Bronx, N.Y., October 8, 2003 — Well, the Wednesday night American League Championship Series game had a very early turning point. We just didn’t realize how dramatic and conclusive the failure to score in the bottom of the second inning would be. The game was scoreless, and even though Wakefield had retired the first four Yankees in pretty meek fashion on 14 pitches, Yankee fans were excited and upbeat.

Granted, Mike Mussina’s difficulty in finding the strike zone in the inning’s top half was cause for concern. He had retired the side in order in the first, even if he did go full on Nomar Garciaparra, and had to throw him strike three and four (foul balls) before retiring him on a routine fly to center field. And Manny Ramirez became the first out of the second on three pitches (although I silently noted that the foul liner to right and the grounder to Jeter at short were smacked).

But then Mussina went to a full count on designated hitter David Ortiz, and the crowd groaned as he issued ball four. (We would learn that ball four on 3-2 is not the worst possible thing.) He followed by falling behind Kevin Millar, 3-0, though he recovered by inducing him to hit a soft liner to short left. But his next four pitches to Trot Nixon were off the plate, putting runners on first and second, and he went to 3-2 on Doug Mirabelli before getting him to bounce back to the box. He had survived the inning, and the Sox (after Manny) hadn’t hit anything hard, but the 15 balls to nine strikes ratio was disturbing. There were obviously pitches in Mussina’s impressive arsenal with which he was struggling.

But the Yankee fans took heart that Moose hadn’t surrendered a hit, and when Jorge Posada singled sharply in the second base hole with one out in the second, all seemed right with the world. Hideki Matsui battled Wakefield’s flutter balls gamely, fouling off three before finding one he could handle, and then he drove it the other way to left for a single. Ramirez was on it quickly enough to prevent Posada, running on the play, from crossing to third, but the Yanks had the game’s first two hits and had two on with one out.

And then Aaron Boone took a strike, then swung wildly at a second. But he took a ball, fouled one off, and then smacked an almost perfect one hopper past third. Derryl Cousins didn’t hesitate to call it foul, however, and no Yankee argued. But how bad could it be? We had just had our third consecutive batter hit a ball hard off Wakefield, and there was reason for optimism. Boone drove the next pitch ever harder and further — and further foul. But he got under the at bat’s eighth offering and lifted a routine fly to center, and when Nick Johnson bounced a 2-2 pitch to first, the Yanks’ only early opportunity had come and gone.

So Moose had walked two; Wakefield had given up two singles. But by the time the Yanks managed a third hit, the Sox had clubbed 11 of their own, and three of those had left the building, so to speak. Boston’s knuckleballer found his form, and he was unhittable. While the Red Sox were scoring two runs apiece in the fourth and fifth, Tim retired 12 Yankees in a row, none of them on hard-hit balls. Although he was not getting ahead of hitters (he threw only nine of 22 first pitches for strikes), he had command, and he didn’t throw ball three to a Yankee after that second-inning threat until he walked Giambi leading off the seventh. His strikes to balls count was 54/37, and he got only four of those strikes when the Yanks swung and missed. He and home plate ump Tim McClelland had ideas about the strike zone that melded to the tune of 18 called strikes (Mussina only had 12 while throwing 11 more total strikes), and Wakefield got the Yankee batters to hit the ball 32 times, all of them meekly except for those few in the second inning.

Mussina, meanwhile, settled down. He did OK in the third despite Mueller’s two-out single, and seemed to have Manny retired when he topped a hopper toward second, but then Mike and the Yankess got unlucky. The righty lunged for it and it trickled off his glove, and it seemed frustratingly clear that Soriano would have been able to get Ramirez out. This became especially painful when Ortiz fouled off pitches until the count went full, and then blasted Moose’s first 3-2 pitch (of this at bat) over the Modell’s sign that adorns the Upper Deck facade in right field. The damage was done (or some of it anyway), and it comforted me just a bit that from that point Mike proceeded to strike out three of the next four, his first punch outs of the night.

But Todd Walker thumped a 2-0 pitch off the pole in right to start the fifth, though I was (incorrectly, it turns out) convinced it was foul, and was furious with McClelland for overruling right field ump Marquez, who had ruled that it missed the pole and sailed to the right. Two outs later Manny lifted one over the short porch in right. Although Mike wasn’t sharp, and he lacked an effective out pitch, he didn’t pitch poorly despite struggling all night, and would have escaped unscathed without the home run balls. Ironically, although Mike threw first-pitch balls to eight Red Sox batters in a row once he started the game with a strike against Todd Walker, the damage was done against him while he was finishing with a 13-5 mark during his second and third times through the Boston order, and he used 105 gutted-out pitches to get the Yanks through a point two outs into the top of the sixth down, 4-0.

Felix Heredia came on, and then Jeff Nelson, who failed in relief yet again, walking Ramirez, hitting Ortiz and allowing an rbi single to Millar that forged the game’s final score, but the relief work of Heredia, White, and Contreras (there K’s in the ninth) was effective.

The Yanks got one more chance, once Wakefield walked the first two in the seventh inning. Alan Embree came on and gave up an rbi double to right center by Posada, a ball that Kapler (subbing for the injured Damon) dove gamely to keep from getting to the wall. The lefty reliever fell behind 2-0 to Matsui, who then stroked a sac fly to left for the frame’s second score, but the Yanks were still a bit too far back to trade outs for runs, and when Boone and then Johnson flied to center (though Nick’s liner could have been trouble 10 or 15 feet to the right), the Yanks’ final threat was over.

Timlin came on for the eighth and Williamson the ninth. There was a moment of interest and a little spice thrown in the eighth, as Torre came out and had the home plate ump check Timlin’s cap, for vaseline or some other foreign substance, I guess. The hat apparently passed muster.

When broadcasting Yankee games for the YES Network, Ken Singleton uses the phrase, “move along the line,” to refer to rallies and how they can become almost self-perpetuating when batters take that approach that they should attack the pitch and move it to the next guy in the lineup, and so forth. World War I flyer and hero Eddie Rickenbacker was born on the day this game took place back in 1890. Eddie was referred to as the “Ace of Aces” because he operated in tense conditions among men who had to be the best at what they did or they wouldn’t survive. But they all acknowledgged that he was their best, the “Ace” among the “Aces.” We knew going in that the Yankee strength was starting pitching. And our titular “ace” was beaten by Wakefield this night. So now it’s time to move it along the line. Now Andy Pettitte is our “Ace.”

Also born on this day, in 1951, was Johnny Ramone of the punk group The Ramones. To advance beyond this Series the Yanks and their fans knew they had to win four games. We have played a game, and our goal is still to win four games. If any need inspiration, I would like to suggest the Ramones classic, Blitzkrieg Bop, that is often heard over the Yankee Stadium loudspeakers when we need the team to rally:

“Hey Ho. Let’s Go!”

YANKEE BASEBALL!!!