Bronx, N.Y., July 1, 2007 — The throng who made it to Yankee Stadium for a showdown and rubber match with the AL West A’s may have thought they were in for a long, though gorgeous, afternoon. After being one-hit for seven innings by a guy who had just 26 starts in 117 career appearances Saturday, this day they were matched up against AL era leader Danny Haren, sporting a 9-2 record with that gaudy 1.91 earned run average.
But the Yanks provided their fans with a surprise, if not a totally successful one. Despite succumbing on a routine fly and two swinging strike outs in the first, they battled Haren, posting two two-run innings in the first four. The Yanks drove Haren from the game after 101 pitches one out into the sixth inning, reaching him for five tallies on eight hits and a walk. Just one team had scored four earned runs off Haren in 2007, and that was Tampa Bay in two games. With the five runs today, the Yanks have scored eight against him. And they scored these five runs despite failing to plate a leadoff double in the third or Andy Phillips and Melky Cabrera, who were on third and second base, respectively, in the fourth with just one out.
Unfortunately, the rude treatment afforded the Oakland ace was not the the day’s only surprise. It’s common knowledge in New York that Andy Pettitte has been the Yank’s best starter despite the 4-5 mark he brought into the game. He had allowed four earned runs or more just three times in his last 10 starts, and he deserved his respectable 3.36 era. Told before the game that the Yanks would score five on Haren, most would have been confident of a win.
But Andy did not pitch well this day. After Derek Jeter pulled off his patented catch, wheel and football pass to first to retire Shannon Stewart leading off the first, Mark Ellis and Jack Cust each singled to right, and when the struggling (at the plate) Bobby Abreu bobbled the latter, Ellis made his way around to third. Eric Chavez grounded weakly into the second base hole, and although Robbie Cano’s feed to Jeter was low, the ball was hit too slowly for a double play anyway. The A’s had a 1-0 lead on an unearned run.
After Haren retired the Yanks 1-2-3, three of the first four guys up in the top of the second singled to right, and Jason Kendall, the one who didn’t, reached when he topped a slow roller toward third. With run number two in and the sacks filled, Pettitte got a Stewart popup to second for the first out. Ellis’s fly to medium right made it 3-0 when Abreu’s throw tailed up the first base line, but Andy was almost out of a dangerous inning with things seemingly under control. He missed with a pitch to Cust, but worked him to 2-2, then the DH just got a piece on the fifth pitch. But he got a heck of a lot more of the next one, a bp fastball up in the zone that Cust crushed over the wall just right of dead center for a sudden 6-0 A’s lead.
As the inning continued, Eric Chavez took ball one, then doubled off the very top of the wall in right, and Mark Johnson homered deep to right three pitches later. The Yanks and Pettitte were stunned, the crowd silent, at least until Joe Torre came out and took the ball. Call it a fib or a flying hope if you like; I’ll say the crowd responded with a wail cursing their fate. I’ll assert they did not boo at all. Let those reporting that they did decide if Pettitte or Torre was the target.
This was the job for the long man in the pen, and Ron Villone was summoned despite the two innings he threw to close out the Saturday loss. It would turn out that his work, along with that of Brian Bruney and Scott Proctor, was a bright spot. And while Villone was holding the A’s right there for the next 3.3 frames, Yankee bats threatened to make it a game.
Alex Rodriguez walked on five pitches leading off the bottom half, and Jorge Posada singled him to second. Posada was forced at second on a Hideki Matsui grounder to first, and Abreu actually recorded the first of two rbi’s by grounding out weakly for the second out. Finally getting some play at first after being called up a week ago, Andy Phillips battled Haren to a full count and then singled sharply to left for a second run. Melky Cabrera tried to keep the line moving but Eric Chavez pegged him out from third on a fine play to end the inning. The Yanks were back an inning later when DH Johnny Damon doubled to left center, but Haren escaped by striking out Jeter and Rodriguez around a Cano fielder’s choice.
