Bronx, N.Y., May 25, 2008 — It was hard not to feel confident when arriving at Yankee Stadium Sunday for the last game of the current homestand, an afternoon tilt against the Seattle Mariners. The Yanks were starting staff ace Chien-Ming Wang, the hard-throwing righty who upped his record against the Mariners in the last three-plus years to 7-0 with a 5-1 win 23 days before. Southpaw Jarrod Washburn, 2-6 with a 6-plus era this year, and a losing record against the Yankees, was to oppose him.
There was some concern about Wang, true, as he did not take the mound on Saturday for his scheduled start. He tweaked a leg covering first in a loss to the Mets last Sunday. Would he take the mound? Would he be strong enough on questionable legs? “Yes” was the resounding answer, first evidenced by his pregame warmup with catcher Jose Molina. The two were throwing long toss with Molina situated on the warning track outside the bullpen door in left center. Wang was on the outfield grass in right field, all the way to a point in front of the right field foul pole. Not only was Wang strong enough, he was too strong.
The evidence for this grew as the game began. Chien-Ming was getting the ground-ball outs he often does, pounding his hard sinking fastball. But while that game usually affords him short innings built on one- and two-pitch outs, the Taiwanese righty couldn’t control his heat, or his slider, and his pitch count mounted from the outset. Even though he had seven ground-ball outs through three frames, he had walked two, and had allowed a leadoff third-inning home run to Ichiro Suzuki after falling behind in the count 2-0 for one too many times.
Washburn, on the other hand, was doing well against a Yankee offense that had exploded for 25 runs in two games, and 35 in a four-game winning streak. He walked two leading off the second after a one-two-three first, but he too was keeping the ball down. After Shelley Duncan flied to left, Robbie Cano hit a fastball hard up the middle, but fellow second baseman Jose Lopez gloved it for an easy 4-6-3. Washburn almost escaped the third as well, but after two outs, back-to-back doubles by Johnny Damon and Derek Jeter tied matters at 1-1.
Continuing to struggle with his control, Wang walked two of three batters leading off the fourth around a Kenji Johjima infield single, a hot shot over third that Alex Rodriguez gloved, but his throw to second was too high. Still, even with his back to the wall with the bases loaded and nobody out, Chien-Ming pounded his low heat. He almost escaped too, as Vladimir Balentien bounced to third for a force at the plate, even if first base ump Tim McClelland ruled Molina’s throw to first was too late for the 5-2-3 dp. Then Wang almost slipped strike three past Yuniesky Betancourt, but once Molina failed to hold the foul tip, the Seattle shortstop singled to left for a run.
Duncan flubbed an Ichiro bouncer to first as another run crossed, but Wang escaped the ugly inning on another Duncan adventure. He got his glove on Lopez’s hard liner with the runners holding, but the ball fell to his feet. Keeping his head, Shelley floated a throw home for the force, then Molina fired to Jeter at second who tagged out Ichiro, and the inning was over on a 3-2-6. With few in a baseball audience being scholars versed in Roman history, no one I know mentioned that 326 was the year the Emperor Constantine founded the city Constantinople on the site of present-day Istanbul. On the other hand, no one I spoke to remembered seeing a 3-2-6 double play either.
The Yanks had no answer in the bottom half. DH Jason Giambi reached on a one-out hit by pitch, but Duncan bounced into the more conventional 6-4-3 twin killing. The Yanks closed it to 3-2 in the fifth when Cano walked and Molina singled him to second. With two in scoring position on Melky Cabrera’s perfect sac bunt, Seattle first baseman Richie Sexson saved the visitors’ day, at least for the time being, when he flagged down Damon’s bid for another double, making a full-body catch on a hard two-hopper and tossing to Washburn at first as Cano scored. Jeter had Washburn clearly beaten to the first base bag on a subsequent roller Sexson’s way in a bid for the tie, but the tall, lanky first baseman beat the Yankee Captain to first to close the frame.
