Bronx, N.Y., July 16, 2006 — The danger when talking about today’s Yankee win over the White Sox 6-4, and their three-game sweep on the weekend, is that you run out of superlatives. On the visiting end, Freddy Garcia battled gamely through seven in a losing cause. But although it would be fair to say Jaret Wright pitched well enough long enough for the win, he performed as well as I have ever seen him during one big at bat.

Wright drove the paying customers to distraction by walking leadoff man Scott Podsednick starting both the first and third innings. With 52 homers awaiting him in the third and fourth spots in Chicago’s order, he appeared to pitch around the speedy left fielder who has reached all of two outfield fences in the season’s first three-plus months. But one of the fabulous things in this battle was that superb Yankee defense bailed him out in both cases.

Things looked bleak in the first when Jim Thome blistered a double into the right field corner with no outs after Tadahito Iguchi followed the walk with an infield single that rolled to a stop 20 feet down the third base line. But down 1-0 with two in scoring position, the Yankee defense stiffened. Iguchi was off on contact on a bouncer to third, and was nailed at the plate, though he kept the rundown going long enough for Thome to creep into third. Small matter, because Rodriguez started a truly stupendous double play on Jermaine Dye’s hard one-hopper down the line, grabbing the ball and wheeling in one motion, then firing a low bullet to Miguel Cairo at second. Cairo’s turn was perfection and his relay beat Dye by a full step for a 5-4-3.

The gem was huge because the Yanks then posted a quick and loud three-run first, a lead the two stunted Chisox rallies failed to equal. Melky Cabrera led off this day with Bubba Crosby in center for Johnny Damon, who left Saturday’s blowout early with an apparent tweak in his leg. Melky flied out to center, but Derek Jeter blasted an 0-1 Garcia fastball to the back of the visiting bullpen for the quick equalizer. Despite a terrific year at the plate, the Yankee Captain hadn’t homered in two months, and the blast was a welcome sight. The ever-picky Jason Giambi then walked and Rodriguez quickly un-tied it with a two-run home run to left. It speaks volumes about A-Rod’s power that he appeared to hit this ball off the end of his bat.

But Wright was at it again in third, starting Podsednik with a called strike and then missing on four straight. Iguchi’s second single was barely better struck than the first, but the Sox were set up with two on and no out yet again. In fact, one theme of this game was that Chicago had their first two on in five different innings, and scored just two runs in those instances. Had they scored one run each time, they would have won the game. Iguchi was forced on Thome’s bouncer to Cairo, but Podsednik scored the second Sox run when Paul Konerko stroked an apparent single to right. I say “apparent,” because Yankee right fielder Aaron Guiel was on the liner like a hawk, and his quick peg to second caught the lumbering Thome for the rare 9-6 force. Dye’s routine fly to right brought the inning to a close.

Cabrera led off the Yankee third by doubling to right center on a 2-0 pitch, then raced to third on Jeter’s hard liner to right. It may sound silly, I know, when talking about a guy who is third in the league in on-base percentage, and who just trails the home run leaders by a few, but Jason Giambi followed with what may have been his best at bat of the year. He looked bad swinging and missing at Garcia’s first two tosses, an uncharacteristic approach for this Yankee DH. But he fouled off four of the next seven pitches, just barely nicking a few. Then he delivered the Yanks’ fourth run on a sac fly easily deep enough to left field.

Wright dominated in retiring the Sox in order on three popups in the fourth clinging to a 4-2 lead, and the Yanks did what they did in Saturday’s blowout, tacking on runs before the White Sox could recover. In the bottom half, Garcia got two quick outs, but Andy Phillips, coming off a double, home run, four-rbi game the day before, doubled to left. Down 0-2, Cairo recovered to single to right for one run; then Crosby doubled the same way for another, and the Yanks had a 6-2 lead. It’s a credit to the game Garcia that those were their last two Yankee scores.

