Bronx, N.Y., June 5, 2008 — Hordes of New York fans smiled with glee, I’m sure, when they heard on their Thursday homeward commute that the Yanks had bested Toronto 9-8 in the Stadium while they toiled at work. And some of them, too, got the news that the home team was victorious on a Jason Giambi walkoff home run. But even if they were clued into the reliable reports that Jason delivered the bomb on an 0-2 pitch with two down and the Yanks one strike away from defeat, there was a lot about this game they’ll never know.

I experienced a creepy foreboding when the contest got started. Like an umpire making a call at first base, my eye was drifting between the Scoreboard clock and Blue Jays left fielder Shannon Stewart as he held his bat aloft and waited on Chien-Ming Wang’s first pitch. The clock read 1:08 when Wang unleashed a 94-mph fastball that Stewart took for a ball, but an immediate glance back revealed that it had moved to 1:09. This game was begun in timekeeper limbo, and a Stadium packed with people stayed in limbo for almost four full hours thereafter.

It was telling that the Yanks jumped out to an early 2-0 lead off Dustin McGowan in the first on a Bobby Abreu roller to second and Alex Rodriguez’s sac fly a medium distance down the right field line. The Yankee third and fourth place hitters would contribute three hits to the Yankee offense, but the four rbi’s they evenly split between them came on two grounders and two short flies toward right.

But the gremlins in the park affected both teams. Wang survived a jam in the third when he walked the bases loaded by missing the zone 11 of 15 times because Derek Jeter made a sparkling grab and a heads-up peg to third for a force, but the visitors tied it in the fourth after Wang walked yet another. Matt Stairs followed with a deep fly to the right field corner that bounded off the top of the wall for a two-run homer. But that was nothing compared to the travesty of the ugly top of the fifth, another frame the Taiwanese righty started by issuing a walk, in this case to second baseman and ninth-place hitter Joe Inglett. The next three batters stroked balls that pounded directly into defenders’ gloves, but all that the Yanks could garner from them was one out at first before Melky Cabrera dropped the third liner. Jays baserunners were off and running on two of the hard shots, but because Wang couldn’t hold Stewart’s bullet to the box, because A-Rod just knocked down David Eckstein’s hot shot down third, and because Cabrera took his eye off a Rios liner, the home team recorded neither of what were two perfect double play setups, and Inglett scored the go-ahead run.

Give Toronto credit though; they warmed to the opportunity the shaky play afforded them. Wang hit Scott Rolen with the next pitch, and Stairs doubled for his third and fourth rbi’s into the right field corner. Wang’s next pitch was his last, a deep Lyle Overbay double to left center that gave the Jays an ugly and sudden 7-2 lead. Ross Ohlendorf restored order on an infield popup and the second of three Rod Barajas strike outs, but the damage was done.

The Yankee offense had been as inept as their “D,” because they failed to add to the early lead after Jorge Posada and Robbie Cano singled to start the home second, or again once Johnny Damon and Abreu singles put Yanks on the corners with one down in the third. But they did reply in the bottom half of the ugly fifth finally, plating two on outs after a single, a walk, and a Derek Jeter hit by pitch loaded the bases. Abreu’s rbi grounder almost squeaked past first for one run, then Damon scored on an A-Rod popup flagged down by second baseman Inglett in foul territory only because Barajas didn’t hold onto Inglett’s throw.

To the groans of all around, Latroy Hawkins took the Yankee mound in the sixth and, although he continued to garner none of the expected ground-ball outs, he retired three straight on outfield flies. Cano stroked his second single with one down in the home half and lefty Jesse Carlson came on to turn Wilson Betemit around to his weaker side. But no one informed the Yankee first baseman he is an easier out batting righty, and he homered over the retired numbers in left to close the score to 7-6.

A Yankee pen that imploded Tuesday night struggled in this eery contest too, but they persevered this time around. Hawkins allowed a walk and single to start the top of the seventh, but Jose Veras stomped that potential rally with a dp grounder to first and a swinging strike out. Jeter jumped ahead of lefty Scott Downs 3-0 leading off the home half, but Rolen made a fine grab on his base hit bid. It was huge, as Abreu followed with an opposite-field double. Alhough Bobby crossed to third on a grounder, he died there when Matsui struck out.

