Bronx, N.Y., September 23, 2007 — A favored term among baseball writers not that many years ago was the battery, referring to the day’s pitcher and catcher combination. The Yankee battery outdueled that of the Blue Jays in a 7-5 win in Yankee Stadium Sunday afternoon.

Following the 14-inning heartbreaker (for Yankee fans) Friday, and the rain-delayed marathon under spotty skies Saturday, this one could not have been played under nicer conditions, with 75 degree temps, low humidity, and not a cloud in the sky. This was particularly pleasing because there was a pregame ceremony to honor the recently departed Yankee player and broadcaster Phil Rizzuto. As members of both Phil’s family and the Yankee family feted the former shortstop and genuine character, many in the crowd repeatedly “shielded their eyes” from the dazzlingly bright sun.

Reggie Jackson, Bobby Murcer, and ex-teammate Jerry Coleman (a message on the big screen carried from San Diego) spoke, and former broadcast partner Bill White presented Phil’s wife Cora with a congressional edict celebrating The Scooter. Next, Jennifer Steinbrenner handed Yogi Berra a $25,000 check for his museum in Phil’s name, and the Rizzuto family were ushered to Monument Park to place flowers at the one-time Champion shortstop’s plaque.

The ceremonies delayed the start of the game just 10 or so minutes, but players of both teams and the fans craved a break, one they didn’t actually get, as this game would actually come in at almost four hours as well. Both Toronto hard thrower Dustin McGowan and Mike Mussina retired the respective sides without a score the first frame; both were reached for three runs in the second. But the nature of those three-run rallies went a long way toward determining this game’s winner.

Mussina was coming off two great starts following what must have been the most disturbing three-game stretch of his career. He was hammered in three straight, with none of his pitches working. The team was buried behind ugly scores in all three, though in one they fought back well enough to save Mussina the loss. But reassured by recent events, today’s crowd was behind Moose even after this inning got off to a shaky start, with Matt Stairs stroking a leadoff single, then scooting around to third on an Aaron Hill opposite-field double down the right field line. Both safeties seemed the result of good hitting rather than poor pitching, an opinion fortified somewhat when Mussina coaxed a bouncer back to the box from catcher Greg Zaun, the guy who sent Yankee fans home unhappy with a 14th-inning home run Friday night.

But Toronto is trying out younger players in a year largely ruined by injuries to key personnel, and Adam Lind and Curtis Thigpen followed with a two-run double and run-scoring single on the next three pitches, the former another opposite-field liner, this one to right. Thigpen’s rbi hit was just a bouncer up the middle that eluded Moose, but the Jays had a 3-0 lead, and the crowd was getting uneasy. McGowan held a 2-1 record vs. New York coming in, and had held Yankee batters to a .171 batting average. Mike needed to right things, and quickly. He coaxed a John McDonald liner to short (on which Derek Jeter, presciently, made a belated attempt to bobble to set up a 6-4-3), and got Reed Johnson to pop to second. The damage: four hits, three runs, 23 pitches.

The Yanks came to bat in the bottom half with a battle plan, one they worked to perfection: Make McGowan throw lots of pitches. So Hideki Matsui and Melky Cabrera, promoted to seventh in the order off his five-rbi Saturday, worked the young righty to seven-pitch walks around a Robbie Cano ground out. But when Doug Mientkiewicz skied to short for the second out, it appeared an elevated pitch count would be the only response to the three runs. Backup catcher Jose Molina had other plans, however, and he singled up the middle for the first Yankee run. Johnny Damon swung and missed and took a called strike for 1-2, but he fouled off four of the next six throws, then singled to left for run number two on the 10th pitch of the at bat. Jeter singled to right for the equalizer, though Lind made a nice try on the sinking liner, and when Bobby Abreu finally succumbed to a seven-pitch strike out, the Yanks had not just equaled the score at 3-3, they had made McGowan throw 43 pitches for three outs.

