June 3, 2013, Bronx, N.Y. — As 40,000 or so Yankee fans wiped down their pregame-soaked seats before Monday night’s tilt with visiting Cleveland, many looked nervously to the skies. Who could blame them, what with the way the weather not only ended Sunday night’s loss, but also scared the bejeesus out of any sentient being anywhere near Yankee Stadium?

Pretty elementary, that fear, but it wasn’t as simple as that. A team that has seemed incapable of plating more than one run a game in their recent 1-7 stretch was about to face a pitcher in righty Justin Masterson who had blanked them 1-0 when they were hot weeks ago. And soon-to-be 41-year-old Andy Pettitte, a Yankee southpaw starter counted on for big things this year, was coming off the DL, facing a surging Indians squad challenging Detroit for AL Central supremacy, on a soaked field with an iffy forecast.

But there were plenty of nerves to go around, witness veteran visiting manager Terry Francona. Was it the chance of impending weather, or doubt about scoring after his team failed to plate one-out singles in the first two frames, that led him to have his No. 3 hitter lay down a sac bunt after the Tribe bunched two one-base hits leading off the third? The move worked to the extent that his team grabbed a 1-0 lead, but seemed pretty shortsighted when a grand slam home run had them down 4-1 in the bottom half.

Four runs? By the Yankees? It does sound uncharacteristic, but becomes even more so when the manner of their Monday scoring is examined. With batting averages hovering on either side of the .100 mark, eighth- and ninth-place Yankee batters Reid Brignac and Austin Romine got the home-team trouble started with singles. Add in a walk and a Mark Teixeira first-pitch liner over the short porch in right, and it was 4-1 Yankees. Handed a three-run lead, the type this team has not seen the whole time he was on the DL, Pettitte had a fifth-inning meltdown that led to giving back all three runs.

With fans in the stands beside themselves (or was that just me?), the bottom of the order restored serenity two frames later. Romine singled hard off Masterson’s body after an Ichiro walk and fielder’s choice grounder in the bottom of the sixth, and stole second to put two in scoring position. The young catcher then scored along with the veteran outfielder on a Brett Gardner two-run single where Austin may well have been out had Masterson not cut off the throw to the plate. Yankee fans danced in the seats. And the pinstriped pen came through with 4.3 scoreless, but the second rally came a little late for Pettitte, who had to leave before he could have earned a win in the fifth.

It’s hard to know what exactly happened to Andy that inning, but it is easy to speculate. With the New York papers buzzing that if the wily vet is to have a productive season his body will require that he push himself a little less, he was forced to extend himself on defense from the moment the game began. He sprawled on his knees to collect Michael Bourn’s grounder on his first pitch before tossing to first for the out, then had to come down off the mound in the third to record two infield assists, one of them on the Asdrubal Cabrera sac bunt mentioned above.

But despite allowing four hits, a walk and the one run through three, Andy seemed fine. His three-ground-ball-out, 13-pitch fourth was his best inning. But following a leadoff Drew Stubbs double in the fifth, a Bourn slow roller toward first may have done him in. Ignoring Pettitte’s game attempt to run the ball down, Mark Teixeira attempted to charge the ball and try for a sweeping tag, but Bourn was too fast. Did Andy tweak something on the try, or was he just disappointed at the result?

Well, through the first four innings, Pettitte’s 39/17 strikes/balls ratio was superb. He had thrown 12 first-pitch strikes to 16 batters. But that all headed south at this point. Once Cleveland scored their second run when Robinson Cano unwisely caught a pop to short center when Gardner was better set up to throw — the SF4 scoring tells you all you need to know — and a groundout where Cano made a fine play, Andy missed the zone on 10 straight pitches. The first of the two walks crossed with the tying run when David Adams at third could not handle Carlos Santana’s bouncer right down the line, ending Andy’s night.

But the replacements were thankfully up to the task. Continuing a great year, Shawn Kelley closed the fifth after a walk on a fly to right, the first Lyle Overbay career outfield putout after having played 1,272 games as a first baseman. Kelley added to his impressive strikeout totals by whiffing two in the sixth, and Joba Chamberlain, pounding 97 mph heat, equaled that in the seventh, pitching around a leadoff walk. By the time David Robertson would take the mound in the eighth, Travis Hafner had reinstated the Yankee three-run lead with a high, deep home run to right, and D-Rob and Mariano Rivera retained that edge for a 7-4 Yankee win.

The pen was superb, with Kelley garnering the win, and on a team struggling to score, the Tex and Haf home runs have to be big, particularly from Mark, whose return has been hopefully looked at as a chance to reignite this offense. Andy turned in a nice half a start. But on a night where the Yankees reached double-digit hits, the only two guys in the lineup with two apiece were the bottom guys, Reid Brignac and Austin Romine.

BTW,TYW
YANKEE BASEBALL!!!