Bronx, N.Y., May 1, 2009 — Friday night was not a gorgeous night. And despite a quick 4-0 Yankee lead in the first inning in Yankee stadium, it hardly featured a classic game. The four-run outburst was achieved on just two hits, with a huge assist from Anaheim (sorry, one city mention per team is my rule) righty Jered Weaver, who walked the first two batters he faced. A fielder’s choice, sac fly, single, and homer (Jorge Posada) followed, and the Yanks had a nice lead.
It was a rainy May 1 evening, one where the grounds crew removed the tarp at about 6:20, only to put it right back on the field. Ten minutes later the skies cleared again, the field was prepped, and Andy Pettitte poured in an 89-mph fastball strike to Chone Figgins at 7:08. The Angels were denied after early trouble when Pettitte picked Torii Hunter off first, the Yanks erupted, and three frames later the rains were back. The veteran Yankee southpaw did not have his best stuff, allowing five hits and three walks through the fifth, but he still had his 4-0 lead. The rains halted when Derek Jeter retired Figgins from the hole in the fifth, but they were back two batters later when the Yankee shortstop ended the frame by snagging a carom off Pettitte’s glove and pegging ex-Yank Bobby Abreu out at first.
Still, Andy was struggling, and Weaver was dealing. Once Ramiro Pena bunted for a base hit to start the bottom of the second, Jered retired 15 of the next 16 Yankee batters on just 58 pitches. He gave up his one walk, then retired Melky Cabrera on a liner to right and handed the game off to his bullpen. Pettitte’s night was very different, with no one-two-three innings. Still, he got the game through five innings still up 4-0, and fans peered at the home bullpen when Hunter and Mike Napoli singled off him leading off the sixth. Andy toughed out two outs, but Jeff Mathis plated two with a single, a hard grounder bounded through Pena at third (ruled a single), and Joe Girardi finally pulled Andy once he loaded the bases by issuing his fourth walk to Figgins.
Young Mark Melancon, being groomed for bigger things, got the call, but his first batter was Gary Matthews, Jr., a maligned Anaheim signing from a few years back who this night had a great game. The Anaheim right fielder hit the ball hard five times, lining to deep center in the first before two singles up to this point. He promptly tripled for three runs to just right of dead center; a relay to third bounded off his body as he prepared to slide. Just like that it was 5-4, Angels, and then Melancon wild-pitched him home before escaping.
Among other things, this May 1 is the 70th birthday of silver-throated songstress Judy Collins, and considering her discography, this column could easily have been titled Both Sides Now, what with the early Yankee lead being suddenly equaled and passed, and Yankee bats falling silent. More cruelly, Send in the Clowns might have been more apt, as the Yankee pen took a bad situation and made it worse. Jose Veras came on for the seventh, and after handing out the seemingly obligatory walk to the leadoff man, he was battered by back-to-back base hits, the latter on an extraordinary at bat by pinch hitter Maicer Izturis, who at first failed to sacrifice, but then singled after fouling off five pitches in an 11-pitch battle. Mathis squeezed both one run home and Veras out of the game. Then Edwar Ramirez came on and he was lucky that Cabrera hauled in a deep liner to the wall in right after a single and a walk. This drive was hit by Matthews yet again, and it was a sac fly giving him four rbi’s on the night. But it could and should have been much worse. Still, it was now 9-4 Anaheim.
But as quickly as the Yankee pen went off-kilter, it righted itself, and the offense, after going quietly in the home seventh against rookie Rafael Rodriguez, came to life as well. Ramirez retired the Angels on five pitches in the top of the eighth, and Robbie Cano reached Rodriguez for a one-out double in the bottom half. After a walk, Jose Arredondo came on, but three singles and a fielder’s choice plated four and the Yanks were down just one run. Jonathan Albaladejo set the visitors down one-two-three in the ninth with help from Cano on a Kendy Morales hot shot. Mayhem or no, the Yankee “D” was good, with Robbie and Jeter turning in two fine plays apiece, along with Melky’s catch on the Matthews sac fly at the wall.
Southpaw closer Brian Fuentes came on for the ninth, but he never retired one batter among the suddenly resurgent Yanks. Mark Teixeira worked out a walk, and Hideki Matsui and Cano proved that what their manager believes is true: These lefty batters hit lefties, and back-to-back singles filled the bases. After having homered batting lefty in the first, Posada worked the count full from the right side now, then pulled a single (only in that he did not need to leg it out to two bases, this was a gapper) to left center, and the Yanks had a 10-9 win.
Although Jorge wins first star here, honorable mention goes to Cano for three hits, to Matsui, who extended his hitting streak at a critical moment, and to rookie Pena, who followed up his first rbi’s in Thursday night’s win by notching three hits as well. Also, perhaps worthy of mention among the “mayhem”: just five strike outs between both teams, all of them on called strikes. Albaladejo gets the win; Fuentes gets both a blown save and a loss.
Perhaps the Angels should have known better. May 1 is a big day in Yankee history, a day where this team is not likely to be easily beaten. On May 1, 1951, Mickey Mantle hit his first home run in a Yankee win. And on May 1, 1920, Babe Ruth clobbered his first Yankee home run, the 50th homer in his career.
It was yet another Yankee win, of course.
BTW,TYW
YANKEE BASEBALL!!!