Bronx, N.Y., July 7, 2011 – That’s about all there is to say coming off a lifeless – make that L I F E L E S S – 5-1 loss to the Tampa Rays in Yankee Stadium Thursday night. The Rays scored early, sneaking a bouncer past Mark Teixeira at first that he’ll catch nine out of 10 times, and Nick Swisher, whose right field play of late has been stellar, had trouble with the wall down the line for the second time in two weeks, and Ben Zobrist had a triple.
Bartolo Colon, who certainly did not have the command we’ve come to respect, love and, yes, expect, would survive into the sixth inning, but he managed this crisis OK, coaxing two huge ground balls to escape the inning down just 1-0.
And then Derek Jeter stepped to the plate against Jeff Niemann, and the place went crazy. Beside themselves with excitement, the crowd cheered like it was the ninth inning in a one-run game. Instant gratification, they name is Derek, and the Yankee Captain sent the place delirious with a sharp line drive into left center that he easily ran into a double. It was his 2,998th hit, and 50,000-plus, more than 47,000 of them paying customers, suddenly felt they were on the precipice of history. Given how the first and second innings were to unfold, you had to wonder if the 24 men who were wearing pinstripes and spikes in the dugout with Derek were every bit as fully spectators as everyone else.
Curtis Granderson’s grounder moved Derek 90 feet and Mark Teixeira, batting against as odd an infield-in defense as you’re likely to ever see, walked. But Alex Rodrigiez went down swinging, and Robinson’s Cano base hit bid up the middle was flagged by Zobrist; the Yankee chance was gone.
The frustration grew in inning two. What would surely have been a Nick Swisher single up the middle caromed off Niemann right to Zobrist for a 1-4-3 that looked to have been drawn up that way. Jorge Posada singled past third, but he made yet another bad baserunning decision when Curtis Martin thumped a ball off the wall in right center. Afraid of being doubled off, Po held up so long he arrived at third around the same time Martin made it to second even though the carom off the wall and 20- to 30-foot bounce gave him every chance to score on the ball. He didn’t, of course, but with Brett Gardner, who strokes a preponderance of balls on the ground, up next, the chance to score seemed alive, until Brett popped harmlessly to first. Tellingly, it was with the first of four straight ground ball outs following his first-frame missile that Derek himself closed the inning scoreless.
Essentially that was it. This may not be fair to say, given Robinson Cano’s 15th homer with two down in the sixth, but by then the score was 5-0, and 5-1 was the final. Colon battled but he failed to secure a strike out, his preferred way of retiring opponents, until he got Reid Brignac swinging in the sixth. The Tampa shortstop swung and missed twice in that at bat, two of the just five swings and misses Colon would harvest. But missing even more than that overpowering aspect to Bartolo’s game was the late movement that has made the majority of his strike outs of the taken variety. His 58/33 strikes/balls ratio and 17 of 29 first-pitch strikes were not bad, but the paltry 16 taken strikes, averaging just three an inning, was probably more telling. The Rays were not at all fooled by his movement. That, and the walks in each of the first four frames, got him into trouble. Zobrist, who finished just a double short of a cycle, homered in the third, and B.J. Upton went yard for the final two runs in the fifth. Upton, Casey Kotchman, and Evan Longoria had two hits apiece.
The defensive highlights for the Yanks were a sliding Gardner catch of a Longoria liner to short left in the third and a bizarre 5-4-3 double play in the seventh when Cano tagged Longoria off second and threw out Upton who strayed beyond first. Part of the back of the Rays rotation, Niemann pitched great, although he’ll have to forgive me for portraying the offense against which he excelled as a group that seemed to be more spectators than participants, at least early when they had chances. Kudos to Hector Noesi as well, who fnished well for Colon over 3.3 innings, with just two hits and a walk against four strike outs, three of them to shut down the side in the ninth.
But you had to pay attention, and write it down to note all of that. Because the only real good news of this night was the
keen 7:18 moment.
YANKEE BASEBALL!!!