Bronx, N.Y., August 31, 2013 — Up at 7:30 on a Saturday to run a few errands because we needed to catch a train 90 minutes earlier than usual for a Saturday game, it was more with a sense of exhaustion than expectation that Sue and I sat in our Yankee Stadium seats at 11:30, awaiting Yankee personnel. Sue had received the call Friday: We were invited to be interviewed on the big screen as the ticket licensees of the game.

What also awaited us was yet another battle with Baltimore’s Orioles for third place in the AL East and a shot at a wild card spot in the playoffs. The Yanks had flexed their newfound offensive muscle in defeating the O’s 8-5 Friday night, and would leapfrog their opponents in the standings with a win today. It was steamy hot in our seats as we waited, but once the Yankee people showed up, the interview was a pleasure. Sue and I both got to make some points about our experience, with Sue particularly pleased that she was able to mention her father, a fabulous fan in his day. And I thrilled to treat the people who would soon be seeing this on the big board with my signature “C-H-H-A-A-A-R-R-G-G-E-!-!-!” call as the interview came to an end.

With the first part of our day a “complete” success, we prepped for the game and, after a one-two-three first against the Orioles from Ivan Nova, the Yanks responded with a quick run built on Brett Gardner and Robinson Cano doubles down the right field line. When the first two Orioles reached in the second, we could have been in for a long day of holding our breath as the visitors batted. Once Nova escaped with a 4-6-3 and a fly to right, however, the Oriole offense for the rest of the day amounted to two singles, a walk and two players hit by pitches.

The frustrating part, if it’s fair to say that when your pitcher has a lead and is pitching so well, is that the Yankees, facing game righty Scott Feldman, failed to add a run in the fifth, sixth, and seventh innings despite having two base runners in each frame. Baltimore would never again have two reach and, when JJ Hardy worked Nova for a nine-pitch lead-off walk in the eighth, Derek Jeter, who had twice bounced into double plays to kill rallies, made a nifty grab of a Wilson Betemit hot shot into the hole and turned it into a routine 6-4-3.

With Baltimore dispatched through eight, the only question remaining once Cano homered off Troy Patton in the bottom of the eighth for a 2-0 lead was, who would pitch the ninth? There was a brief David Robertson sighting in the eighth until the 6-4-3 but, with just 89 notches in his pitching arm, Nova took the mound in the ninth to an empty bullpen.

Nothing’s easy, of course. Nate McLouth worked the count full, then smacked one to the box that Nova knocked down. Ivan, who had turned in back-to-back routine 1-3’s the last two frames, couldn’t find the ball, and McLouth reached. One out later, with Mariano Rivera now visible in the pen, AL home run leader Chris Davis batted as the tying run. Following two strike outs and a hit by pitch, he swung and missed twice, but he lofted the 2-2 pitch high and deep to right. Ichiro Suzuki sized up the fly on the warning track, then worried us all when he retreated a few steps, but he caught the ball a few feet in front of the wall. Adam Jones lined the next pitch sharply to Jeter, and both Ivan Nova and I had a “completely” successful day.

BTW,TYW
YANKEE BASEBALL!!!