Bronx, N.Y., October 21, 2003 — Hard-throwing Marlins righty Josh Beckett brought his “A” game Tuesday night, and he was every bit as good as the Yanks had heard. He struck out 10 on the night, and surrendered only three hits before leaving with one out in the eighth. He retired the first 10 Yankee hitters on a mere 35 pitches.

Fortunately the Yanks were up to the task because, as a group, they were experiencing a feeling of, as Yogi would say, “deja vu all over again.” Having managed to win more often than not against Pedro Martinez and the Red Sox, they all knew the task at hand: Get a well-pitched game, play solid defense, and score a few of their own. Should they not have a lead when that ace is finally driven from the mound, either by bats or a mounting pitch count, they invoke the “bullpen corollary,” scoring the critical runs against the relievers who replace him.

The plan is solid. Given a quality start, they could almost implement it in their sleep. Josh Beckett came through with his side of the bargain, whiffing Soriano and Jeter and popping Giambi to third on a mere 10 tosses. But five pitches into the bottom of the first, the plan went awry. With Bernie Williams shading the lefty-hitting leadoff batter Juan Pierre to the opposite field, the Marlins’ speedy center fielder crossed up the defense by lifting a soft liner to short right center. Right fielder Garcia was slow to get there and, because neither he nor Williams could hear a call, Karim had to give way to Bernie’s attempt, even though the right fielder probably had the better shot.

Mike Mussina started his masterpiece by almost escaping this no-outs, man-on-second situation, striking out Juan Castillo and getting Pudge Rodriguez on a fly to right on four pitches. But young Miguel Cabrera continued with his impressive postseason, singling softly through the second base hole on a 3-1 count with two outs for a 1-0 Marlins lead.

Since a seminal 1-0 win in Oakland in the 2001 ALDS, Mussina’s Yankee postseason experience has not produced stellar results. After struggling in Game One of the 2003 ALDS, he pitched very well against Tim Wakefield and the Red Sox in the ALCS opener that followed. But Wake’s flutter mesmerized and a couple of long balls cost Moose the game, and fans began to grumble. So even though he stemmed the Red Sox tide in ALCS Game Seven last Thursday and saved the season in the eyes of his manager and his teammates with three sparkling innings of relief, he still hadn’t garnered the elusive “W” that would dispell all the negatives written in recent weeks about his October outings.Well, he has the Win now and the adulation of Yankee fans everywhere.

Despite struggling to a pitch count of 55 through three, he proved to have plenty in the tank when he needed it. October 22 is the day in 1976 when American novelist Saul Bellow won the Nobel Prize for Literature. Among the tomes he has penned is one titled Seize the Day, and that is exactly what Mike did in this game. Josh Beckett faced the minimum three batters in five of his seven and a third innings. Mussina managed that trick but once. Mike sprinkled seven hits through seven frames, walked one (Pierre intentionally in the seventh), and also had to survive an Aaron Boone error in the third.

His counts were good. He threw 21 of 30 first-pitch strikes, and of his 111 throws (the same amount teammate Andy Pettitte threw in winning Game Two), 80 were thrown for strikes. He had to withstand a 39-minute rain delay in the fifth, as did Beckett, and both pitched in rain much of the night. Perhaps more impressive, he seemed to know when he had a shot at one of his 10 strike outs, and went for it when he could. Of the 80 strikes on the Marlins, they swung at and missed only 10 pitches. Eight of those came during the 10 whiffs.

But given Mike’s steady outing, the Yanks still had a problem being down right away to a dominating starter. Someone would have to come to the fore, to raise their game. And the guy who did exactly that was the Yanks’ new Captain, and maybe the best postseason player any of us has ever seen. Derek Jeter put a stop to Beckett’s string of 10 retired to start the game by doubling hard down the left field line on a 1-0 pitch with one out in the fourth. First baseman Giambi drew a 3-2 walk on a close pitch, Beckett hit Matsui with a 1-2 hard curve after Williams flied out, and Jorge Posada strode to the plate.

The Yankee catcher was hitless for the night, but that stat is deceiving, because although the Florida righty mesmerized the visitors to the tune of 10 punch outs of his own, Posada was all over his offerings. He had a good swing in fouling off a 1-0 pitch, took strike two, and bashed a couple of more fouls as the count drifted to 2-2, then 3-2. It was something of a turning point then, when home plate ump Gary Darling and Jorge agreed that Beckett’s eighth pitch was a bit low, and we had a tie game. The walk came on the young righty’s 25th pitch of the frame, and Beckett was in danger of losing it. But he retained his focus, and got Garcia on a bouncer to first.