The 31-pitch fourth had Wang on the ropes, but he responded by retiring the next seven on 25 throws. His ball was elevating, however, and four of those seven were the only fly-ball outs he would record all day. And Seattle made him pay. Ichiro reached with one down in the seventh when his liner ticked off the top of Jeter’s glove, Lopez doubled past A-Rod, and Jose Vidro lined a two-run single to right, for a 5-2 Mariners lead.
It turned out that Joe Girardi’s choice of Edwar Ramirez to relieve was the right move, but was it too late? The visiting hitters kept swinging, seeing his fastball, and his devastating change of pace had them reeling. He closed the seventh on a popup and fly to right, and got two swinging strike outs after an infield single in the eighth. Betancourt stroked his second hit, a single to right, but Ichiro bounced to first.
The Yanks had threatened Washburn in the sixth on a one-out A-Rod single and a steal of second, and Duncan lined hard toward the left field corner on a 2-2 pitch, but Beltre grabbed it. Sean Green pitched a 10-pitch, three-ground-out seventh, but Jeter worked a six-pitch walk to start the home eighth.
The Bombers have been pounding southpaw reliever Arthur Rhodes since the mid-nineties when he was with Baltimore, back when just Jeter and the disabled Jorge Posada were on the club, along with at-the-time catcher Joe Girardi. The team played before crowds of 15,000-20,000 back then, and it was roughly that number who screamed for all they were worth during a nine-pitch Bobby Abreu battle with Rhodes, who had replaced Green. The other 30,000 “fans” in the crowd were too busy reveling in a several-pass-around-the-ballpark, three-tier wave to pay any attention to baseball until the Yankee right fielder won the battle with a double to the left center field gap.
J.J. Putz replaced Rhodes and walked A-Rod on six pitches as the throng in the seats rediscovered the action on the field before them. Giambi took a third strike, the last good moment the M’s would have. Hideki Matsui, batting for Duncan, directed a slow grounder toward first. Putz made a fine grab with a dive, but couldn’t recover from hitting the ground. When he did he threw late and wild to first as Abreu scored with A-Rod steaming into third. With no hits after his four-safety beaut Saturday, Cano lined hard and deep to right. A-Rod scored and Matsui made a great baseball play by tagging and taking second. Molina’s following drive to deep right center appeared to hang in the sky forever, but neither Balentien nor Suzuki parked underneath it, so when it landed on the warning track, the Yanks had an improbable but exciting 6-5 lead. Nothing quite as scintillating as joining 30,000 people as they stand up and sit down in a revolving circle, of course, but pretty darned thrilling nonetheless.
The comeback was sudden, strange, and unexpected, and Ramirez warmed as the Yanks prepared to face the M’s in the bottom of the ninth. It was a ploy though, just to get Mariano Rivera a few extra warmups, and he took Ramirez’s place before a pitch was thrown. Ramirez can have spotty control, but has have been effective and electric so far. He stopped the resurgent Mariners who could smell victory after two embarrassing losses in a seemingly lost season, and Edwar got a well-deserved win for his efforts. Rivera was pushed to throw 16 pitches, but he ended matters on a popup and two strike outs, and the Yanks ended a 5-3 homestand as well as you could hope, with five straight wins.
It was as fine a Sunday afternoon as you could want during Memorial Day weekend. Wang retired Ichiro on a first-pitch two-foot roller to start matters under 73-degree cloudless skies. The Yankees honored nine members of the Tuskegee Airmen one day before Memorial Day, both before the game and by having them pull the lever after the fifth inning that indicates that there are now just 55 regular-season home games remaining in this baseball palace where Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig played. Ruth hit the last three home runs of his legendary career for the Boston Braves on this day in 1935. And 52 years ago on Memorial Day, Mickey Mantle hit a 600-foot-plus home run that almost cleared the right field facade in Yankee Stadium in a doubleheader sweep over the Washington Senators.
There is no record of anyone engaging in the “wave” that day. Imagine those clueless fans of yesterday, trusting they would get their excitement rush by watching the action on the field of play.
BTW,TYW
YANKEE BASEBALL!!!