Veras both created and escaped his own trouble in the eighth, as a walk, hit by pitch and sac bunt had Jays on second and third with one down. With the infield in at a pivotal point, Jeter pegged Kevin Mench out at the plate on a grounder, and Eckstein flied out. The Yanks’ eighth-inning answer began with a Posada leadoff walk. With a great play on a Rolen grounder back in the second and two singles behind him, however, Cano killed a potential big inning by failing to bunt the pinch-running Shelley Duncan over; Robbie fouled two off and bounced into a 6-6-3 twin killing. Betemit then singled and Cabrera walked, and what appeared to be the Yanks’ last best chance was at hand with the red-hot Damon coming to bat. Toronto Manager John Gibbons had shored up his outfield defense late, moving Inglett to left in place of the weak-armed Stewart and putting Brad Wilkerson in right. The move paid huge dividends when Wilkerson made a great leaping grab of Damon’s deep drive to the wall on a 3-2 pitch. The audible groan from the crowd easily reached nearby Manhattan, I’m sure.

Veras had escaped trouble in the seventh and eighth; it fell to Kyle Farnsworth to keep it close in the ninth. It would not prove easy. Rios and Rolen each lofted short pop fly singles to right, and after fouling off a 3-2 pitch, Stairs lifted a deep fly to left center for a grounds-rule double that gave him his fifth rbi on the day. Though the put-upon Yankee setup man could only be faulted for that last pitch, really, the crowd let him have it and Kyle needed to do what Veras had done: minimize the damage. With the infield in, Overbay grounded out to first with the runners holding, and Wilkerson was given a free pass. Farnsworth did his share with a key punch out of Barajas, and then crowd favorite Cabrera made up for his huge earlier gaffe by running down Inglett’s drive to right center.

Still, the Yanks were now two runs down, and hopes dimmed when Rolen flagged yet another Jeter bid for a base hit leading off the bottom half of the ninth, with Toronto closer B.J. Ryan on the mound. Abreu lined to short center, and Rodriguez came up with the game all but over. But he squeezed a single between Rolen and Eckstein, then took second uncontested with Matsui up. Playing left this day with Damon DH’ing, Hideki had posted an uncharacteristic 0-for-4 with two strike outs to this point, but he delivered A-Rod with a 1-1 single over second.

Jose Molina had taken over at catcher for Posada. Though due up, he would not get the chance to make the last out, we happily learned, and Jason Giambi strode to the plate. He had been hobbled after taking a Roy Halladay fastball off his left foot Tuesday, but apparently he had enough to hit. Spirits dimmed as he swung and missed at a curve and fouled off a heater. But Ryan delivered a flat slider at 0-2, and Giambi blasted it deep toward the right-field foul pole. With the disappointment from Wilkerson’s eighth-inning catch still ringing in the fans’ ears, multiple breaths were held until the ball finally struck the upper deck several feet fair, and the Yankees had certainly their ugliest, and perhaps their biggest, win of the year.

Neither starter distinguished themselves really, though Wang started well, and then after a struggle, he did find the zone more often in the disastrous fifth. Unfortunately, by then the gloves were not up to the task. Because we can’t assume the double play, six of the seven runs he allowed were earned, even though twin killings on two different plays could have released him from the five-run uprising. McGowan did not flame out as dramatically, but the five runs against him were certainly earned, though only one was knocked in by a clean hit. He allowed seven hits and two walks.

Although a game right out of the Rod Serling storybook, this one had its share of fine play. The eery top of the fifth notwithstanding, the defense on both sides was good. It needs to be said that Yankee spirits, and those of their fans, were lifted by the return of Jorge Posada. He stroked a hard line single on the second pitch he saw, and walked in what could have been a huge eighth. He handled all the plays, and his lone throw to second, on a Mench steal, was hard but high; Cano made a fine grab. There will be more on that as time goes by.

This was a game the Yanks won in the pen, an otherworldly punctuation mark to to a strange day given the struggles since Chamberlain moved out. Yankee relievers had lost the Tuesday night game. Not only was it huge that they rebounded against a team with a very good bullpen of their own, the win pulled the Yanks back to .500. With their lineup finally intact, the Pinstripers moved within just one game of third place in the East. Hawkins, Veras, and Farnsworth struggled, it’s true, and it took them 82 agonizing pitches to navigate the sixth through the ninth innings.

On the other hand, Ryan’s flat 0-2 slider to Giambi was the 84th pitch Blue Jays pitchers threw in the last four innings. I’m sure Ryan would agree, that was one too many pitches.

BTW,TYW

YANKEE BASEBALL!!!