April 5, 2011, Bronx, N.Y. – I knew there was something I liked about the pitching matchup in the Bronx for another early-season frigid affair. The last time lefties CC Sabathia and Brian Duensing squared off in Yankee Stadium that I can recall was in the opening game of the 2009 ALDS. In that one the Twins broke out on top, scoring twice on several singles and a passed ball in the third, so when the Yanks blasted their way to a 3-0 lead after one and 4-0 in the second Tuesday night, I immediately (and foolishly) decided I preferred this contest.
Both southpaws pitched well in the October 2009 contest, but Duensing got himself quickly into trouble this time around, walking leadoff hitter Derek Jeter on six pitches once CC extricated himself from the top half by pitching around a two-out walk to Twins star catcher Joe Mauer. Missing the zone started trouble for the Minnesota southpaw, and it continued to. Nick Swisher, hitting second in Joe Girardi’s against-lefties lineup, singled on a 1-0 pitch, and Mark Teixeira lifted a 2-0 fastball into the left field corner for an immediate 3-0 Yankee lead.
Duensing recovered to get four straight, including a Russell Martin grounder to short to start the home second. An overeager Andruw Jones, in his first regular season Yankee at bat, failed to catch up with high cheese, then suffered buckled knees on a curve for an 0-2 count. But Duensing missed with three straight and when he tried high outside heat again, Jones was ready, and lashed it into the first row in left for a 4-0 lead after two, the same score and inning by which the Yanks led in their victory the night before.
Sabathia had just survived his only difficult inning, as the one-out, back-to back singles Twins hitters Jason Kubel and Danny Valencia stroked were the only safeties the big Yankee lefty allowed in seven full innings. Having stuck with fastballs in the first, CC had either decided to try out the arsenal from A to Z, or felt compelled to do so after the hits, in the second. In this frame, he uncorked a sinker, a couple of sliders, a few curves and a change of pace, then retuned to the heat with his high-water mark on the night, 94 and 95 mph back to back. The mixture worked, because following the Valencia single he retired the next 17 batters through the seventh inning with 104 pitches. The Yankee ace often throws as many as 120 pitches, but Joe Girardi has liked what he has seen of the back of his pen early, and he went to setup man Rafael Soriano in the eighth. It did not work out well.
The trouble that was to befall the Yanks in the visitors’ eighth only meant something, however, because Duensing found his game and quieted Yankee lumber through seven as well. Jeter, whose home run had turned the tables against the Twins lefty back in October 2009, singled with two down in the second, Swisher collected his second one-base hit with one out in the fifth, and an Alex Rodriguez single and Martin walk led off the Yankee sixth and seventh innings respectively, but the Yanks never advanced even one of them as much as one base. Working a fastball/slider/change repertoire, Duensing struck out seven while allowing six hits and the early four runs through seven. He walked two, just the one to Martin in the seventh following the free pass to the Yankee captain starting the first.
Although the lack of offense was frustrating, the crowd became OK with it, because with both starters working so well, the game played in inhospitably cold weather began to fly by and, after all, the home team had a nice lead. But of course “after all” is a misnomer, because the eighth inning arrived, Rafael Soriano couldn’t throw strikes in the cold and, after all, the lead was gone. Soriano surrendered two walks around the pinch hitting Justin Morneau’s fly out, then Denard Span dumped the only hit in six batters Rafael faced, a soft opposite-field single in front of Brett Gardner, in for defense in left field, to load the bases. The Yankee setup man recovered to strike out Tsuyoshi Nishioka for a second out, but he fell behind and walked Mauer for the first Twins run. Girardi replaced Soriano with David Robertson, who gave up a bases-clearing double that Delmon Young floated the opposite way into short right, the one place on the field where no defender stood a chance. On the one hand, Roberston did not make a bad pitch, but on the other he made his own trouble, throwing ball one and falling behind 3-1, then 3-2, making it easy for all three Twins baserunners to score as they took off on the full count offering. David struck out Michael Cuddyer to leave Young at second, but the damage was done.
Mariano Rivera pitched a two-strike-out ninth after a Kubel single, but meanwhile Twins righty Matt Capps retired six straight Yanks in the home eighth and ninth on 15 measly pitches, getting the first five outs on 10 throws. The Yankee offense looked shut down for the night, but maybe each of them was trying too hard to end it with one swing. With scoring prospects looking dim a scan of the bullpen revealed that lefty Boone Logan would be next, logical with lefty swinger Span leading off the 10th. But Logan’s work was atrocious; Girardi rescued him after 12 pitches had yielded a leadoff walk, two singles, and a 5-4 deficit. Luis Ayala did well to stop it there with a double play ball, but even he walked a batter before Kubel lined out to Cano to end the threat.
Despite the unforgiving temps and driving wind, it had started decently this evening in Yankee Stadium, as an all-day intermittent rain stopped and dried up one hour before the game. The stands continued to be more empty than we are used to, but surely some in the Yankee and mlb offices realized when they scheduled 19 April games in the Bronx that they were in danger of teaching fans that staying home in front of the TV was the way to go. Before the game, Cano, Teixeira, and Jeter received gold gloves for their 2010 defensive work, but this has been an award I haven’t taken seriously since Rafael Palmeiro won one at first base in a season where he fielded the position just 30 times about a decade ago. Still the trio looked thrilled and I hadn’t realized that each was given a “gilded” glove matching their position, so Robbie’s second baseman’s mitt was dwarfed by the scooped shape Tex got for his work at first, with Jeter’s shortstop glove coming in somewhere in between in size. Smiling, shoulder to shoulder, they made a great picture, one you’d be seeing now if my frozen hands (even this early) had been able to pull the camera from my bag and aim it.
Recovering from injury, Twins closer Joe Nathan pitched the bottom of the tenth. He looked OK (84 mph slider, 91 mph heater) not great, but more than enough against the sleepwalking Yankee offense. He got Gardner and Granderson on ground balls, and then the game was in the hands of Jeter, who had been the hero against this team 18 months before. Derek was playing in his 2,300th game this night, and he had stroked his 2,929th hit eight innings before. And to his credit he did put up a fight, fouling off four straight offerings before swinging and missing on a full count pitch.
On this day in 1925 some Yankee fan like me was delighted, I’m sure, when the Yanks whipped the Dodgers 16-9 in an exhibition game, but on the same day Babe Ruth collapsed due to an ulcer that cost him, and the Yankees, any shot at a decent year. I was ballistic (in a good way) as the Yanks took the four-run lead, and it went downhill from there, even to the extent that my post-game train left the station after regulation, and I had to wait 45 minutes for another. And speaking of “gold gloves,” on April 5, 1963, the Beatles were awarded their first “silver” disk, for a hit single. You’ll know the three-word title, but just this once pronounce it as I am, as if it is a lament. I’m tired, and I’m cold, and the eighth and tenth innings were dreadful:
Please. Please Me
YANKEE BASEBALL!!!