Aping the second, Posada led off the fourth with a five-pitch walk and Matsui doubled him to third with a liner into the right field corner. Abreu hit a sac fly to left and Phillips singled again, this one a grounder into the shortstop hole on which Crosby could not make a throw. Down 8-4, the Yanks appeared to be in good shape when Cabrera grounded a double over first, and Damon and Haren battled. But Johnny went down swinging after fouling off four straight and Jeter was hit by a pitch to load the bases. Cano, batting third for the first time this year, flied to right on a 2-2 pitch and the threat was over.
Haren stiffened and retired the Yanks on three grounders in the fifth, but Abreu lined hard to center leading off the sixth. Phillips stroked his third straight single, Cabrera lofted a one-base hit to right, and Haren was done. Southpaw Dallas Braden was victimized by a Jeter single for one after a Damon groundout, but Cano strode to the plate at yet another pivotal point. He struck out to end the threat, and the Yanks’ chances, but not the scoring. Brian Bruney pitched a quiet sixth that ended on a strike-em-out, throw-em-out dp. But when Ellis singled to lead off the seventh, lefty specialist Mike Myers fell behind 3-0 to two lefties, with Cust doubling in Ellis for a 9-5 lead. Luis Vizcaino ended that inning, but Oakland reached him for two more in the eighth until Proctor came on to retire four straight.
Righthander Santiago Casillo retired six of seven Yankees around a Posada single to get it to the ninth, and ex-Red Sox, Yank, etc. Alan Embree ended the 11-5 Oakland win around a Jeter single and A-Rod walk in the ninth, ending matters when Posada bounced into a double play.
The A’s pounded 16 hits, with most of the damage coming from right where you would want it. Cust, Chavez, and Johnson delivered four, three, and two rbi’s, respectively, from the 3, 4, and 5 spots in the order. All nine A’s scored at least once, Mark Kotsay had three hits, and Cust did the same, missing a cycle by lacking a three-base hit on his game resume.
The early explosion of Andy Pettitte was a puzzle. Although he only threw six of 14 first-pitch strikes, if he was wild it was in the zone, with a strikes/balls ratio of 28/13. Although he went to a three-ball count on the last two batters in the first, almost every ball he released in the second found the zone. The four singles that started the blitz were delivered on just eight pitches, seven of them strikes. Five pitches later, Cust homered at 2-2, Chavez doubled after ball one, and Johnson homered for 8-0 on a one-two count.
Andy lost in Colorado 6-1 when his teammates scratched but five hits. He got a no-decision in a 3-2 loss last Tuesday where the Yanks had eight hits, but just two runs. He was distressed earlier this week after the loss in Baltimore where he wondered if all the players cared. Perhaps he was upset with the unearned run in the first. Was his 17 of 23 in-the-zone, second-inning pitches indicative of a man who felt he should just throw what he had and see what happened? He has certainly earned the trust of his fellow players, but has he lost his trust in them?
As for the Yankee offense, it must be granted that they got up off the mat today and made it a game when the second-inning barrage could have quieted them. Manager Torre is certainly at the end of his rope trying to fix the lineup, and nowhere has been more problematic than the third spot. Bobby Abreu has struggled there all year, killing rallies with weak outs, rarely walking, and frustrating the fanbase by intermittent attempts at bunting when nothing else was going right. The since-lost-to-injury Jason Giambi failed to spark the offense from the third spot too, as has Matsui, who tried it for a while in May, and then again on the 1-7 road trip.
Jeter has batted third in a few games and done well, but Joe would be weakening the second spot to fix the third, so second baseman Robbie Cano got his shot today. He made the last out of an inning three of his first four times up, striking out twice, and bounced into the second out the other time. He left seven men on base, four of them in scoring position. The 6-1 Pettitte loss we mentioned took place in Colorado on June 20, which was the 251st anniversary of the day Britain’s Fort William fell in Bengal, India. Exploiting India for its natural resources as a colonial power, Britain’s soldiers were punished by being confined under unbearable conditions in a cramped cell that became known as the Black Hole of Calcutta.
If you want to know what has happened to the vaunted Yankee offense in 2007, look no further than the number three spot in the batting order. It needs to be fixed if the team is going to turn it around. As it is, it is the Black Hole in the Bronx.
YANKEE BASEBALL!!!