Bronx, N.Y., October 7, 2007 — A Yankee season that was imperiled when the Indians beat Chien-Ming Wang in Cleveland was pushed further to the edge by a swarm of gnats Friday night, resulting in an 0-2 record in the five-game ALDS. One wonders how a confident yet nervous Yankee crowd in the Stadium for Game Three Sunday night would have reacted had they known going in that aging vet Roger Clemens would not last three frames.

With win or go home as the mandate, Yankee chances did not improve as the visitors nicked Clemens for individual runs in each of the first three innings. It was encouraging that the Yankee offense that produced just four hits in 11 innings Friday managed that same total in three frames this night. But three of those four one-base hits were promptly erased on double plays, placing the hometeam season on life support.

Still, the back-to-back-to-back leadoff safeties proved the team was alive, and the fact that leadoff hitter Johnny Damon plated the first Yankee run with their fourth (and his second) hit in the third demonstrated that the team’s heart had at least several beats left.

Clemens had proved to be not healthy enough to pitch down the stretch, and even the most optimistic of fans had to admit that things looked bleak if The Rocket took the mound and could not do the job. He had a tough break in the first when Derek Jeter’s hurried throw on an Asdrubal Cabrera slow roller into the shortstop hole was wide, and the Tribe had a one-out baserunner. Almost as disturbing as the subsequent seven-pitch walk to DH Travis Hafner and a two-out run-scoring single by Ryan Garko was that Clemens was pushed to 27 grueling tosses to get through the first.

Signed as an off-season Cleveland free agent, ex-Red Sox right fielder Trot Nixon suffered through a forgettable season, one that led to his benching. But Trot had had success against Clemens in the past, and Indians field boss Eric Wedge gambled and gave Nixon this night’s start. The move showed immediate dividends when the lefty swinger lined a 2-0, one-out, second-inning flat fastball just over the wall in right, and Cleveland had a 2-0 lead.

Clemens kept it there despite a two-out single and stolen base, but he looked shaky when he took the mound for the third. He pounded strike one and two past Hafner, but he was stepping gingerly and Joe Torre and the Yankee trainer stopped play to check him out. Roger continued to pitch and missed on four straight to walk the DH, then jumped up 0-2 on Victor Martinez. Once again he weakened, but he snuck a 3-2 splitter past a swinging Martinez for his only strike out, the only pitch he got a batter to swing and miss at in his abbreviated stay. A strained hamstring finished his day, and the Yankee Faithful and manager Torre looked to young Philip Hughes to pick up the slack. They would not be disappointed.

Hughes buckled Garko with a first-pitch slow curve, a pitch he would mix with hard heat and an occasional change to dominate Cleveland bats through the sixth. But first Jhonny Peralta reached him for a bloop double the opposite way down the right field line that would score Hafner, who had moved to second on Hughes’s second pitch, a bouncer in the dirt Jorge Posada could not block. It was 3-0 Cleveland, but the hard-throwing Yankee rookie held them there. Mixing his curve and fastball to perfection, he retired nine of the next 11, with a Robbie Cano error and a Peralta bouncer that wrong-footed Rodriguez the only blemishes. He struck out four, walked none, and allowed just the two hits, and earned his first postseason win and saved the Yankee season in so doing.

That was because Yankee bats had not been quiet against Indians starter Jake Westbrook. Damon had reached the one-time Yankee for a leadoff single the other way in the first, but the lesson took a while to sink in. Damon scored Hideki Matsui, on with an infield single, for the first home team run in the third by pulling a grounder past first, but the Yanks didn’t really get the Pinstriped heart pumping until lefty batters Matsui, Cano, and Melky Cabrera battered Westbrook with three straight opposite-field hits in the fifth. Matsui singled hard past short, and Cano’s liner carried into the left field corner for second and third with nobody out. Melky took a ball, then another, then lined a single to the left field side of second base for the second Yankee run. That brought up Damon, whose at bat aped that of Cabrera’s, as Johnny took two off the plate. But the Yankee left fielder turned on the next Westbrook fastball, and launched it into the seats in right. The faint pulse the Yankee season showed in the top of the third was a thundering drumbeat by now.

With Hughes continuing to deal, Alex Rodriguez hit his second single leading off the sixth, driving Westbrook from the mound. Posada reached lefty Aaron Fultz for a single to left, and Doug Mientkiewicz, hitting for Jason Giambi, rolled a perfect bunt to third to move both guys up. Matsui got a free pass, but Cano spoiled those plans by grounding what should have been a one-run single to right on the first pitch. Nixon has been around long enough to know that Posada was no threat to score behind Rodriguez on that play, but he charged hard, an admirable yet foolhardy approach. The bouncer eluded him, and while he turned and hastened deeper into right to retrieve the ball, both Posada and Matsui scored, with Cano running to third on his glaring misplay.

That gave the Yanks an 8-3 lead, and from there the pulse streaming through the team and the buzz circulating in the crowd remained strong. Torre had many scratching their heads when he replaced Hughes with Joba Chamberlain to start the seventh even though the team had a five-run lead, and the dismay mounted as he kept the hard thrower out there for two frames and 38 pitches. Dominant in the seventh with two swinging K’s, Chamberlain survived the eighth, though he allowed the tally that forged the 8-4 final on a walk, a single, and a double.

It is hoped that the Yanks will have a lead that needs preserving in the five-gamer’s Game Four Monday, and that Joba will be up to the task. The finale would not take place until Wednesday, in Cleveland (one hopes they have taken care of their bug problem by then), so the Pinstriped heart and all its parts would have a day of rest. Let’s just call it a day to check on all vital signs, and perform all maintenance possible this late into the season. Considering the potential relief needs possibly coming up, the best news perhaps is that Mariano Rivera pitched a dominant, 10-pitch, two-strike-out ninth, so he’ll certainly be ready to help defend the home turf in Monday’s tilt.

The 8-4 win stretched to three hours and 38 minutes, a long battle like so many 2007 Yankee games. And a crowd of 65,000-plus thrilled to every pitch. I was taken with one seatmate who identified himself as Carl. A lifelong Yankee fan who has been around long enough to know of Mickey, Whitey, and Joe D, Carl made the first east coast trip of his life for this one, traveling more than 3,000 miles from his Oregon home to see the game. He wanted to see the old Stadium before it was gone, of course, but he traveled now to see this Yankee team, he said, because he is not sure what will remain of it in 2008. That’s an intriguing thought that has occurred to all Yankee fans, I’m sure, those who call the Big Apple and its environs home, and those who root for the Pinstripes from afar.

October 7, 2007 is the 158th anniversary of the death of the unmatched author of the macabre Edgar Allen Poe, who passed way at a far too young 40 years of age. I’m sure I can’t predict who will and who will not be wearing the Pinstripes in 2008 any more than the next fan. But I can tell you this. The Tell-Tale Heart of the 2007 team is pounding loudly throughout the Bronx, in Cleveland, in all of the baseball world this night.

BTW,TYW

YANKEE BASEBALL!!!