Bronx, N.Y., May 11, 2006 — The Yankee/Red Sox contest in the Bronx Thursday was finally played to a conclusion in three hours and 59 minutes. It was a tough loss for the team and its diehard Yankee fans, but the heartbreaking moment came much, much sooner.
Yankee starter Shawn Chacon, who would struggle with his control the whole time he was on the mound, delivered a first-pitch ball to Kevin Youkilis at 7:08, and five throws later the Red Sox first baseman reached safely when Yankee Captain Derek couldn’t control his hot shot into the shortstop hole. A look at the line score will tell you that the Sox failed to score that frame. But I can’t help but wonder if Hideki Matsui would have made such a dangerous attempt to corral second batter Mark Loretta’s soft liner into short left field if the Sox hadn’t gotten something started so soon.
Matsui charged the sinking quail with abandon, and with a stretch and a reach he got to the ball just off the grass, but his momentum sent him rolling over his gloved left wrist. That the ball rolled free was disappointing, but immaterial. But that the gritty, gutsy Matsui came up grasping his wrist in pain was anything but. He gamely recovered the ball and held Youkilis at second, and then collapsed in agony. It is two weeks into May and the Yankees have lost two thirds of their vaunted starting outfield to injury, and who knows when we’ll see Hideki patrolling left field in the Stadium again?
Bernie Williams entered the game to play right field after Matsui’s loss, with Bubba Crosby switching to left. Speculation has been rampant how well Williams would handle corner positions after 15 years in center. He did well in helping the Yanks to escape the first unscored upon, making a long run to catch a tricky pop along the side wall with one down, but a tragic Bernie mistake later on would cost the Yanks the game.
The Yanks tried to put the loss of their teammate aside and take the game, for themselves, their fans, and Matsui. They got off to a good start in that attempt with some help from Boston knuckleballer Tim Wakefield, who couldn’t control the pitch in the first frame. Jeter got the Yanks started in the home first with a one-out single to center. After a stolen base and two walks, Jorge Posada bounced a single through the middle and the Yanks had a 2-0 lead. They threatened to stretch it after Crosby’s one-out triple in the second, but Youkilis made a fine grab of a Damon liner with the infield in, and Jeter would be retired for the only time in five tries because his hard liner to center hung up long enough for Wily Mo Pena to corral it.
Boston discovered early that despite an impressive array of different pitches, Chacon wasn’t able to control any of them consistently this night except his fastball, and they began looking for it. He survived a lead-off walk in the second, but moved Loretta to third on a wild pitch after Mark stroked a leadoff double to the opposite field in the third. Trot Nixon scored him with a single to right, but Crosby preserved the now one-run lead by hauling in Doug Mirabelli’s home run bid with a leap at the wall. Jeter plated Crosby after his leadoff single in the fourth with a two-out single, which seemed huge, because by then Wakefield had harnessed his devastating pitch.
Tim threw 16 pitches off the plate in the first, but from that point on his ball counts dipped dramatically, following with three, seven, five, and four, culminating with the sixth inning, when all 13 pitches he threw found home plate ump Greg Gibson’s strike zone. The Yanks left six on base the first four innings when they had chances, but Wakefield kept them off stride, and off the scoreboard, by striking out at least one an inning, and eight through his six frames.
Chacon’s troubles continued meanwhile, though he escaped big trouble when Damon leapt at the wall in deepest center to deny Mirabelli of a homer or long double with one on in the fourth. With Shawn’s pitch count soaring over 100 in the fifth inning, Joe Torre replaced him with Scott Proctor with the bases loaded and two down. Proctor induced an 0-2 short pop to right by Mirabelli, and Bernie got perhaps his only good break of his very busy night (12 balls were hit his way, three for hits), and he grabbed it on the run to close the inning with the sacks filled. Although Chacon had managed to throw 15 of 25 first-pitch strikes, he walked five while only whiffing one. Exactly half of his 104 pitches missed the plate.
Proctor has been great this year, but he couldn’t retire a batter in the sixth despite getting two early strikes on all three he faced, and when Loretta stroked his third hit following Alex Gonzalez and Youkilis singles, the Sox had closed the lead to 3-2. The routinely superb Mike Myers retired David Ortiz on a harmless pop, and the consistently struggling Tanyon Sturtze came on to walk Manny Ramirez and load the bases. But lefty reliever Ron Villone followed and quieted things with big help from second baseman Robinson Cano, who snagged Nixon’s looper to short right with an over-the-shoulder grab made possible after he got a great break on the ball.
The Sox rallied for the winner off Villone in the seventh, though it wasn’t his fault. With the predicted rain spritzing across the field, Mirabelli singled with one down, but Ron got Gonzalez to hit a popup down the line in right. Bernie’s break was a bit delayed, and he overcompensated, and when the wind carried the ball back toward him he failed to adjust. His momentum carried him past the ball and he couldn’t recover, and it bounced into the stands, putting two guys in scoring position. It was initially ruled a double, then changed to an error, a sound scoring decision I believe. Still the Yanks almost escaped. Cano speared a Youkilis liner, and then Jeter smothered Loretta’s hard hopper into the shortsop hole. Jeets’s throw from his knees carried to the right of first. Miguel Cairo, subbing yet again for Giambi in the field with backup first baseman Andy Phillips planted on the bench, realized too late that he would have to come off the bag. Loretta hit his glove as he made an off-balance swooping tag, jarring the ball loose. The Sox took a 4-3 lead as the ball rolled up the first base line.
The Yanks followed by wasting Jeter’s third base hit and second stolen base off Mike Timlin, who came on for the seventh. Bernie got a booming leadoff double to left center off Keith Foulke in the eighth, but Posada failed to move him to third. Sox closer Jonathan Papelbon came on with two down and struck out Cairo for the fourth time of a very forgettable night. The Sox added a run off Rivera in the ninth but it hardly mattered. Jeter worked a walk in the bottom of the ninth for the baserunner the Yanks needed, but Giambi popped out to short at 11:07, almost four hours after this marathon began.
Genius scientist Albert Einstein presented his theory of relativity on this day in 1916, and I guess with a defeat like this, one could say that in a long baseball season it’s all relative. The loss leaves the Bombers just one game back. Their starter struggled, but relievers Mike Myers, Ron Villone, and Kyle Farnsworth (who pitched a dominant eighth) did well. Tanyon Sturtze’s troubles continued, but even the most faithless of fans would give Proctor a pass given his recent work. They got some solid “D” from guys who were in position, even if others pressed into service at unfamiliar spots did not do well. The bullpen got a bit stretched, and it may be time to think about adding an arm. Let Phillips play first base somewhere else if Mr. Torre thinks he can’t do it here.
But even if the most stoic among us can takle this loss with a grain of salt, it’s hard to find soothing words for the beloved Mr. Matsui and his pain, and how the club will replace the relentless play he brings each night to this game. Late rock icon Elvis Presley’s monster hit Hearbreak Hotel hit the charts in the United Kingdom back on May 11, 1959. Fans will continue to flock to Yankee Stadium in record numbers this season, I’m sure. They’ll enjoy their time spent in the home office for baseball rooting on the Yanks, just three short years from its scheduled replacement.
It’s a place of mystique, of aura, of unequaled excellence afield and unprecedented success. Many, myself included, call this place where Ruth, Gehrig, DiMaggio, and Mantle played the Baseball Cathedral. But until Hideki Matsui can play left field again, it will be a bit of Heartbreak Hotel as well.
YANKEE BASEBALL!!!