September 15, Bronx, N.Y. – Riding a delayed “due to mechanical difficulty” train to Yankee Stadium for a Saturday midafternoon game on a gorgeous day in the Bronx, I read that on this day in 1776, British forces occupied New York City. Baseball fans are used to looking at years with ups and downs and, given how that year stands out in American history, I took this as a good sign.
Sue and I were attired in year-specific items, her in a Legends Field visor from 2005, and me in a T-shirt trumpeting Derek Jeter’s chances to be MVP back in 2006. Neither year stands out in Yankee memory; in both they were upset in the ALDS, a playoff round, I rush to assert, however, that they did make it to. The postseason, a foregone conclusion one month ago, is in jeopardy. This day, making it there is not a mild infatuation; it’s an absolute goal.
Coming off a depressing Friday night loss to Tampa ace David Price, the Yanks were up against ace2 James Shields, with Ivan Nova, coming back from not only shoulder soreness but era and win/loss soreness as well, taking the mound for the starting-rotation-short Yanks. Each righthander pitched around a first-inning single, with Nova, who had thrown just seven pitches in the first, looking strong despite a two-out walk in the second. Shields, issuing a free pass of his own, got an out in the second, but Curtis Granderson homered to the short porch in right and Eduardo Nunez blasting a no-doubt-about-it moon shot to left, back-to-back homers that gave the Yanks a sudden, and very loud, 3-0 lead.
Nova was dealing now, and he struck out five in the next three innings, surviving a Matt Joyce one-out double and a two-out walk in the fifth. At 66 his pitch count was solid, with just two hits allowed. Still, it’s been an ugly five or so weeks; fans in the stands knew three runs was not a lock-down lead. And rather than being shell-shocked, Shields had recovered completely. Following the homers he retired eight straight, until Ichiro Suzuki, with a rare start hitting leadoff, delivered an opposite-field single with two down in the home fifth. The 0-for-2 Jeter followed, but Derek had battled Shields for 11 pitches before succumbing on a fly to center in the third; this new at bat followed the former as if it was a continuation. As Ichiro took his spot and stole second base, Jeter fouled off four two-strike pitches before bouncing a single right up the middle as the speedy left fielder delivered run No. four.
The timing was fortuitous, as Tampa DH Evan Longoria, yet to be heard from this series, homered into the Yankee bullpen in the sixth. But Nova, undeterred, delivered his seventh and eighth strike outs. With a roughly 80-pitch-count limit, he started the seventh by allowing a single to Jeff Keppinger, who was likely to have been his last batter regardless. But Boone Logan allowed a Ryan Roberts double and Joba Chamberlain, after making a leaping grab of a pinch-hitting Sam Fuld bouncer up the middle for a 1-3, surrendered a two-strike, two-out, two-run single to yet another pinch hitter, Luke Scott, and the lead was down to 4-3.
It was a typical September expanded-roster game, and Tampa skipper Joe Maddon use no less than 11 players to fill the sixth, eighth, and ninth spots in his lineup. The home team failed to respond to the Tampa rally, but David Roberston restored order with a dominant one-two-three eighth inning. B.J. Upton turned the wrong way on a Robinson Cano laser to center with one out in the Yankee eighth, and Robbie had a double. Coming through in the eighth as he had the night before, Alex Rodriguez delivered him with a single up the middle. Scorewise the fifth run proved unnecessary, but it sure helped the crowd relax as Rafael Soriano allowed two base runners before nailing down the save in the ninth.
Five Yankees scored one run each this day, and four drove in a run, with Granderson accounting for two with the homer that got the guys started. But the best news coming out of this win was the performance of Ivan Nova, who largely shelved his slider in favor of solid heat mixed with a very effective curve. He notched eight K’s, all swinging; threw 15 first-pitch strikes to 23 batters; and allowed just four hits and one run, with two walks. His re-emergence allows the Yanks to shift a solid David Phelps to the pen, and the team prepares for the rubber game of their set with the Rays with the quite reliable Hiroki Kuroda taking the mound Sunday. With Nova and the returning Andy Pettitte in the fold, the team has not only a regular-season rotation, but a solid one for the post as well.
Thirty years ago, USA Today published its maiden issue in a year that marked the first of 14 straight baseball seasons in which there was no playoff baseball in the Bronx. And on September 15, 1978, in one of the most favored years among a certain age of Yankee fan, Chris Chambliss and Graig Nettles delivered back-to-back home runs in Ron Guidry’s 4-0 shutout of the Red Sox as the Bombers dug their way out of a 14-game hole. Consecutive Granderson and Nunez home runs got the action started today, in just the way that the 2012 Yanks like to play. But it was a small-ball tally built on a bloop, stolen base, and a nine-pitch one-base hit that plated the key run.
Big, bashing baseball, with loud long balls. Scintillating small ball, with singles, stolen bases, long at bats, and key tallies. And the return of one of the winningest young pitchers to come along in the last few years, Ivan Super Nova.
Big, Small, and Super Ball!
BTW,TYW
YANKEE BASEBALL!!!