September 1, 2012, Bronx, N.Y. – The Yankees posted a huge 4-3 win against the charging Baltimore Orioles in a steamy Stadium Saturday afternoon. The Orioles scored largely off walks early, the Yanks responded in kind late. Both teams made good plays, both bad, but the visitors made the last error, and it cost them.

Performing in front of probably more derision than he in fact earned, rookie David Phelps drove his fanbase to distraction by missing the zone repeatedly in the early innings (OK, pretty much throughout until he left in the fifth), routinely falling behind in the count, trying to recover, and failing to. A pair of walks in both the first and second innings (David fell behind both leadoff batters 3-0) gave the Orioles an early 2-0 lead and, given all the team’s Friday night offensive struggles, the crowd was angry and worried.

Contributing to this growing unease was the superb pitching performance by Baltimore southpaw Wei-Yin Chen, who not only retired 11 of 12, and 18 of 21, to start the game; he threw 16 first-pitch strikes to 17 batters, and went to a three-ball count just twice before Jayson Nix walked with two down in the fifth. Following on the way Miguel Gonzalez quieted Yankee bats the night before, things looked bleak when a Matt Wieters home run stretched the lead to 3-0 in the fourth. Phelps walked his fifth batter afterward, and two more the following frame. Would the Yanks have an answer?

But two quick outs and two strikes into the bottom of the fourth, Robinson Cano drilled an opposite-field home run to left, and hope was renewed. Chen surrendered the Nix walk in the fifth and a Nick Swisher single in the sixth. The Bombers were in the game. Joe Girardi simply had to remove Phelps in the fifth after his seventh walk on 97 pitches placed yet another offender in scoring position, but Cody Eppley escaped the threat, and Boone Logan held the O’s at three through seven, though he walked two, one intentionally, in the sixth.

Phelps left having given up only three scores because he surrendered just three hits, but also because his defense came through with double plays in the first two frames, capped by an all-hands-on-deck 6-4-3 beaut to close the second. A 5-4-3 got Logan out of the sixth too; Robinson Cano made a running over-the-shoulder grab of a Robert Andino pop to center in the seventh; and Andruw Jones, although continuing to struggle at the plate in today’s cleanup spot, patrolled both right and left fields like a kid two decades younger.

With time growing short, Jones popped out to start the home seventh, but Steve Pearce, in at first once a third-inning Curtis Granderson hamstring tweak started a musical-chairs defense setup that morphed throughout the next six innings, followed with his first Yankee hit, a single to center. One out later, Nix walked after being behind 0-2 and DH Eduardo Nunez, back after an almost-season-long demotion and injury, drove in the second run with a single. Just the fourth hit he allowed, it sent Chen to the showers.

What follows is more depressing news for the O’s than a glorious achievement by the Yanks. Hard-throwing Pedro Strop walked Ichiro Suzuki on five pitches, but he also got up 0-2 on Derek Jeter, who fouled off two pitches, filling the sacks once he took ball four. It’s on Strop that he worked Swisher to 3-2 as well, but he did get the ground ball he wanted. This is the moment the Orioles made their one error, and when JJ Hardy at short bobbled the ball the Yanks had a 4-3 lead.

And it was over. Baltimore has made their 2012 stand largely on an excellent pen, but now that David Robertson is healthy and back in place, few can match late-inning Yankee relief. David got three quick outs, and Rafael Soriano pitched a dominant ninth, with two strike outs and a foul pop to first. Responding to a Mariano Rivera suggestion, Sori is bringing the heat along with the bender, and the Yanks had a key win.

Although a difficult game for the faithful, they did hang with the team, and nobody left a packed house. Not only was the crowd still involved and expectant in the seventh, stirring the Bombers through a rally not characterized by heavy lumber, they managed to root for nine innings through back-to-back games without losing focus long enough to take part in The Wave. The Yanks trailed in 15 of the 18 innings; kudos, fans.

On this day in 1958, Cardinals lefty Vinegar Bend Mizell set an NL record by throwing a shutout while walking nine men, but it was a record simply because the terms “win” and “nine walks” rarely make the same boxscore. Add in that today the home team made two miscues, and that hard-luck loser Chen had such a fine game, and the difficulty was understandable. This one felt generational, a good hot Saturday day game rarely seen in TV-dominated 2012, where grandparents and parents brought their kids to show them about the great game, how much fun it is to let loose and root, and how much even the poorest (and best) of performances can suddenly turn.

Labor leader Walter Reuther would have celebrated his 105 birthday this day. I hereby dedicate this win to David Phelps who, although he did not give the fans the shutdown game they craved, and rightfully did not earn a win for his efforts, did keep his team in the game through 97 laborious pitches, a 49/48 strikes/balls ratio only (maybe) a mother could love. He minimized the damage, allowing his team to earn a huge, but

Labored Win