Bronx, N.Y., October 9, 2009 — Milling around the new train station at Yankee Stadium Friday night following the Yanks’ improbable come-from-behind win, the big joke went something like: “Boring game, huh?” But move those delirious people back in time two hours, and nobody would have seen what was so funny. For the second straight postseason game the Yanks and their fans (hey, we buy the tickets) got their money’s worth when both CC Sabathia and A.J. Burnett were signed on December 18, 2008. What we didn’t count on was the superb Nick Blackburn and the Twins setup relief.

It was semi-expected in New York that once Derek Jeter unleashed the New York offense with his third-inning home run Wednesday night, “unleashed the hounds,” so to speak, that it would stay unleashed. Blackburn didn’t get that memo, it turns out, and mixing five pitches effectively, he retired 15 of 17 Yankees through the first five innings. It was clear the Yanks never knew what was coming, and who could blame them as the Twins righty pored in fastballs, curves, cutters, sliders, and changes, all for strikes, seemingly at will?

But Burnett was dealing too, and although he walked five and hit two through his six innings, he struck out six as well, five on knee-quaking curves. He kept the Twins off the board despite allowing baserunners every frame until pinch hitter Brendan Harris broke the 0-0 tie with an rbi triple in the top of the sixth.

Joe Girardi had provoked innumerable second and third guesses by starting weak-hitting Jose Molina to team with Burnett at catcher, but as has happened more often than not in 2009, he came out looking brilliant, just as he had with the curious April decision to take one of the best leadoff men of a generation in Johnny Damon and flip-flop him in the order with Derek Jeter. You may not read Jorge Posada’s name in the game recap, and he won’t pop out at you from the boxscore, but once Jorge led off the home sixth pinch-hitting for Molina with Burnett’s day done, he stroked just the second hard-hit ball off Blackburn of the day. Center fielder Carlos Gomez ran down Jorge’s deep liner to left center for the first out, but not the Jeter double to right center that followed (Jeter owned the first hard-hit ball, a lofty drive to dead center in the third that would have cleared any other fence in the park). Damon walked and Mark Teixeira, the only regular still looking for an ALDS hit, flied to left. But Alex Rodriguez stroked his third straight two-out-man-in-scoring-position hit of the series to tie the game at 1-1, and to usher Blackburn from the game.

It looked to be a huge advantage to the Yanks to get the game to the bullpens tied, but it didn’t work out that way. While Ron Mahay, Jon Rauch, and Matt Guerrrier were retiring the next seven Yanks, the Twins quieted the shocked crowd by plating two in the eighth off setup man Phil Hughes for a 3-1 lead. Joba Chamberlain and Phil Coke pitched an effective seventh, and Hughes made quick work of the first two Minnesota batters in the eighth. But a walk to Gomez seemed to rattle him, Harris singled the speedy centerfielder to third, and ninth-place hitter and all-around pest Nick Punto, who has reached base safely six times in two games, singled in the go-ahead run. Even Mariano Rivera, who relieved at that point, was reached for a Denard Span rbi single to up the lead to 3-1, but Mo rebounded well, striking out three in a row, and holding the Twins right there.

The fans were shocked, but not disheartened. Not only was the team’s rep built on 15 walkoff wins in their new home known by all, but they got that particular ball rolling by winning in walkoff fashion three straight times vs. this same Twins team back in May. It has absolutely nothing (well, very little) to do with today’s social networking when I tell you that the crowd was a-twitter.

Although fabulous offensive ballplayers in their own rite, the third and fourth hitters in the Yankee lineup are very different guys. Although he spent a decade on top of the baseball world, Rodriguez has been beset by doubts and criticism: of his personal habits, of his use of banned substances, but most of all of the tag that he couldn’t come through at the big moment. In a tiny way, Teixeira’s gone through a similar track in his brief New York experience. He couldn’t buy a hit in April after signing with the Yanks long-term for big money, but afterward turned in a season that had him leading the league in rbi’s and tied for the lead in home runs, with kudos all around for his defense too. But when Mark led off in the bottom of the ninth he was 0-for-7, a playoff microcosm of April 2009. He promptly smacked a Joe Nathan 1-1 fastball for a single to right to get off the schneid. Rodriguez, with three two-out rbi hits in two games, followed, seemingly with no pressure on him at all. Nathan fell behind 3-0, then got a called strike. Alex swung and did not miss on the next pitch, homering to right center for a sudden 3-3 tie.

