NEW YORK, N.Y., September 19, 2005 — Sure, it was another beautiful night in the Bronx, as the Yanks hosted the Orioles to start a seven-game homestand Monday, the last regular-season stand of the year. Yes, the Bombers have been hanging in tight in both the AL East and Wild Card races, and the just-concluded 5-1 road trip moved their record to a level over .500 closer to what they and their fans have become accustomed. And sure, the usual 50,000-plus flocked to Yankee Stadium to welcome them back, and to hopefully root them on to the 2005 postseason.

But after an early summer unpleasant stretch, the New York weather has been almost unerringly ideal, and these fans were no longer content to watch a close battle caressed by cool breezes and manageable temps. Heck, they’d seen the Pinstripers struggle on nights just as nice all year; a pleasant evening wasn’t going to cut it. So they fussed and fretted inning after scoreless inning, wondering when the Yankee offense would return from the roadtrip to join the players assembled around the field. The anxiety in a tight pennant race is understandable, but one hopes that in their nail-biting obsession with the inept at bats they did not miss the one Yankee return truly worth celebrating.

I know that rookie Chien-Ming Wang has been back from rehab for a couple of weeks, but the performance he turned in Monday night was finally vintage Wang, if that word can be used for a guy who has been pitching in the bigs for just a couple of months. Chien-Ming makes his living making teams hit the ball, and hit it on the ground. Fans may have been fooled when the Orioles strung three singles together with two down in the first for an early run, but all three were ground balls, though the Jay Gibbons’s shot down first that plated Melvin Mora was stroked. But really, the only mistake the Yankee rookie made all night came in the third when he walked DH Castro on four straight to put runners on first and second with none out. The O’s played small ball and got run no. 2 on a Mora sac bunt and Miguel Tejada’s fielder’s choice grounder to first.

Aside from that small control glitch (for his only walk), Wang’s performance could hardly have been better. Baltimore stretched him to 22 pitches in the first, but Chien-Ming sent a message (two of them actually) when he coaxed three weak gounders on just six tosses in the second. After the single and walk led to the third-inning blot on his evening, he would allow just three more singles, none of them reaching second. He struck Brian Roberts out leading off the game and three more for a total of four, leaving 20 batters that needed to be retired to get through eight. One lined out to Bernie Williams in center; the other 19 were retired on ground balls. His 68/30 strikes/balls ratio was superb, he pitched eight throwing less than 100 pitches despite the 22 in the first, and he pounded 24 of 31 Orioles batters with first-pitch strikes.

Wang hit bats with 45 of his 68 strikes, and he managed to coax just one double play in three great chances because the O’s were hitting the ball too weakly. Despite flashing a nice change-up, Wang features the fastball, which he throws easily 80 percent of the time. But Baltimore batters still rarely got good wood. And in the aforementioned second inning, Wang unleashed his secret weapon (and the second “lesson” I mentioned earlier): When he is on the mound the Yankess have five good fielders sprinkled around the bases, and none with a truer arm. Chien-Ming pounced on two rollers in the second, two more in the third, and when he pegged Luis Matos out to close the fourth he had a fine defensive night with five assists. Through the fifth and sixth he struck out two, yielded the one liner to center, got grounders to short and to first and benefitted when Jorge Posada pounced on Mora’s roller at his feet as soon as it hit the baseline for six outs. His “break” over, Wang then promptly added assists six through nine on 1-3’s by pegging the next four Orioles out while throwing just nine pitches. Mora then stroked his second single, but not to worry, as Tejada finally hit a grounder well enough to Cano for the Yanks to turn two and finish Chien-Ming’s night.

But it was hard for the faithful to celebrate Wang’s great performance, as they rooted from behind through five, and watched as the Yanks mounted just the most rudimenatry of threats after they tied matters. The team fell behind quickly, and they didn’t manage a hit past the infield until Robinson Cano bounced one past Orioles third baseman Melvin Mora leading off the fifth. They had loaded the bases in the third on a Bubba Crosby infield hit, a walk and a hit by pitch. But the big bats let them down, as A-Rod took a third strike and the hobbled DH Gary Sheffield did the one thing fans feared most, rolling into a 6-4-3 to prevent the first Yankee run.

Even when they tied the game at two in the home fifth on four straight singles, none of the balls were hit hard; just two reached the outfield. Alex Rodriguez’s line single to left plated Cano for the first tally, and Sheffield followed a Giambi whiff with a slow enough bounder not to get himself doubled up as the tying run scored. The crowd was relieved that the score was tied, but when Hideki Matsui struck out with two runners in scoring position, the fan frustration was palpable. Orioles lefty Eric Bedard has pitched well against the Yanks before, so perhaps rather than groan at the feeble hometown at bats, it would have been sporting to give the O’s southpaw more credit. But on the other hand the Yankee bats did nothing with young bullpenners Floyd Rakers and Eric Dubose once Bedard left despite the two free passes from Rakers in the seventh.

Though the team managed eight hits on the night, only five Yankees accounted for them all. Captain Derek Jeter logged two including a bunt, somewhat mitigating the strike outs in his other two at bats. Robinson Cano started the tying rally with his one safety, and A-Rod delivered the first run with his. Sheffield followed a Giambi seventh-inning walk with a single to right, to no avail. In right field for defense against a lefty after Ruben Sierra struggled out there Sunday, Bubba Crosby’s talents were wasted when no fly balls came his way. Fortunately he found other ways to contribute, starting with an infield roller off rookie first baseman Walter Young’s glove for the Yanks’ first hit in the third.

Way back on March 30 as Bubba was trying to make the 2005 team in Spring Training, I saw him butcher an attempt at a drag bunt that was so poorly executed that the effect would have been the same had he picked the ball up and rolled it to the first baseman like one would to a nervous ball-averse child. But Crosby has been practising, and he set up the two-run, game-tying, fifth-inning rally when he dragged himself onto base after Cano’s lead off bingle. An inning later, as B.J. Surhoff waged a seven-pitch battle with Wang, I silently pleaded for another weak grounder as my better half turned to me and said, “It will be a big swing and a miss on the next pitch.” And on a night when the grounder-to-K ratio was 19-to-4, she of course was right.

Sadly, the Yankee offense continued to sputter as Wang left the mound after the eighth, and Mariano Rivera strode out to pitch the ninth. With the superb pitching damping the Baltimore bats, the only great Yankee play of the evening to that point had been a Cano charge and toss on a Matos second-inning weak grounder. But defensive replacement at first base Tino Martinez joined him as he made a fine over-the-shoulder grab of Javy Lopez’s pop into no-man’s land down the first base line after Mo whiffed Gibbons.

After Rivera retired Surhoff to end the Baltimore ninth, the O’s stuck with southpaw reliever Dubose to face lefty hitter Crosby leading off the bottom half. Sue felt the “vapors,” or whatever, again, and predicted a first-pitch Crosby walk-off. Knowing this call was at least half-driven by her desire to make the 10:40 train, I smiled as Bubba took the first pitch. Undaunted, she insisted, “Make that first or second pitch.”

Bubba drove pitch number two deep into the right field bleachers. The Yankees won 3-2, Boston lost, and we made the 10:40 train. Go figure.

BTW,TYW

YANKEE BASEBALL!!!