Bronx, N.Y., May 10, 2007 — I have early memories of a finely crafted set of bookends from my parents’ house. It was elephants imbedded in a fine leaden base that could hold many volumes before sliding. I compare them to a pair of middling lighthouses we use for that task now. They are short on detail, the paint is chipped, and worst of all, they have no heft and can hold up only the thinnest of books.
The Yanks finished a 4-3 homestand Thursday, suffering their first loss in six games against Texas. With their starting pitching doing better and going longer into games, they have won seven of 10. But this seven-day New York stop was bookended by two of the ugliest games of the year. Much has already been made of the 15-11 loss to Seattle that got things off to a such an ignominious start. With Kei Igawa’s stock high off a scintillating win in long relief against the Red Sox, his inability to hold a first-inning 5-0 lead not only resulted in an ugly defeat. It got the Japanese lefty a ticket to Tampa to work with the Yankee pitching doctors.
Hopes were high for a second consecutive sweep of the Rangers when the Yanks took the field this afternoon. The Yanks had outplayed the Rangers game after game, and with 2006 ace Chien-Ming Wang pencilled in for the start after his near perfecto Saturday, a happy throng 50,000-strong gathered under the warm and intermittently sunny skies for the 1:05 start.
The thing one needs to understand about Wang, however, is that he does usually give up hits. When Chien-Ming is on his game, he hits bats with a relentless sinking fastball that has hitters driving balls into the ground. Most of these become playable grounders, and a few become double plays that wipe out some of the third category, grounders that find holes and end up as base hits. Wang walked center fielder Kenny Lofton leading off, the only free pass he issued on the day, and Texas took a 1-0 lead on a two-out Sammy Sosa single.
The reputation of one-time hot prospect Texas starter Brandon McCarthy has taken some hits of late. First, the White Sox surprised the league once they traded the one-time untouchable, and he got off to a bad start this year, with horrendous numbers. But he was coming off a good outing this time, and the progress in his game continued today. McCarthy mixes a 91-mph fastball with a curve around 75 and a rare change of pace perhaps 10 mph off his heater’s pace. He does not coax the ground balls Wang does, but he succeeded today because of the two things he did do. He threw strikes and he allowed but one hit an inning.
He retired the Yanks in order in the first once rightfielder Nelson Cruz made a sprawling catch on Bobby Abreu’s sinking liner. Jorge Posada doubled with two down in the second, and Melky Cabrera, playing left while Hideki Matsui DH’d, tied matters with his first home run of the year in the third. Wang, meanwhile, continued to allow hits, two in the first and the third and one in the second. The Yanks failed to score in the fourth when Derek Jeter, on via a leadoff walk, was caught stealing on a close play. Hideki Matsui singled on the next pitch but Posada flied to right to close the frame. The Yanks would continue to get a hit an inning until they failed to do so in the ninth inning. They scored a second run in the seventh after yet another Doug Mientkiewicz double when Ian Kinsler booted Johnny Damon’s two-out grounder.
The Rangers broke through in the fifth, the inning that made a loser out of Wang and unfairly ballooned his era too. Catcher Gerald Laird tripled over Abreu’s leaping try at the wall to lead off. The Yanks elected to gamble on stopping the one run, and the strategy paid off. Jeter threw Lofton out on a 6-3 while holding Laird from his medium-in position, and Laird broke for the plate as Brad Wilkerson hit a hopper to a charging A-Rod at third. Had the Yanks executed the rundown play they were probably out of the inning with the 1-1 tie preseved.
But Laird turned back to third once Alex threw home. The Texas backstop reversed course again when Posada threw back. Rodriguez then made two bad decisions. First, he ran him toward the plate, something you never do precisely to prevent a score if any part of the play breaks down. And second, he did not throw to a waiting Wang at the plate, opting instead to race Laird back himself. Lance Barksdale ruled the catcher won the race over the speedy third sacker, as Wilkerson continued past first and made it to second. The Rangers plated two more runs on Mark Teixeira and Sosa singles, but it is not at all certain that this would have taken place had the rundown play been properly executed.
Though there was plenty of ugly baseball under pretty skies to follow, the game was really lost right there. Wang got a double play to close the frame and retired three straight Texas players in the sixth on ground balls. Joe Torre sent him back out for the seventh, and Laird started another ugly uprising by reaching on a swinging bunt. Lofton’s soft single and a sac fly plated one and a Teixeira double sent Chien-Ming to the showers.
Yankee reliever Luis Vizcaino continues to struggle. It was 7-1 after he replaced Wang and allowed a double to Blalock, and he walked two and gave up a single to start the eighth. Sean Henn was bad, though the booming double he allowed to Teixeira after a single by Wilkerson should have been caught by Miguel Cairo, who came on to play left with Cabrera subbing for Damon in center. Teixeira had experienced some embarrassments in this series including a 2 unassisted in this game’s second inning when he failed to run on a two-foot roller, but he responded with single, three doubles, and three rbi’s. Laird had three hits and scored twice and Sosa went 3-for-4 with a walk.
Igawa had the bad timing to have his worst outing just when Darrell Rasner and Matt DeSalvo pitched great back to back. Sean Henn’s roster spot may be in deep trouble if veteran southpaw Ron Villone is showing the Yanks anything in a Scranton trial. Henn pitched from behind in the count, went 3-0 twice with a walk, and the game went from troubled to terrible when pinch hitter Victor Diaz reached him for a grand slam to forge the final 14-2 score.
So now the team heads west to Seattle and then Chicago, then three road games in New York vs. the surging Mets before returning home vs. the rampaging Red Sox. With Andy Pettitte, Mike Mussina, and Chien-Ming Wang (who did more right than wrong this day, including 14 ground-ball outs) rounding into form, they’ll need effective outings from Rasner and DeSalvo until Roger Clemens joins the fray. The two youngsters will probably battle Igawa for the fifth spot unless a miracle happens with Carl Pavano’s throbbing right arm.
Despite the winning home stand mark, it would have been good for the team to head out with a win this day. May 10, 2007 would have been the 105th birthday of Producer David O. Selznick, who fronted the MGM blockbuster Gone With the Wind. No Yankee fan, least of all this scribe, is going to fault Alex Rodriguez with his fabulous and unprecedented start to the season. Perhaps hidden among all the home runs and rbi’s is the fact that he has been fielding his position well, with none of the problems with off-line throws seen last year. And third base still is not Alex’s natural position.
This may explain why he made incorrect choices today in the heat of battle. But one thing is clear. Once A-Rod decided to run Laird toward home, and then not to throw to a waiting Wang at the plate,
Gone Was the Win!
YANKEE BASEBALL!!!