With the eager Yanks smelling a sweep and the proud Sox dreading one, the game became one of attrition between New York arms and Chicago bats. Wright retired Juan Uribe to start the fifth, but leadoff hitter Podsednik battled him for an eight-pitch, grounds-rule double down the right field line. Podsednik did his job this day, reaching safely on his first four at bats, though he would fail dramatically in his fifth. Iguchi singled weakly yet again when his hopper up the middle barely cleared Wright’s outstretched glove, but Jeter saved a run by knocking the ball down with a sprawling stop. Then Wright, who had seemed merely good enough to that point, had his moment, in a pivotal battle with slugger Thome.

Jaret had overpowered rather than fooled Chicago batters most of the day, not bad when you consider that he exceeded 92 mph on the gun just once entering the fifth. Mixing in just an occasional curve and a change of pace with his relentless fastball, Jaret hadn’t managed to make a Sox hitter swing and miss until Joe Crede did so with one down in the fourth. But he pounded Thome at 94 mph and Jim swung and missed for strike one. But two more 94’s, a 93- and a 95-mph hard one produced no better than two balls and two fouls, and Wright tried to fool the big guy with an 83-mph change. But Thome is not just a home-run guy but a quality hitter, and he recovered and flicked it foul. Undaunted that his little ruse had failed, Wright backed it up with another low, outside 83-mph change, and Thome flailed and missed for Jaret’s only strike out of the day. Konerko fouled to Posada and the Yanks were three outs closer.

But the Sox did not give up, and drove Wright from the mound in the sixth. With one down, A.J. Pierzynski singled and Crede doubled down left. Ron Villone relieved and allowed a sac fly to pinch-hitting center fielder Brian Anderson, and Uribe drilled a 1-2 single to left. But Melky Cabrera charged and scooped the ball and his peg to Posada at the plate beat Crede by two steps and the Yanks clung to a 6-3 lead.

Podsednik led a seventh-inning charge with a leadoff single, and when Jeter rushed for the dp on an Iguchi bouncer to short, he bobbled the ball and the Sox had two on. But Mike Myers retired Thome on a pop to left on just one pitch and Kyle Farnsworth dispatched Konerko and Dye on easy flies to right.

If there is a lesson to be learned in the Yankee-fans-booing-A-Rod spectacle this year, it is that Yankee fans remember nothing. Thus they booed Farnsworth, who had just closed the seventh in fine fashion, when Pierzynski homered off him on a 3-2 pitch leading off the eighth. With the score now 6-4, the boos produced their usual result, and Kyle struggled still further. Crede and Anderson singled, and Joe Torre summoned closer Mariano Rivera for a six-out save. No problem, Mo seemed to say, as he popped Uribe out to second and finally retired Podsednik on a 4-6-3 to close the eighth.

But the Sox reached Rivera for three singles and two runs on Friday; they would not go quietly this day either. Iguchi collected his fourth hit by doubling the other way to start the ninth and when Thome walked, the Sox had their fifth two-on, no-out threat of the day. But Rivera stiffened, retiring Konerko on a 6-4-3, and he struck Dye out for the win and the sweep.

It was a hot day in a packed house Sunday, and the Yanks and the Sox treated the fans to a fabulous game. The inestimable and seeming everlasting Bob Sheppard introduced ex-boxing champ Sugar Ray Leonard to handle the ceremonial first-pitch chores, and Jaret Wright pumped in a 90-mph fast ball for the first “real” pitch at 1:09. In the middle of the third we were informed that A-Rod’s first-inning blast was his 448th, moving him into sole possession of 33rd place on the all-time home run list. I look forward to watching his future climb. The fans thrilled to Metallica’s Enter Sandman in the eighth with the game on the line and the one and only Rivera coming in from the pen. It was exactly three hours after Wright’s first toss pounded Posada’s glove that Rivera went 94 for the last strike of the day.

And then we were treated to the pro forma strains of Frank Sinatra’s New York, New York, as we usually are after Yankee wins. But something today was different and Frank’s anthem was strangely interrupted. The cause? The Yanks broke in to tell us that on this day Mariano Rivera had garnered his 400th career save. I could go and on on how I feel about a guy I have watched dominate baseball for 11 seasons without ever winning a really significant postseason pitching award. I could go on and on, but I won’t. I’ll let Roy Hobbes from The Natural speak the only words that truly tell the tale: