Bronx, N.Y., July 18, 2010 — It wasn’t hard to get psyched about the rubber game of the three-game home series vs. the Rays in Yankee Stadium Sunday. It was a gorgeous day, particularly for those who could escape the unrelenting rays of a hot sun in heat-waved New York. And the matchup was classic: the home-standing wily veteran Andy Pettitte vs. upstart gunslinger David Price from out of town. Think Alan Ladd against quintessential bad guy Jack Palance in Shane, or any number of hotshot youngsters vs. Marshall Dillon in the long-running TV classic series Gunsmoke.
The aforementioned sun conspired with other elements against what might have been a 1-0 game from the outset. Curtis Granderson got a bad break on Justin Upton’s drive to deep right center leading off the game, with no chance at all at making the catch with his delayed pursuit. Pettitte then made quite an athletic move in catching Carl Crawford’s push bunt attempt for a base hit, though it was righty ruled as a sac bunt once Andy recovered from his dive and threw the speedy DH out from his knees. Perhaps the direction change and tumble caused the eventual groin strain that drove Andy from the game in the third. It’s an injury we’ll be anxious to learn about going forward.
Looking back, it would have been easy to fault Pettitte’s control, but aside from an inability to harness the curve that has been his best 2010 pitch, he actually didn’t miss much, throwing 15 of 22 first-inning pitches for strikes. But he paid for the misses, first on a cutter that caught Evan Longoria’s back foot on an 0-2 pitch, and then on back-to-back outside fastballs the first two throws against Carlos Pena. The next one caught the zone, a bit too much, and before you know it Pena crushed it deep to right and Tampa had a 3-0 lead with their young ace on the mound.
But playing no favorites, the sun dazzled Upton in the bottom half as Nick Swisher bounced a grounds rule double into the doorway next to Monument Park with one out. After a walk, Alex Rodriguez just missed on a first-pitch drive to right that would have tied the game. Robbie Cano took the opposite tack though, taking a ball, swinging for a strike, and then fouling off three 95 and 96 mph fastballs before driving a liner to the wall in left over Gabe Kapler’s leaping try for a two-run triple. One inning in, the expected pitching duel stood at 3-2, Rays.
Pettitte labored through a 20-pitch second, walking two, but striking out Upton and Pena, the latter on an attempted check swing to end the frame. But although Andy struck out Ben Zobrist to start the third, he allowed back-to-back singles to Jason Bartlett and Kapler, failing in the second instance for the second time in the game after going up 0-2. He got a called strike on Kelly Shoppach, missed with two, then gestured painfully after missing with another pitch, his last of the day.
David Robertson, tabbed by Joe Girardi to take the mound, finished the walk to load the bases, but escaped on a popup and fly out, and the Yanks jumped on Price for the tying run right away. Price went up 0-2 on Derek Jeter, the fourth batter he did so against in the first 10, but the Yankee Captain snuck a single past Pena at first, then stole second on a close play. One out later Teixeira tied the game with a single to right.
But the relaxation that came with the come-from-behind tie didn’t last. This game was a four-hour battle, and the fans spent the first two hours on the edge of their seats with Rays runners in scoring position seemingly all the time. Robertson fell behind Crawford 3-1, and he singled to start the fourth, then stole second, and moved to third on a deep fly. For the second time early in the game, the Yanks played the infield in. But Robertson came through, striking Pena out and retiring Zobrist on a grounder to second with the go-ahed run 90 feet from home.
Chan Ho Park pitched the fifth, and did well, although Shoppach reached on a wild pitch while striking out with two down. Once Sean Rodriguez’s deep fly to right fell short, the crowd shared a sigh of relief, and the tide turned. The Yanks immediately put Price on the defensive in the bottom half, making it his last inning by forcing 36 pitches before he could escape a two-walk, three-hit, four-run onslaught. Brett Gardner walked, stole second, and scored on Jeter’s ground single up the middle to give the Yanks their first lead. Price, fidgeting and stepping off and throwing to first repeatedly, almost recovered at that point, coaxing two flies to right around a wild pitch, but A-Rod singled hard for a run, Cano walked, and Jorge Posada pounded a nail into the coffin with a two-run double to the wall in left.
The game was essentially over. The Yanks added singleton runs on Granderson and Swisher hits in the sixth and an A-Rod cruise missile to left in the seventh. Tampa responded with a Kapler home run and a Matt Joyce rbi double in the ninth. At this point, Mariano Rivera actually came on to finish the game on one pitch, but following an effective Boone Logan, Chamberlain was actually very good. He cash in three swinging strike outs on 98 mph heat and his killer slider before tiring a bit. Each reliever leading up to Mo went a bit longer than would have been ideal on a day when the team’s starter was out in the third, and Girardi deserves credit for nursing his staff through what was a pretty important game starting the season’s second half.
The Yanks got the big win on the 11th anniversary of David Cone’s Perfect Game against the Expos, the same day, too, that Don Mattingly tied Dale Long’s record (since equalled by Junior Griffey) of hitting home runs in eight straight games back in 1987. And one day after Joe DiMaggio’s 56-game hitting streak came to an end in 1941, the Bombers had 19-game and 13-game winning streaks on July 18, in 1947 and 1954, respectively.
So the Sunday duel in the sun between the vet and the slinger didn’t quite come to pass. Andy Pettitte wasn’t able to subdue the young stud, but his team beat the Rays nonetheless. All five relievers got the job done, A-Rod and Cano had two hits and two rbi’s apiece; Jeter and Swisher had two hits as well, and Posada drove in two. Eight starters had at least a run scored or rbi, and although DHs Marcus Thames and Juan Miranda did neither, each reached on a walk.
No, this was no one-on-one battle. This was more like another classic Western. The townspeople turned their backs on Gary Cooper, it’s true; some booed in the first after the three-run Pena bomb. But the Deputy with no nerve played by Lloyd Bridges took out one of the bad guys, and Marshal Wil Kane’s fiance in the person of Grace Kelly neutralized another. It wasn’t just Shane vs. a sneering Jack Palance, not Price vs. Pettitte.
This win was More High Noon really.
BTW,TYW
YANKEE BASEBALL!!!