Bronx, N.Y., September 5, 2007 — Jarrod Washburn may or may not be great fun at parties, but he has one very good parlor trick. For six solid innings he convinced almost the entire Yankee lineup that they could not hit mid-to-high-eighties heat. Mixing in the occasional bender and change, the Seattle lefty knocked the collective bats out of the hands of seven Yankee hitters two-plus times through the order.
It couldn’t have come at a worse time for Yankee rookie Philip Hughes, who showed poise and command that’s been lacking lately this time out, and who had his best outing in weeks. The hard-throwing righty held the Mariners to two runs on five hits through six innings, giving up the runs on one mistake pitch to Raul Ibanez in the top of the third. But when he was replaced after six soid frames, he was the pitcher of record on the losing side and looked to stay that way.
The game Mariners had pounced on the young hurler’s every mistake, forcing the action with baserunners the first four innings, but Hughes escaped all but one threat, mainly by recording six swinging strike outs. He walked two and hit a batter, and all five hits were smoked. He was fortunate that Ichiro Suzuki was thrown out stealing in the top of the third before a Jose Guillen single and Raul Ibanez home run put him two runs down.
That lightning lead looked safe, as the Yankee offense to that point amounted to an Alex Rodriguez walk in the second. Of the 18 outs Washburn would garner through six innings, four were strike outs and six were infield popups. But light-hitting backup catcher Jose Molina spent years on the Anaheim roster at the same time Jarrod was pitching out west, and he must have kept his ears open and his eyes peeled. Jose halved the Seattle lead with a home run to left field in the home third.
Then nine weak outs later, it was Molina to the rescue again, as he lined a double to the gap in left center, or at least it seemed a two-bagger until Ibanez’s throw clearly beat the plodding catcher to the second base bag. But Jose Lopez bobbled before planting a late tag, and the Yanks had the tying run two bases from home. Johnny Damon bunted Jose to third, but Melky Cabrera lost a six-pitch battle and swung over a high pitch for out number two. Derek Jeter fought the Seattle southpaw to a full count, but when he bounced to third, a geat chance was missed.
Hughes saved his best work for late, retiring six straight M’s in the fifth and sixth, though Ibanez singled leading off the latter only to be erased on a Shelley Duncan throw from right as he tried to stretch his hit into a double. The various threats and six K’s mounted Hughes’s pitch count however, and he came out in favor of fellow rookie Joba Chamberlain to start the seventh. Starting with low-nineties heat and a mid-seventies curve, Phil pushed the envelope both ways, reaching 95 with his fast ball and bottoming out at 71 with the curve. He threw just 11 of 23 first-pitch strikes, but the 61/34 strikes/balls ratio was good. No surprise that Phil struck out six; he got the opposition to swing and miss 15 times, an impressive number. Yankee fans look to have a strikeout presence in their rotation for years to come.
Chamberlain came on and threw a 1-2-3 seventh, hitting 100 mph on the gun, and finishing off batters with the impossible-to-prepare-for slider, but the Yanks were still down … but not for long. Rodriguez worked the count full to start the home seventh, then smacked a tying home run to left. When Robbie Cano reached on an ensuing error, Washburn’s day was done, his magic over Yankee bats dispelled.
Moments later, home plate ump Larry Vanover tried to get Seattle lefty George Sherrill’s attention to tell him that he had one more pitch left in his warmup, but the Seattle lefty wheeled and turned away. Given the events that transpired, George should have made the additional throw. Following a Duncan sac bunt, Sherrill walked the next two on 11 pitches. Sean Green came on and walked pinch hitter Jorge Posada to force across the lead run. Damon’s fielder’s choice grounder against Sean O’Flaherty plated another, Cabrera and Jeter hits scored three more, and Rodriguez capped the frame’s scoring with his second home run of the inning to left. Just hours from an mri detailing a contusion that relegated him to DH status, the eventual 2007 AL MVP added home run numbers 47 and 48. The Yanks pushed seven across on eight hits in Tuesday’s seventh inning; this time around it took but four loud hits to beat that seventh inning tally by one.
With the big lead, Joe Torre removed Chamberlain, getting Edwar Ramirez and Mariano Rivera an inning of work each, as crowd favorite Joba earned his first major league win. The hard thrower with triple-digit heat and killer slider continues to pitch without allowing a score. He’ll be a huge factor in the ever-dwindling weeks to come.
Even if nondescript Tampa arms got the best of the Yanks two times in three, the team responded with six of nine at home following a 2-5 road trip — a slip they suffered just when they could least afford it. They’ll need to win more often than they lose now in Kansas City, Toronto, and Boston, whether they hold out any hope for the AL East crown, or just want to keep fellow Wild Card pursuers at bay.
Perhaps it’s fitting that the Yanks leave the confines of the Bronx now, just when literary America is celebrating the 50th aniversary of the publication of novelist Jack Kerouac’s most famous book. For the next week and a half, the Yanks will have to win where the crowds are against them. They’ll need to excel where Kerouac did.
On the Road
BTW,TYW
YANKEE BASEBALL!!!