Bronx, N.Y., July 10, 2011 – For the second time in almost three years, I was invited to spend extra time in a Yankee Stadium on an unforgettable day on Saturday afternoon and, just as I had done in September 2008, I took full advantage. Smiling contentedly from the depths of my being listening to the father behind us explain how he and the family should book so they could beat the traffic, I had relaxed and listened to Joe Girardi, Mariano Rivera, Jorge Posada, and Derek Jeter explain just how special a day I had just experienced.
But two hours and 11 minues playing time notwithstanding, any rumors circulating that the Rays and Yanks had conspired to get the fans out of the Stadium Sunday more quickly than usual after “the longest day” the day before were purely coincidental. Just because one of the league’s best offenses and another pretty good one from Tampa equally split just eight hits, six of them singles, among 51 outs, the two teams struck out 14 times between them and just walked twice does not mean they were dogging it. Quite the opposite.
Righthander James Shields and southpaw CC Sabathia were just that good. Both titular All Stars who won’t be appearing in Arizona on Tuesday evening because they started today, they each took the mound Sunday afternoon determined to present their respective ballclubs with a series victory in a four game set rain-shortened to three games. The Rays beat the Yanks and Bartolo Colon behind Jeff Niemann 5-1 Thursday, and the Yanks came back behind five Derek Jeter hits in a 5-4 Yankee win Saturday afternoon.
Shields has a solid low-nineties fast ball, but you can watch him through a full inning and rarely see it. Featuring a mid-eighties change of pace, he mixes in a 90-mph cutter, a slow cuve and the occasional slider to make sure opposing batters never center on one of his pitches. Pitching around a first-inning walk and a second-inning single, he survived the only “real” Yankees chance to score in the third when Justin Upton threw out Eduardo Nunez on a short sac fly attempt once the Yankee rookie’s single, Derek Jeter’s amazing bunt base hit and a Curtis Granderson sac bunt set it all up. Mark Teixeira’s fly to short center would have been deep enough had the Rays not executed the play well, but they did, and the Yanks failed to score.
Which was a problem, because Shelds was superb, and getting better. The Tampa righty retired the next nine straight, and would easily pitch around a leadoff Robinson Cano single in the home seventh, but other factors intervened. Yankee starter Sabathia dominated by pounding 23 of 30 first-pitch strikes on the day, a terrific number, but it doesn’t compare with Sields, who missed on that initial pitch just two times to 28 batters.
Sabathia did quite well in all aspects. His 79/33 strikes/balls ratio was off the charts, and he used 10 swings and misses to strike out nine Rays on the day. He escaped when shortstop Elliot Johnson and second baseman Sean Rodriguez stroked doubles in the first two frames, but when Rodriguez was tagged out a foot short of third base attempting to steal in the second, that was as far as a Rays baserunner would get on the day. B.J. Upton singles in the third and sixth, the remainder of the Tampa attack, failed to threaten, not only because the hitters that followed the Rays center fielder failed; B.J. was thrown out on the bases both times, picked off first on a bizarre delayed steal attempt, and then doubled off first once Andruw Jones hauled in Rodriguez’s drive to deep right.
It certainly appeared that neither offense was up to scoring off these pitchers, and that was indeed the case. But perhaps with being doubled off fresh in his mind, Upton couldn’t contain himself when he flagged down a first-pitch Jorge Posada liner following Robinson Cano’s leadoff single in the bottom of the seventh. Cano did appear to have ventured too far off first, but when Upton threw that way to double him off, his throw sailed over Casey Kotchman at the bag and into the Yankee dugout on the fly. “One from the mound, two from the field,” the rule reads, and Cano became the second Yankee baserunner on third base with one out on the day. But Russell Martn bounced out to the drawn-in infield, and Shields appeared to be one pitch from being free.
Perhaps he was, but the Tampa righty did not throw that next pitch, at least not right away. With the speedy Brett Gardner at the plate, push bunt potential flooded the scene, and the Rays were ready, apparently too ready. Shields came set, then broke his motion and fired a ball toward third in a pickoff attempt that appeared would have been successful, but this peg too sailed badly, landing in the stands as Cano scored the game’s lone run.
Having thrown 85 pitches through seven, Sabathia was ready to finish this one off. He retired six straight for his 13th win, posting his last three strike outs along the way. To Shields’s credit, although he was clearly upset when he thrw the ball away in the seventh, he was the same pitcher once he had. He set Gardner down on a fly to center, then cleared the eighth on eight pitches, striking out Jones on three strikes to start the frame. In short, Shields did what he had done all game. He dominated the Yankee offense.
And CC? He won the game, got the Yanks to the All Star break on an up, and gave us a second lesson in baseball 101 in two days. The first was the one that told us that the “experts” who told us Derek Jeter was too old and slow to play this game are anything but expert.
Lesson No. 2? CC knows how to win games, and at least in his case, it is NOT a team stat. The Yanks win when CC pitches not because they are a good team, but because he knows how to win. Oh, and to any experts who have trouble with that?
No offense
BTW,TYW
YANKEE BASEBALL!!!