right into the driving wind. Swisher broke back, then circled to his left as a gust lifted the sphere yet higher, then back toward home plate, with the Yankee right fielder desperately lunging after it in pursuit. Nick caught the ball with his extended glove as he stumbled to the grass, and Murphy trotted over to third, the only visitor to reach that far with Garcia throwing.

That settled the fly ball/grounders battle. Throwing so well, Freddy wasn’t afraid to change things. Mixing in a splitter, he retired three of four on ground balls, around a swinging strike out of Ian Kinsler. With that, Garcia finished up his 82-pitch pitch, six-inning day. His 54-to-28 strikes-to-balls ratio was about 2-to-1; the 14 of 21 first-pitch strikes matched it as well. He allowed just two harmless singles, a walk and no runs, coaxing his lone three swings and misses at the end when he needed it, for the one puch out.

Joe Girardi did not hesitate to replace Freddy’s soft tosses with Joba Chamberlain’s hard ones; the bulky righty mixed some 94-mph heat with sliders at 86 mph that traveled at greater speed than most of Garcia’s fast balls. Joba pitched the seventh, with two strike outs around an infield single, but then we found out for the second time on the young season that new setup man Rafael Soriano does not pitch well in frigid conditions. A leadoff eighth-inning ground rule double by Moreland started the mayhem and, following a fielder’s choice grounder, a five-pitch walk and two singles spelled serious trouble, with a lead that had shrunk to 3-2. The frozen crowd got to witness their collective worst nightmare as Beltre lifted a long opposite field fly to right. But the wind was on the Yankees’ side this time, and it curved the blast in front of the pole for a foul ball, and a huge collective sigh from fans who had braved almost three hours of the early season’s worst day. Two pitches later, Beltre grounded hard to second and a 4-6-3 got Soriano off the hook with the home team clinging to the one-run lead.

Looking for insurance, it was Teixeira’s bat yet again that got the Yanks started in the inning’s bottom half, as he singled to right field. One out later, Robinson Cano tested the right field foul pole as Beltre had, but the second baseman’s liner caromed off the pole for a two-run jolt and a 5-2 lead. Mariano came on for the save, and the Yanks evened their three-gamer with Texas at one apiece.

The outing from Garcia was hugely good news for the starting pitching-stretched Yankees, as is the fact that they signed Eric Chavez in the off-season, because third baseman Alex Rodriguez, who has been hitting hard line drives in games since February 26, and who made a diving stop of an Elvis Andrus grounder in the third, came out early with a sore oblique muscle. Chavez will be subbing at third for a few days, and maybe more. Brett Gardner also came into this one late, replacing Andruw Jones in the eighth for defense. Jones, who continues to show a quick bat with two singles, made a good charging catch of a sinking liner by Pedro Borbon in the third.

There have been strange postings on the out-of-town scoreboard two days running. Friday night, they showed an early 3-0 Toronto lead in Boston, only to have the runs removed, although the Jays would come back and win after falling behind. It turned out the score had briefly been 3-0, but a home run was removed on a replay decision. But that does not explain the odd way the pitchers were listed on Saturday’s board. Pitchers are listed with their uniform numbers, which as with the lineups, became a confusing approach Friday night, because all players wore No. 42 in honor of Jackie Robinson. The confusion continued this day on the out-of-town, as the “42s” were retained by the pitcher IDs at every game’s listing, every one but one that is. No. 42 pitched for 27 teams if the board was to be believed, all except No. 37, who was listed as starting for the Kansas City Royals. That’s right-hander Sean O’Sullivan, who with a win this day managed to even his career record at 9-9.

So the Yanks are one Sunday night battle vs. Texas away from two contests in the Rogers Center in Toronto, the first two games of the season they can be certain that the team in the opposite dugout will be the main enemy, and not the conditions. A week later they close the frozen Bronx month that was with four against the White Sox, and two with the Jays, and one more on May 1. So far they have withstood the conditions far better than their fans. So far, much of Brian Cashman’s off-season work is paying off big time. This day Freddy Garcia came up huge.

Freddy got his first Yankee win on Sean O’Sullivan Day in the Bronx.

BTW,TYW
YANKEE BASEBALL!!!