Mussina returned to the mound with a newfound resolve that carried him through five scoreless innings, along with some help from his friends. Alex Rios singled after a strike out, but Molina picked him off first once he roamed too far on an 0-1 outside fastball to Stairs, and a bouncer to first closed the top of the third in nine pitches. The Yanks failed to score in the third, but an A-Rod walk and a Cano single added 19 pitches to young Dustin’s count, and fans were oddly serene when a Zaun walk and a Thigpen single placed a runner at second with two down in the top of the fourth. The Yanks did not have a lead, but it “felt” like they did. Still, Moose could not put John McDonald away. The slick-gloved Toronto shortstop fouled off three pitches, then singled up the middle on a 3-2 pitch. With both runners going, a Toronto run seemed assured, but Cabrera charged the ball hard and pegged a strike to Molina, who caught the sliding Zaun in a head-first slide. Greg may never have touched home plate but it didn’t matter. He was out before he got there.

Moose retired the next nine batters on 35 pitches, striking out three, until he left after seven having allowed seven hits, one walk, and the three runs. He faced all nine Jays three times, punched 20 of 27 first-pitch strikes, and the 65/32 strikes/balls ratio was perfect. Only three of the K’s were swinging, but Mike wasted little; he missed just five swinging Toronto bats to post those. The veteran righty won his 250th career game, a rare number these days and going forward, because he was able to shrug off the “big inning,” something McGowan was not able to do.

The Toronto righty pitched around a Mientkiewicz walk in the fourth, but not the back-to-back free passes to Abreu and A-Rod to start the fifth, an inning he began having already thrown 93 pitches. Matsui popped out to short, but Cano slashed a single to right, giving the Yanks a lead they would not relinquish. Considering McGowan’s elevated pitch count, it was surprising Blue Jays Manager John Gibbons had not summoned a lefty from the pen two batters sooner, but he did now. Southpaw Brian Tallet, a pitcher the Yanks actually drafted in 1997 but failed to sign, came on to strike out Cabrera and he fooled Mientkiewicz badly on a 3-1 pitch. But baseball is a game of bounces, and the tip of Doug’s bat barely caught the low outside slider, flicking it slowly down the third base line. Russ Adams may have had time to glove it and set himself, but he went for the barehanded play, and missed, with Cabrera scoring. Molina lined the next pitch over short for both his second single and rbi and it was 6-3 Yanks.

The Yanks faced nine different Jays relievers Friday and Saturday; when Josh Banks started the seventh innng, that made 10. He walked Matsui to start and Cano reached him for a single, but the rookie stiffened then, striking out Cabrera and popping up Mientkiewicz to second on a play that became a baseball lesson for us all. Hill lost the ball in the sun and it fell untouched, but the umps had (rightly) called the infield fly rule. On the one hand, no fielder missed this ball on purpose to try for a double play, the reason the rule was established in the first place. On the other, Matsui and Cano would probably have been easily doubled off had there been no such call. But it was just the one out, and that man was up next, and Molina lined Banks’s next pitch into the right field corner for a double, and it was 7-3 Yanks. It was a run the team was delighted to have, as it turned out.

Luis Vizcaino came on for the eighth, and though he got Johnson on an outfield fly and struck out Adams, he did not have it. He walked Rios on four straight, and DH Matt Stairs blasted the next pitch into the black seats in center, pulling the Jays to within 7-5. Torre stuck with Luis as Hill singled, but Joba Chamberlain was warming, and a nervous crowd finally got their way once the struggling Yankee righty followed with a walk of Zaun. Joba came on with the tying runs occupying first and second base, but it was no contest. He struck out Lind swinging on five pitches, all sliders, and got two more K’s in the one-two-three ninth, for a 7-5 Yankee win, and his first career save.

Years ago as a one-time seminary student, I always found an old baseball joke amusing. “Did you know that baseball is mentioned at the very beginning of the Christian Bible’s New Testament?” the setup goes. “Yes, the Gospel According to John begins with the line, ‘In the big inning’ (In the beginning actually).”

Funny or not, irreverent or not, both the Yanks and the Jays had big second innings Sunday afternoon. The Yanks won the game because they were able to add to what they achieved in that frame. Tampa Bay had a big inning too, and beat the Red Sox 5-4, and with a win tomorrow afternoon, the Yanks would be one game behind Boston with six games to go. Lots of big innings ahead.

BTW,TYW

YANKEE BASEBALL!!!