Mussina followed with his only one-two-three inning in the home fourth. Beckett, who had just fired two less pitches in giving up the lead as he had thrown during the game’s first three innings combined, disappointed some in the Yankee crowd by shaking that off, and retiring the Yanks in order in the fifth. Mussina, in turn, started that frame’s bottom half strongly with back-to-back whiffs of Gonzalez and Beckett, but then the rain hardened and the umps had the field covered. Mike allowed a single to Pierre when play resumed but Posada gunned him down trying to steal on the 0-1 pitch.

Jeter started the sixth with his — and the Yanks’ — second safety, a single up the middle. But Beckett struck out two of his own, walked Matsui, and got a fielder’s choice grounder to short by Posada. The Marlins then came back with their best chance. Ivan Rodriguez doubled high off the scoreboard in left with one out, and Cabrera followed with a hard single to right. The Marlins assumed, it appeared, that they had no chance to score, and they would regret it, as the slowing catcher couldn’t reverse field when Garcia bobbled the hard first hop. A mammoth battle between Mussina and Lee followed, as the Marlins’ first baseman fouled off one, took a ball, and then fouled the next four pitches. He bounced the seventh pitch up the middle, and Mike just barely flagged it. He tossed to Posada who expertly ran Rodriguez back toward third for the second out. Then Moose calmly punched Lowell out on a 3-2 pitch, and the game remained tied.

Beckett used two more strike outs to whitewash the Yanks in the seventh, and the Fish threatened yet again once Conine led off the home seventh with a single. Having traveled to Yankee Spring Training for years, I attended their games in Fort Lauderdale 10 years ago when the Marlins had their first spring, and I remember reading in the Florida papers then how Jeff Conine was the star of their first camp. I imagine it must be a kick for him to return to Miami and waltz right into the playoffs with them. Gonzalez failed to bunt Jeff to second, but Beckett got the job done, and Mosse was facing lefty Pierre with Conine in scoring position. Juan was walked as Mike made the wise decision to pitch to Luis Castillo instead, and three pitches later the diminutive Florida second baseman flailed hopelessly at what looked like a split finger.

Beckett stayed on and whiffed poor Soriano for the third time on his 106th pitch (though I think Alfonso held up the swing in time). But the Captain’s turn had come again, and the wily vet (yes, he’s no kid anymore), having doubled to left and singled to center, bounced a 1-0 offering past Lee inside the first base line to right for his second double, and the Yanks’ (and his) third hit of the night. Lefty sensation Dontrelle Willis relieved, but he walked Giambi and one out later, rbi machine Hideki Matsui ground a single past short the other way, and the Yanks had the lead.

Monday would have been Mickey Mantle’s birthday, and I offered the opinion the other day that he just might have been one of the “ghosts” behind the Yankee win in the Stadium Sunday night. One personage celebrating this day as his birthday is Rock ‘n’ Roller Manfred Mann, who had a hit with the Bob Dylan-penned song, The Mighty Quinn. The lyrics begin:

Ev’rybody’s building the big ships and the boats,
Some are building monuments,
Others, jotting down notes

South Florida is a boating mecca, and it’s not too much of a stretch to see that I, by both scoring the game and sharing this record of it, am responsible for the “notes.” Another huge Yankee birthday also falls on October 21, that of the “Chairman of the Board,” Hall of Fame Yankee lefty Whitey Ford, who just the other day paired with Yogi to throw out the first pitch before Game One.

The Yanks crushed two homers and added four runs in the ninth to win going away. But those who watched the contest all night know that this five-run Yankee win was a nail-biter and that the Yanks won it with their arms, first the gutsy and talented Mike Mussina, and then the true heart of this team, the best postseason reliever in the history of the game, Mariano Rivera. Whitey must have been proud. Mussina has had some very impressive years, and he could make history in Pinstripes some day. But it is clear that aside from their Captain and leader Derek Jeter, the one Yankee on the field who is certainly “Monument”-bound is the guy who was wearing number 42, and who closed it out:

“The best to ever play the game.”

BTW,TYW

YANKEE BASEBALL!!!