Bronx, N.Y., July 16, 2006 — The Yankees survived a sloppy game and a nightmare of an evening for third baseman and slugger Alex Rodriguez Monday and eked out a 4-2 victory over the visiting Mariners. Game righty Chien-Ming Wang battled through with less than his best stuff, and shut down Seattle using his trusty weapon, coaxing 16 ground ball outs in seven innings.

And he could have been better, but Alex Rodriguez uncorked three wild throws that extended rallies and denied Wang further ground-ball outs. Coupled with Jorge Posada’s pickoff attempt that sailed past an unaware first baseman Andy Phillips in a one-run Mariners top of the first, the Yanks committed four miscues, while the M’s chipped in with three. Wang and Seattle southpaw Jarod Washburn deserved a better fate.

In fact, the only earned run Washburn allowed was on a towering Jason Giambi home run to right that stretched the Yanks’ lead to 4-1 in the fifth inning. The ex-Angels starter was on top of his game, denying the Yankees any scores in any of the four frames they got their leadoff man on, via three singles and a Jorge Posada sixth-inning double. In fact, it was the two innings in which Washburn retired the first two Pinstripers that all of the Yankee damage was done.

Giambi’s blast came with two down in the fifth, but the two-out rally that cost the Seattle lefty a “W” this nignt was the one the Yanks mounted in the second inning. The Mariners had taken the early lead after Ichiro Suzuki smacked Wang’s first pitch of the game up the middle for a single. The Mariners right fielder moved to third with one down on the first of two walks to Willie Bloomquist and a fielder’s choice. Raul Ibanez scored him with a sac fly to left.

The Yanks replied in the bottom of the second. But while it is true that all three runs would be unearned, each of the six Yankee at bats of the inning produced well-struck missiles. Posada’s one-hopper was snagged at second and Bernie Williams drove an “at’em” ball to rookie Adam Jones in center. But Andy Phillips broke the spell with a hard single to right and Melky Cabrera rocketed a liner off a startled Richie Sexson’s glove at first for the pivotal Yankee at bat of the inning, and of the game. The ball was smoked and, looking into Sexson’s eyes from the upper deck, I thought the E3 was a tough call.

But whether or not it should have been ruled a hit is bookkeeping. The ball rolled down the line as Phillips and Cabrera each took two bases. Miguel Cairo promptly delivered both with a single reminiscent of the big two-out rbi hit he stroked against the White Sox Sunday. Johnny Damon drove in Cairo with a single in a nine-pitch at bat that started at 3-0, and the Yanks had a 3-1 lead they would never relinquish.

Echoing Sunday’s contest in game plan, though certainly not in quality, the rest of the game featured failed Yankee rallies and a spirited attempt by the M’s to close the gap. Once Damon was picked off to close the second, the Yanks produced three leadoff singles and an inning-opening double around Giambi’s crucial home run the next five frames, and failed to advance any of them even one base.

Mr. Wang, meanwhile, though not turning in a routinely superb outing (he has set the bar awfully high), was dominant through the fourth, posting nine outs after the first on just 27 pitches. He bent but did not break in a 21-pitch fifth, where he had to overcome A-Rod’s second miscue following a Yuniesky Betancourt single and before the second walk to light-hitting second sacker Bloomquist, escaping unscathed on two bouncers to Cairo at second. He surrendered the second M’s run on three sixth-inning singles, but emerged from that frame and the seventh by coaxing his second and third ground ball double plays of the night.

But Wang was cooked at 96 tosses through seven, and Joe Torre needed to fashion an effective eighth inning out of his pen. There was no question that Mariano Rivera would not be asked to get six outs on back-to-back July days, particularly with an intense east coast heat wave sapping the strength of everyone in the park. Mike Myers used two pitches to retire lefty swinger Ibanez on a gounder to second, one pitch more than it took him to do a similar job in the squeaker in the Bronx the day before.

Kyle Farnsworth got two fly outs in Sunday’s seventh, but his eight inning wasn’t nearly as effective, and Torre needed to bridge this one to Mo. Scott Proctor was the hero of the Yankee pen in early ’06, to the extent that such a title is even a little open in a place where Mariano Rivera works his magic, but as the season progressed, Scott struggled from apparent overuse. But fresh from the All Star break, he was dominant in Saturday’s laugher, pounding the Chsox with 96-mph heat with a sharp slider. He retired four straight that day, two on swinging strike outs. Monday’s result was similar, only he got the two big K’s while facing just two guys, and upped his speed quotient to 97. The Mariners swung and missed at his nine pitches five times.

That left the game to Mariano, who did what he did Sunday, making the crowd nervous as the first two M’s reached, then retiring three straight, two on strike outs. Thus the Yankees stayed right on the heels of the first place Red Sox, and crept another half game closer to the idle White Sox in the Wild Card race.

With the rotation settling in, the last three wins excluding the laugher Saturday could become the template of what we’ll be seeing down the stretch, battling opponents in tight, low-scoring games, and delivering a lead to the best closer ever. Tomorrow we begin to see if Sydney Ponson can give Joe Torre a full house of starters. Perhaps next week, Octavio Dotel will lend the pen another solid arm. Pitching in rotation with Dotel and Farnsworth, a well-rested Proctor appears ready for a monster second half.

BTW,TYW

YANKEE BASEBALL!!!