Exciting stuff, huh? You ain’t read nuthin’ yet. Nathan retired the next three, although Nick Swisher did make a bid with a long drive to center. Following the Hughes template, Alfredo Aceves got two quick outs in the top of the 10th, then ran into trouble via a walk and a single. But he retired Orlando Cabrera on a fly to right.

With one down in the bottom half, Posada asked home plate ump Chuck Meriwether to check the ball once Robbie Cano in the ninth and Melky Cabrera in the 10th had bounced to short against Nathan. Once Meriwether removed that ball, Jorge lofted a single to short center. Brett Gardner pinch-ran and the crowd went crazy as he stole second, then motored to third on an errant pickoff throw as Jeter walked. Lefty Jose Mijares replaced Nathan and, with Jeter and Gardner running on a 3-2 pitch to Damon, Johnny lined to short for an inning-ending dp. Aaargh!

Then it got exciting. Sounds silly, but it’s true. An ineffective Damaso Garcia came on to face lefty hitters Joe Mauer and Jason Kubel to start the 11th and both reached on singles. Hard-throwing righty David Robertson relieved but Michael Cuddyer singled up the middle to load the bases with no outs. The Yanks pulled their infield in and Roberston (and Tex) got busy. First-pitch liner to Teixiera, out one. First-pitch bouncer to Tex for a 3-2 force at the plate, out two. Then Harris flied out to center and 50,000 fans exhaled, all at once.

But not for long. Teixeira had a great season following his April struggles at the plate. And with all those home runs and rbi’s, he was the impetus behind many a win. Mark came to bat to start the bottom of the 11th 1-for-8 once he had broken his 0-for-7 two frames earlier. He slashed a 2-1 pitch from Mijares into the left field corner, where it barely cleared the fence, and Tex capped his season with that one missing trophy. Following his triumphant circuit of the bases and the requisite batting helmet toss to his teammates around home plate, he was pied by Burnett in the middle of his postgame interview. The Yanks had won as excruciating but exciting a postseason game as you ever want to see, 4-3.

As surely as the December 18 twin signings of Sabathia and Burnett can’t help but remind one of Christmas, a big playoff win in October evokes so much October Yankee history, and history in general. Thirteen years before Mark Teixeira blasted the Yanks to an 11th-inning walkoff win, Bernie Williams did the same thing (in the same inning) in the Jeffrey Maier game in the 1996 ALCS win over Baltimore. And October 9, 1928 is just chock-full of memorable Bambino moments, like Babe Ruth homering three times in a Series-clinching 7-3 win over the Cardinals. In the Yanks’ second straight World Series win (and third overall), Lou Gehrig set an at-the-time record of nine rbi’s, while The Babe’s .625 batting average in the four-game sweep set a Series ba record that still stands!

So it’s off to Minnesota, with the Yanks looking to close the Metrodome for baseball for good with a third-game victory behind Andy Pettitte. The dream is that one more win will get the Yanks closer to their 27th Championship, the one they’ve been playing for since 2001. Miguel de Cervantes, author of the world-famous novel Don Quixote, and creator of the character who proudly carried that name, would have been celebrating his 462nd birthday as this game played out. Cervantes has inspired many a reader over the years, and songwriters and and singers too. The song The Impossible Dream has played to huge audiences at theatrical representations of Cervantes’s work for years now.

The Yankee drive for Championship no. 27 has played to impressive crowds as well. The big difference is that coming off a good game and then a great one, the Yankee cause sounds more like,

The Possible Dream

BTW,TYW

YANKEE BASEBALL!!!