Bronx, N.Y., June 22, 2008 — With the three-game series against Cincinnati already a defeat via the 6-0 loss Saturday afternoon following Friday’s 4-2 defeat, one got the impression that the Yankees were ready to leave New York and move on to Pittsburgh Sunday afternoon. I’m as excited as the next fan that the Bombers will be flying to the “Steel City” for the first time in 48 years, but not so much that I did not realize there was unfinished business in the Bronx.

This became painfully obvious early to the few in the stands scoring Sunday, as the Scoreboard posted Cincinnati’s Saturday lineup to begin the game. Rookie rightfielder Jay Bruce was listed as leading off, but left fielder Norris Hopper came to bat and lined to first. It got worse right away, though we had a little clarity with Junior Griffey grounding to second to end the frame, and also when second baseman Brandon Phillips rolled out to Jason Giambi to start the second. But that was small comfort to the scorers still trying to make sense of Jeff Keppinger’s at bat with one down in the first, because Paul Janish, who wouldn’t even enter the game until the third inning, was listed as hitting second.

Unfortunately, we had plenty of time to figure it out, because neither team was putting up much of a battle on offense. This was all well and good for the Reds with two wins behind them, and Andy Pettitte set down nine of their first 10 hitters through three. But Yankee fans were starved for results after witnessing young Cinncy starters flummox the Yankee offense for two days running. But young Johnny Cueto was bidding to join Edinson Volquez and Daryl Thompson. He not only allowed but one single through three, he struck out five during that time. The hometown fans were impatient for a score, and they saw their first chance in the third. Jason Giambi, on first via a hit by pitch, garnered a rare steal of second when catcher David Ross couldn’t handle a 3-2 called-strike slider to Jorge Posada. The crowd leapt to their feet when Robbie Cano lined a base-hit bid over third, but Edgar Encarnacion made a leaping catch, sustaining an injury in the process that finally got the aforementioned Janish into the game.

Pettitte was not hit hard, but he was having trouble harnessing his cutter, and found himself in a hole when a Griffey walk and Phillips infield single put two on with one down in the fourth. Janish fouled off strike three twice, then walked to load the bases, and Pettitte had to come up big against Votto and Bruce to keep the game scoreless. Andy got the former swinging on a big breaking curve, and whiffed Bruce on outside low heat to culminate an eight-pitch battle.

Bobby Abreu started the home fourth with his second single but, after Alex Rodriguez flied to right, Bobby was out stealing as Hideki Matsui went down swinging. Pettitte was up to 75 pitches after the 32-throw fourth, but he got lucky in the fifth. Hopper followed a one-out Ross single by hitting a drag bunt with his bat twice for a 2-unassisted, and Ross was picked off first before another pitch was thrown.

The game had begun after an early shower, and the skies were darkening as the fifth inning continued. With the home team not having scored in 15 innings, Giambi beat the shift by singling to the right of second base, and Posada doubled into the right field corner, narrowly avoiding Bruce’s strong peg to second. The Yanks had two in scoring position with nobody out. Cano hit a second ball hard, a liner deep to center that scored Giambi and sent Posada to third. Once Cueto struck out Melky Cabrera and induced a Johhny Damon infield popup, however, the Yankee lead was by the slimmest of margins, 1-0.

The skies darkened further, and the wind whipped across the field as Pettitte surrendered a Keppinger leadoff single. With the wind whipping, Andy struggled to keep his footing, and the ensuing pitch that hit Phillips below the knee following a Griffey fielder’s choice grounder was undoubtedly caused by Andy slipping in mid-stride. But Janish popped up to Posada trying to bunt the runners over, and Andy struck Votto out on three pitches to end the top of the sixth as the umps signaled for the field to be covered, and the rains arrived in earnest.

Yankee fans were delighted the team had scratched out the lead before the clouds opened up, but though the rains fell in torrents, the storm passed and play was resumed. Both starters were replaced, and Reds righty Gary Majewski was greeted by a Derek Jeter single over second. A two-out Matsui single brought on former K.C. Royals lefthander Jeremy Affeldt, but Giambi spoiled the strategy and cashed in both runs with a double the other way into the left field corner. Giambi scored run number four when Posada doubled to right center.

After Edwar Ramirez set down the Reds through a one-two-three, nine-pitch seventh, Griffey collected his 601st career homer with two down in the eighth off Kyle Farnsworth. The Yankee setup man then was forced to leave after deflecting a Phillips infield single with his pitching hand, and Mariano Rivera came on for a four-out save. This became unnecessarily tense when Votto and Bruce singled leading off the ninth, with power-hitting pinch-hitter Adam Dunn coming on to pinch-hit as the tying run. But Dunn took a third strike and Hopper bounced back to the box to close the game.

Pettitte earned the win, and he was good, not great. He kept the Reds off the board through six, allowing two walks and four hits, but the Reds were one fair line drive from breaking the game open with the bases loaded in the fourth. Andy threw 15 of 23 first-pitch strikes, and he had a 62/34 strikes/balls ratio, but he got two of his four strike outs in the critical fourth, and his teammates finally broke through. Two Abreu hits went for naught, but Posada set up the first run with one double and scored a run with another. Cano hit in tough luck but knocked in a run, but the star was Giambi with three hits, the hit by pitch, two rbi’s, two runs scored, and the rare stolen base.

On this day eighteen years ago, Billy Joel performed a concert in Yankee Stadium as a last-place Yankees team was beating the Blue Jays 8-7 in 15 innings in Toronto, with most of the damage being caused by Roberto Kelly, Steve Sax, and Steve Balboni. Thirty years before that, a better bunch of Yankee players lost a seven-game World Series to the Pittsburgh Pirates. And this team heads to the far end of Pennsylvania for a three-game battle starting Tuesday night. And we can send them off, now that their unfinished business with the Reds has been “left … behind.” They remain five games back in the east, just 3.5 off the wild card, as they fly west with a positive state of mind:

It comes down to reality
And it’s fine with me ’cause I’ve let it slide
Don’t care if it’s Chinatown or on Riverside
I don’t have any reasons
I’ve left them all behind
I’m in a New York state of mind.

BTW,TYW

YANKEE BASEBALL!!!