Bronx, N.Y., August 25, 2011 – It was a day of extremes at Yankee Stadium Thursday afternoon. The skies opened in the morning, making the legions of fans traveling to the park wonder if they were wasting their time. Despite discouraging weather repors, however, the rain slowed, then stopped, although intermittent showers continued through the early hours of the game.

“Early hours?” Yes, I said early hours. Those in attendance were about to experience a day for the ages, but if they thought the 90-minute delay went slowly, they had no idea what awaited them. The game began with a disappointing start from Phil Hughes, throwing as if he wanted his name in the “Who is out of the Yankee rotation?” sweepstakes. An enigma to be sure, Hughes looked strong if inconsistent early. The single run in the first scored following a leadoff seeing-eye single, but the next run came via back-to-back booming doubles. But mixing in an effective change of pace and slider with his 93-mph heat, Phil struck out the side in the second, and would whiff five of the first 11 A’s batters.

The Yanks, meanwhile, had equaled the early score on Derek Jeter’s leadoff triple and a groundout, then failed to do the same in the second when Brett Gardner popped out to short with one out and the bases loaded. Brett would do the same thing three innings later, but it would not be an overall bad Yankee day when the bases were loaded.

But there was plenty of bad road yet to be traveled, and the A’s drove Hughes from the mound with a five-run third. Three singles around a strike out scored one, and following a fly out a fourth hit plated another, ending Phil’s day. Shortstop Chad Pennington pounded Cory Wade’s first pitch for a three-run homer to right, and a 7-1 A’s lead. Having lost close games to Oakland the last few days, the Stadium crowd wasn’t nearly as happy that the team had managed to get this one started after all.

Veteran right-hander Rich Harden was in no hurry to leave a game where he had such a lead and, although the Yanks challenged, he did seem up to the task. He pitched out of the bases-loaded jam in the second, around an A-Rod single in the third, and a Russell Martin home run to right in the fourth, an opposite-field shot inside the foul pole that closed the margin to 7-2. But the fifth was Harden’s Waterloo. Jeter and Rodriguez singles around a Curtis Granderson walk loaded the bases before Robinson Cano unloaded them, via a grand slam to right for a 7-6 score. A Swisher double drove Harden from the mound but, although the Yanks would reload the bases, the game went to the sixth with that same score.

Starting a theme that would continue for the next few innings once the visitors failed to score, A’s lefty Craig Breslow allowed three batters to reach, not by surrendering base hits, but by missing the zone. A hit by pitch and two walks loaded the bases, and Martin unloaded them with his second home run of the game, this one a missile to right center, and the Yanks’ second grand slam, giving the home team a 10-7 lead.

The A’s replaced Breslow with a series of hurlers, but none that could consistently find the plate, and the six-run Yankee seventh that followed was highlighted, not by a big Bomber blast, but seven walks. Scott Sizemore halted the carnage briefly by homering in the top of the eighth, but the Yanks were back at it in the bottom half, with Martin’s fifth hit, a one-out double off the wall in left, helping to load the bases. Gardner drove in a run with a walk, and Jeter struck out, but Granderson made history by drilling a 1-2 pitch over the wall in right for the Yanks’ history-making third grand slam of the game. As if to punctuate the momentous frame, Andruw Jones followed with a long bomb to left for the Bombers’ fifth home run, and 22nd run.

Wade, Hector Noesi and Luis Ayala pitched well enough for the Yanks, but the win went to Boone Logan, not only because he was on the mound when the home team took the lead; he also struck out all four batters he faced. But this was all about the offense. Grand slammers Cano and Granderson each stroked two hits, crossed the plate with two runs, and drove in five runs each, and Jeter and Eduardo Nunez had three hits. But if this were an NHL game, all three stars would go to Russell “the Muscle” Martin, who had a 5-for-5 day, cleared two fences and just missed a third, scored four times, and drove in six runs.

All 14 Yankee position players got into this one, along with five pitchers. Jones played right as Swisher moved to first, and Eric Chavez subbed for A-Rod at third. Francisco Cervelli batted for Cano in the eighth (a future trivia question in the making), but he did not take the field. That task was handled by Jorge Posada, who played the position in the ninth for the first time in his 17 years in the major leagues. He scooped up and threw the last out of the game to Swisher, who made a fine saving scoop.

This was not a day to look back at what had happened in Yankee history in years gone by, as the team was creating special moments all through the 4.5-hour-plus game. Jeter not only passed one-time Yankee (et al) Rickey Henderson in all-time hits; he moved into 20th place all time in runs scored in major league baseball history too. And the three grand slams were a first, a feat not to be equaled in many a year to come, I’m sure.

Late English film actor Michael Rennie would have been celebrating his 102nd birthday this day. As one who was probably not too familiar with American baseball, Rennie may have had a little trouble lasting through the six-hour festivities. Had he asked though, it would have been easy to explain. Quite simply, it was

The Day the Bronx Stood Still

BTW,TYW
YANKEE BASEBALL!!!