Bronx, N.Y., May 13, 2011 – Two struggling teams resumed their age-old rivalry in the Bronx Friday night with the Red Sox coming to town to face the Yankees. Both teams got good work from their starters, and both offenses broke through once to get the game to the seventh inning tied 2-2. But back-to-back long drives to the opposite field made Joba Chamberlain and the Yankees a loser, eventually by a 5-4 score. The two teams played pretty well, and the crowd, at 48,000-plus, up some 7,000 from what it’s been in a cold wet Spring, cheered mostly for the home team, with the usual significant minority going the other way, though New York’s northernmost borough ended up with a quieter than usual evening nonetheless. A slight chance of rain never materialized, and it was pleasant if still cooler than baseball weather. Both teams made mistakes too, but when the Yankees shot themselves in the foot, the hurt lasted longer.
The Red Sox broke in front against a superb Bartolo Colon first, with Adrian Gonzalez blasting a 1-0 fastball leading off the fourth inning well inside the foul pole in right. But if that wasn’t painful enough, Colon would be reached for a second run after his swinging strike out of Kevin Youkilis got past Russell Martin for a passed ball. Two walks and two fielder’s choices sent Youkilis home for run No. 2, although Colon had his only two-strike-out frame of the night.
Clay Buccholz dominated Yankee bats earlier much better than he contolled his targets, as he went to three-ball counts in each of the first four innings. But he struck out five in that span, beating the home team with his heat early, then unleashing a devastating change of pace when the Bombers began to catch up. A Youklis error on a Jeter grounder, Nick Swisher walk and single by Alex Rodriguez was all the Yanks could muster through four, but they broke through after Jorge Posada singled sharply to start the home fifth on a 2-0 pitch. Russell Martin took the next pitch over the left center field fence for a 2-2 tie.
But the Yanks weren’t done, as Brett Gardner lined a one-base hit to center. Two chances for an extra base would then pass, first when a Buchholz pickoff attempt glanced off Gonzalez (Brett was diving into first, and couldn’t reverse field), and later when a pitch got away from catcher Jarrod Saltalamacchia with Brett on second with one down. The ball rolled just 30 feet up the first base line, but Gardner clearly had the extra bag if he was ready and pounced. He flinched, drew back toward second and lost his chance. To be clear, he seemed more reluctant than unaware, but I’m not sure that that’s better from what is supposed to be a Yankee offensive weapon. The ensuing fly ball to center from Curtis Granderson would have scored Gardner easily had he been on third base.
Colon pitched around two, two-out ground singles in the sixth; Buccholz pitched around a two-out Nick Swisher ground rule double to left when he took Gonzalez’s throw at first for one of his three putouts and three assists from the pitching position he contributed to the Boston defense. (Jonathan Papelbon would add one in the ninth.) Colon had survived the two-hit sixth, yes, but the extended inning got him up to 100 pitches, and when Saltalamacchia singled to start the seventh, a well-rested Chamberlain came on and met with nothing but trouble. Ellsbury forced the Boston catcher after the Yanks missed on what seemed a genuine chance to double up the speedy center fielder, first when home plate ump Chris Guccione ruled an 18-inch roller that Martin pounced on foul, then when Robinson Cano and Derek Jeter judged they did not have a chance for the 4-6-3 on a bouncer to the Yankee second baseman. Ellsbury broke for second on a 1-1 pitch to Dustin Pedroia, who guessed correctly that Robinson Cano would be covering, and singled through the vacated second base hole for runners on the corners. Joba was throwing hard, and neither Gonzalez nor Youkilis could pull his throws, though they did hit them hard, Adrian with a sac fly to the wall in left for the lead. But the big blow was when the Boston third baseman followed by lifting 97 mph high cheese and delivering it over the wall in right for 5-2, a run, as it turned out, too far.
The Stadium became very quiet shortly thereafter once the crowd was regaled with God Bless America and Take Me out to the Ballgame at the seventh inning stretch as the scoreboard speaker sound system crashed, and we found out that some of the great videos of Yankee highlights meant to stir up the natives are largely ineffective without sound. The crowd did rise once Granderson led off the home eighth with a triple off Daniel Bard; Curtis would score on a Bard wild pitch. But Posada bounced out with two in scoring position, with Cano on second after being hit by a pitch in his second consecutive game, over three days. Papelbon came on and got two quick outs to start the ninth, but Jeter singled sharply over second and scored after moving up on defensive indifference when Grandy singled to left.
The silent later innings were unique, and not entirely unpleasant, but they did morph into something ugly at game’s end. A Friday night crowd largely stuck around for a two-run game heading into the ninth. But when the Bombers took their ups in the bottom half, it was in front of a creepily silent, and largely lifeless, bunch. Surely most knew the game was on the line, and that the Yanks had the tying run at the plate after the Jeter single, then on first once Curtis drove him in. The Bronx hosted a much weaker team 20 years ago this day on May 13, 1991, but the Stadium attracted a crowd that had a clear sense of purpose back then. In a story that would have entranced Twitter and rocked Facebook, Jose Canseco of the visiting Oakland A’s was seen leaving pop star Madonna’s Manhattan apartment from what was assumed to have been a late-night tryst. Merciless in their attacks, the part-time residents of the home office for baseball, the Baseball Cathedral, serenaded the power-hitting outfielder with Like a Virgin at that night’s game, littering the field with celebratory props including an inflatable doll. The overmatched home team took a 6-3 victory away from that one, against a team they had lost to regularly over several years.
So with two outs and Granderson dancing off first in front of a pretty big crowd, a minority of which was standing yelling and gesticulating for all they were worth, Mark Teixeira, who had popped out to short after the eighth-inning triple, then did the same, this time to third base, and Boston’s victory was secure.
This game took place on the 60th anniversary of the game where Mickey Mantle hit his first big league home run from the right side, on May 13, 1951. Unlike this one, it was on the road, and not in Boston, but rather in Philadelphia, against the forbears of Mr. Canseco’s A’s. Mantle homered all right, but in a loss, a 5-4 loss. He popped up to end it.
YANKEE BASEBALL!!!