Bronx, N.Y., June 20, 2005 — Good evening Mr. Yankee Fan. Today we are confronted with a situation that would be difficult enough in itself, but its level of impossibility is maximized by a combination of mitigating factors. Your mission is to extend the six-game Yankee winning streak, and to keep the current home streak undefeated. The starting pitcher in this quest is this man, rookie lefthander Sean Henn. He will not be hit hard, but he will totally lose the plate in the second inning, seem to right himself briefly, only to lose it all over again.

Was it impossible for the Yankees to win their Monday night ballgame in the Bronx? Of course not. The competition was the struggling Tampa Bay Devil Rays, losers of seven of their last 10, and with the worst record in the American League. The opposing starter was failed former Red Sox prospect Casey Fossum, who entered the game having won just two of seven, though his era was an almost respectable 4.35.

But pitching for the Yankees would be youngster Henn, who failed miserably in his only other start against these same Rays in early May, although he was winning in AA before that game, and had done well in AAA since it. But he came in subbing for injured Kevin Brown with an era of 19.29, which will actually take a significant dip despite his Monday night struggle. Henn and Fossum pitched a scoreless first, and if Henn did not impress as much as Fossum who struck out the side, the Yankee youngster did get one K, and Fossum would add only two through seven frames. The fans were full of hope and expectation as Sean got off well in the second retiring first baseman Eduardo Perez, who two months ago had beaten new Pinstriped ace Randy Johnson with two home runs.

I suppose the 11/9 strikes/balls ratio Henn had posted to that point was a lower than desirable percentage. But nobody in the crowd expected what followed: Henn walked two on eight out of nine balls, and by the time Carl Crawford “drove in” the game’s first run with the inning’s fourth walk, Henn had thrown 16 out of 20 pitches off the plate. Veteran umpires are notorious for “squeezing” young pitchers, rarely giving them a call on a borderline pitch, and I would have loved to lay the blame for this at the feet of Larry Young, who is more veteran than most. But Sean threw not one close pitch in the bunch, and I was frankly amazed that Tampa catcher Toby Hall swung on a 1-1 pitch, popping to Jeter for the second out before Crawford’s patience was rewarded.

Shortstop Julio Lugo swung too, at a 1-2 pitch, and sent a bouncer toward the shortstop hole. Derek Jeter flagged it but had no play at first or second. His hurried throw skipped past Alex Rodriguez at third base, as A-Rod was a bit tardy after giving the grounder a quick look too. Further exacerbating the situation, the ball careened out of play, allowing two runs to score, and the Rays had a 3-0 lead.

The Yanks, meanwhile were struggling with Fossum, and they could do nothing with two leadoff baserunners through four, wasting Jeter on a hit-by-pitch in the first, and Bernie Williams on a third-inning walk. This team has a lot of hitters, and few in the crowd assumed the 3-0 deficit was unreachable. But this mission wasn’t lost solely on one rookie’s wildness; other team shortcomings contributed, poor situational hitting among them. Much more frustrating than the failure to move Jeter or Williams, for instance, was the fact that leadoff doubles by Hideki Matsui in the fifth and Alex Rodriguez in the seventh, not only weren’t cashed in; only one of the two even made it to third base. The culprit both times was Jorge Posada, who in two straight at bats that screamed for a right field approach grounded out to short and flied to medium left.

After Henn escaped his bad second, he pitched around a third-inning walk, and actually had a 10-strike/three-ball, one-hit fourth. But he never really settled in, witness Torre removing him in the fifth after two more walks and a single, thankfully stroked after a 4-6-3 dp from Aubrey Huff. Fans were relatively at ease; Henn’s control had been atrocious, but the team had just a 3-0 deficit in the fifth. A little effective relief and they had every chance to mount a comeback.

But aye, there’s the rub. The end of the pen has been great of late, and the middle guys have improved, but Paul Quantrill both failed to quench the Henn fire and set one of his own. Damon Hollins’s bloop over first wasn’t well struck, but it netted the Rays run number four. Worse still (and this would turn out to be the crusher), the Rays stroked three straight hits off Quantrill in the sixth. True, the Yanks guessed right and nailed Crawford stealing with a 1-0 pitch out to clear the bases with two down. And one certainly hoped that Gary Sheffield would have been able to hold Jorge Cantu’s double to the right centerfield gap, but he didn’t, and shortstop Lugo, who had singled, scored the fifth run from second as the ball rolled away from Gary.

So, you’re saying to yourself, “Oh, the game was so difficult not only because of Henn’s wildness, but because the pen didn’t respond when needed.” True as far it goes, but it doesn’t go far enough. The Yanks did have a rally in them, a spirited one. Robinson Cano drove Fossum from the mound with a leadoff single in the eighth, and Jeter singled him to second off righty Lance Carter.

The two most troubling spots in the Yankee lineup have been those occupied by left fielder Tony Womack and first baseman/DH Jason Giambi. But it’s a long season, and Giambi finally won a game with a walk-off five days ago, and Womack notched two hits and a sac fly in the series closer against the Cubs Sunday. Well, it’s back to the drawing board today, because it would be difficult to have eight weaker at bats than the two provided in this loss.

Womack had struck out twice and hit a foul pop to the left fielder to this point. I hold no ill will toward either guy. Agree with me or not, in my opinion Tony is a second baseman out of position, and Giambi did nothing but try to excel on the field of play, something most of us know many more players did than the one who allegedly admitted it. But be that as it may, Cano has won second base, and Giambi needs to improve. Womack, who seems to think the way out of his current funk is to go for the long ball, or at least to hit the ball in the air, popped out again followed Jeter’s single for the first out of the eighth inning. Gary Sheffield broke the shutout with an rbi single past third, but an overanxious A-Rod popped out to short. Alex knocked in two in the come-from-behind win Friday, and he drove in the fourth and fifth runs in a 6-3 win Sunday, so the smattering of boos notwithstanding, he is doing his part.

Another player who struggled through much of the season’s first two months is Hideki Matsui, who had one more night at DH Monday. He had doubled and walked, and fell behind Carter 1-2. He fouled off a pitch, then turned on a slider and drilled it into the lower porch in right for three runs. It was suddenly a one-run game. Tampa summoned closer Danys Baez, but he walked Posada on five pitches. Giambi strode to the plate as the winning run. But it was no contest. Jason had grounded out meekly to the pitcher and to first, and he took three strikes in the seventh. He swung and missed at a 2-2 pitch, and the Yanks’ last best chance was gone.

Perhaps Henn’s uncertainty and lack of control inhabited the mound in some form, because the superb Mariano Rivera uncharacteristically walked two in the top of the ninth, though he lowered his era under 1.00 with a scoreless frame. Fans cheered wildly when Baez fell to 3-2 to Williams leading off the bottom half, but Bernie swung and missed at pitch six. And the Yanks got a bad break when Jeter’s two-out hard one-hopper up the middle glanced off Baez and right to Lugo to close the game on a 1-6-3. Tony Womack stood in the batter’s box, but I’m convinced Joe would have sent Ruben Sierra up for him had Jeter’s bid for a second single gotten through.

Could the Yankees have overcome rookie Henn’s wildness and beaten the Devil Rays? Sure. But when their pen and two problem parts of their lineup failed as well it wasn’t to be. Film and TV star Martin Landau is 74 this day. In his role as Roland Hand from 1966-1968, Landau could have told you what the chances were under those circumstances:

It was a Mission Impossible

YANKEE BASEBALL!!!