Bronx, N.Y., April 29, 2008 — Well, the Yankees finally arrived home from the road trip that wouldn’t end Tuesday, or did they? Fans, and team members, I’m sure, have been praying that they could return to a schedule resembling normality, a little home cooking, and warm and dry conditions. Well, that’s a no, a yes, a no, and a yes.
Playing a night game in Cleveland to end their odyssey, only to be pressed into playing the very next night by the “feature” that has become the wraparound weekend series, they were forced to play Tuesday night after another late airport arrival, while their opponents the Detroit Tigers could take their time showing up in the 32-hour break since their last game Sunday evening.
Truth be told it seemed only a handful of players on either team showed for this one, the first four batters in the Detroit lineup, southpaw relievers Bobby Seay and Clay Rapala, and Hideki Matsui, Ross Ohlendorf and Shelley Duncan for the Yankees. One player who did not come prepared, apparently, was Yankee starter Phil Hughes, who had finally had an encouraging though all too brief outing in rainy Chicago his last time out. Falling behind Detroit centerfielder Curtis Granderson 3-1 in the first, he issued him a free pass, and the struggling (until this night) Placido Polanco singled him to second.
Hughes was pounding low nineties heat, and mixing in an effective slow curve that he used to strike ex-Yankee Gary Sheffield out next, but the third and fourth pitches in his arsenal just weren’t around. On his next pitch to Magglio Ordonez, he bounced a 55-foot heater past newbie catcher Chris Stewart to move both runners up 90 feet, then served up a flat fastball the Detroit right fielder lifted into short center. An instant reaction may have gotten Johnny Damon there in time, but he froze in his tracks momentarily, the ball fell, and the Tigers were up 2-0.
Kenny Rogers was not very good this evening, but good enough to beat an exhausted Yankee bunch. He snuck strike three past Damon, retired Derek Jeter on one pitch, and then began the pattern that helped make this a 3.5 hour game rather than a quickie, teasing the Yanks and their fans with interminable two-out chances. Bobby Abreu singled to right on a 3-2 pitch, and left fielder Hideki Matsui followed with a one-base hit to left. A Jacque Jones bobble moved the tying runs 90 and 180 feet away, respectively. Although Jason Giambi actually went the other way, it was with a harmless popup over short corraled by third baseman Carlos Guillen, the first of several chances wasted.
Still, the Yanks had worked Rogers for 19 pitches, and Shelley Duncan, starting at first, got his first of three walks leading off the home second. One moment fans were regretting that if Morgan Ensberg’s ensuing drive to the left field wall had been to right, we’d have had a tie game. Seeming to sense the logic, Robbie Cano lined an 0-1 pitch into the short porch the correct way for a 2-2 game. Stewart flied to center, Damon singled but Jeter forced him. But Rogers needed 40 throws to get his first six outs.
Twelve pitches later the game was in effect over, but not the teases. Any hopes that Hughes would get a bump from the sudden offense were quickly dashed when Granderson drilled a 1-1 pitch over the wall in right center for a 3-2 lead. Polanco doubled into the left field corner, and Sheffield worked through the curves this time. When home plate ump Mark Wegner gave him a reprieve on a 1-2 curve that certainly had the plate, Shef lashed the next one over the wall in left for a 5-2 Tigers lead. Phil allowed a two-out walk to Guillen but escaped further damage on Bobby Abreu’s diving catch in right.
Rogers totally lost the plate in the home half, but once again not until he got two outs. Seven-pitch walks by Giambi and Duncan and a six-pitch free pass to Ensberg loaded the bases. Cano worked the count full, then fouled off a pitch. But then he lofted a harmless fly to short left. Still, the Yanks trailed by three entering the fourth inning and Rogers had thrown 75 pitches.
Perhaps the sight of another Detroit rally against their starter just took it out of the weary Yanks, but the game changed then. Hughes coaxed back-to-back ground outs, but Granderson doubled to left and Polanco singled him in for a 6-2 lead. Once Sheffield walked, Joe Girardi replaced Hughes with Ohlendorf. The top three in the Detroit order were already 6-for-7 with two walks and all six runs scored. Polanco would later garner a fourth hit, but the bottom five in the Detroit order ended the night at 3-for-15 with six strike outs, no runs scored, and no rbi’s.
But it didn’t matter. The Yanks started swinging early and although Rogers was in a 75-pitch hole through three, he coaxed the next nine outs around two hits on just 26 more throws. Meanwhile, Ohlendorf’s fastball and occasional curve were electric. Pounding 95-mph heat, he retired 10 Tigers hitters on 44 pitches of his own. The word on this hard thrower entering the season was that he could throw well for short periods, but the lack of a long man in the mix has pressed him to make three outings of three innings or more. Early judgements that he could not be an effective starter just may have been premature.
The Yanks continued to flail at Rogers and then southpaw Bobby Seay, and Ohlendorf and Edwar Ramirez subdued the visitors, but the teases were not over. Righty Denny Bautista started the bottom of the eighth by walking Duncan, then got two quick outs (following the established pattern) before walking Melky Cabrera, pinch hitting for Stewart, and Damon to load the bases. Bautista hit Jeter with a 1-0 pitch to plate one, but Rapala came on to get Abreu on a roller to third.
Todd Jones closed around some more drama. A leadoff walk to Matsui, a wild pitch and a Giambi single over first both scored the Yanks’ fourth run and brought the tying run to the plate, this time with no one out. But Duncan and Enberg bounced out and the struggling Cano struck out on three pitches.
It wasn’t a bad night in the Bronx, and the absolute absence of any threat of rain was welcome. But the 55-degree temps they posted to start the game easily dipped into the low 40’s before this one was over. The Yanks began the evening trumpeting the coming All Star Game they will be hosting, with past All Stars Matsui, Jeter, and Mariano Rivera joining John Sterling on the grass behind home plate before the game. And Al Leiter did the honors in the end-of-the-fifth-inning ceremony where the number of remaining regular-season home games in The House That Ruth Built was reduced from 72 to 71.
It’s good to have the team back in the Bronx, but for two things. First, the team still has to play another five straight games before they finally get another day off, their second in 35 days, next Monday. They’ve lost Alex Rodriguez to the Disabled List now, but perhaps they can kick more of that road dust off by tomorrow and put up a more spirited showing. But regardless of how they play these next eight games before heading back out on the road, that number of regular-season games remaining in the venerable old ballpark figures to drop to 63 by the time that they do.
YANKEE BASEBALL!!!