Bronx, N.Y., June 14, 2009 — Nine is a magical number in baseball, with nine players fielding positions on each team, nine innings of play. Three strikes make an out and three strike outs make an inning; three times three = nine. Three outs for nine innings makes 27. Three, nine, and 27 make a sort of trinity of baseball numbers.

A huge preoccupation for baseball fans, numbers are a funny thing, and Mets ace Johan Santana got to see the negative side of all those numbers Sunday afternoon. He retired just nine batters in Yankee Stadium, and by the time he was removed, he had surrendered nine hits. And once reliever Brian Stokes was reached for an rbi double by Johnny Damon, Johan had nine runs on his ledger. Nine + nine + nine = 27. And, Santana successfully navigated exactly three innings.

If there was ever an argument against betting on baseball games, it was certainly made in the Bronx Saturday and Sunday afternoons. A relative unknown named Fernando Nieve handcuffed the powerful Yankee lineup on Saturday. Twenty-one hours later the Yankees battered the Mets’ best pitcher. Derek Jeter reached Santana for the first of his four straight singles on his first pitch, but the visitors’ lefty retired the next three. He set down three straight in the third inning too, but he was already in trouble by then.

The “trouble” was that the Yanks had already reached him for four tallies in the second, with rookie catcher Francisco Cervelli spoiling what was shaping up to be a nifty escape with a soft fly ball single to right. Leading off, Robbie Cano started the uprising with a terrifiic at bat, fouling off three tough pitches before doubling to left center. With Fernando Martinez in left way over toward the line and center fielder Carlos Beltran playing straightaway, a gap was there, and the Yankee second sacker did not miss it. Cano moved to third on a fly, and dodged two hard fouls down the line before Melky Cabrera missed a killer change of pace for strike three. When Santana got Cervelli to 1-2 he had all but wiggled free, but the young catcher foiled him wih a bloop over second. Singles by Jeter and Johnny Damon scored three more and the Yanks were up 4-0.

At this point, Yankee fastballer A.J. Burnett had a trying inning that turned the game. He had retired six straight on 22 pitches, but promptly loaded the bases in the top of the third with his next 17, sandwiching walks around a Brian Schneider single. Burnett had disappointed his team big time pitching against Boston ace Josh Beckett Monday, and he seemed ready to come apart. But no. He stiffened, striking out the next two swinging and getting Beltran to line out to short. The Mets threatened in the fourth too, putting two on via a David Wright single and a walk to Gary Sheffield one out later. But when Cano and Jeter made quick work of a Daniel Murphy grounder for a 4-6-3, any chance the visitors had for a win was done.

That was because the Yanks drove Santana from the mound in the fourth on a walk, a Hideki Matsui home run and three more hits. Stokes came on and “stoked” the flames, surrendering two hits, a double play grounder, a Cano home run, two walks, and Melky Cabrera’s double. Five of the runs were charged to Santana, and by the time Cabrera ran himself into the last out, 46 pitches from the two Mets hurlers yielded that number again, a nine-run frame.

Burnett coasted from there, setting down nine of 11 until he handed the ball off to the pen after seven. Mets lefty Jon Switzer, rudely greeted to the subway series by Matsui’s Friday night home run, walked two in the seventh after a hit by pitch, leading to the last two runs of the Yankees’ 15-0 onslaught. For good measure, David Robertson and Phil Hughes struck out two apiece pitching the last two innings, and a game that was almost two hours old in the fourth came to a close in 3:18.

Eight Yankee starters scored runs; six of them drove in runs. Aside from Jeter’s four-for-four, Cervelli singled his first three times, and Cano had three hits, scored twice and drove in three. Damon also delivered three rbi’s, with two apiece coming from Jeter, Matsui, and Cabrera. Brett Gardner, Ramiro Pena, and Angel Berroa entered midgame, affording an appreciated early blow for Teixeira (with Swisher moving to first), Jeter, and A-Rod.

The 15-0 score sounds bad, but it could have been worse, as the Yanks twice made the last out on the basepaths. Also of interest was Pena’s rbi single in the seventh, which not only skipped right through the pitcher, but also caromed hard off the second-base bag to a startled shortstop Alex Cora. A day that dawned after more overnight heavy rain gradually cleared to a brilliant, sunny, and warm afternoon. At 47,943, the announced crowd was 113 less than Saturday’s, and the third biggest crowd of the year behind it and the Opening Day sellout, and fans of both stripes cheered lustily for their teams. Mets fans, however, eager for a series win after their Saturday victory, wilted under the early Yankee barrage, understandably.

Rod Argent, cofounder and keyboard player with the 1960s rock group the Zombies, celebrates his 64th birthday this day. He had a hand in penning their hits, Tell Her No, Time of the Season, and She’s Not There, this last one, ironically covered by current rockers Santana. Any Mets fans who may have celebrated Saturday’s victory a little too heartily and tardily turned their attention to this one would have discovered two startling things in the fourth inning: First, they were losing badly in a game started by their ace. And second, a look at the mound for that ace would reveal:

He’s Not There!

BTW,TYW

YANKEE BASEBALL!!!