Bronx, N.Y., June 18, 2008 — Hardscrabble New Yorkers looked down with disgust at the not-ready-for-baseball field Wednesday night. It was a reaction quite different from that of the many San Diegans present. Denizens of the city with such ideal weather were obviously disappointed to find the tarp still on the field as the time for first pitch approached, but not in as edgy a manner as the natives. It wasn’t raining at all leading up to 7 pm, but the Yanks knew what they were doing this time. My poncho came out of the bag at 7:02.
This game didn’t need the 1:15 delay. Both starting pitchers were in pitch count trouble early, and they battled to make it though five innings pitch by pitch. Only one would succeed.
The Yanks got off to the early start, both on the scoreboard, and in the pitch count war, with considerable help on both tracks by a Khalil Greene throwing error in the first inning. Padres ace Jake Peavy was in early trouble on a Johnny Damon single up the middle and a five-pitch walk of Derek Jeter, but he appeared to have the cure when Bobby Abreu, after four straight fouls, bounced to second base. Jeter was forced at second but Greene’s relay got past Adrian Gonzalez at first, while Damon scored. Peavy recovered to strike out Alex Rodriguez looking for what should have been the third out, but an eight-pitch battle with Jason Giambi that resulted in a high popup drove the San Diego righty’s count to 27.
Darrell Rasner, on the other hand, got the jump on the visitors, getting through his first two innings on that same number of throws. He survived a Wilson Betemit error in the first, and notched his only four strike outs, three of them on pitches taken. This was fortuitous, because Peavy’s count continued to mount, as did the score against him. The Robbie Cano double that started the second-inning trouble drove young left fielder Paul McAnulty to the park’s deepest point in left center. Both he and Peavy had to be shaking their heads when Betemit followed with a popup to short left field line that fell just inside the line and bounded into the stands for a grounds rule double and a second score. A second Damon single plated a third run, and though a strike out of Jeter got Peavy through two frames, the six additional pitches it took shot his number up to 53 throws.
But Rasner had an early lead and looked sharp in Oakalnd last week, until the third inning arrived; that frame would almost ruin his night yet again. The five-pitch walk to Greene leading off put him in trouble, and catcher Luke Carlin lofted a broken-bat pop single to short right center. Jody Gerut bounced back to the box, but the play at second was slow developing, and the Yanks got just the one out. Adrian’s younger brother Edgar Gonzalez followed with one of his three good at bats (he struck out twice, and was ropbbed by A-Rod before a final hit) and delivered a booming two-run double to left center.
A Brian Giles fly to short center got Darrell close to escaping, but he walked Edgar’s brother Adrian on four pitches, then DH Tony Clark on eight, to load the bases. Rasner finally escaped the inning on a Chase Headley deep fly to center, but the 41-pitch marathon tightened both the score of the game and the pitch count battle as well.
Peavy failed to take advantage, however, allowing a first-pitch home run to Rodriguez with one down in the home third. A six-pitch strike out of Giambi and a walk to Jorge Posada may have hurt him even more, and he led (or trailed?) the pitch count square-off 74-68 through three. The economical (again) Rasner retired the Padres on 13 throws in the fourth despite a single and a walk, while Peavy failed to grasp the fifth-inning ring because it took him another 17 to survive a one-out Melky Cabrera double. Rasner chugged in at 96 pitches through five around his fifth walk, and the Yanks added a fifth run against righthander Bryan Corey for a 5-2 lead.
The Padres would use three relievers in all, and the home team tallied against each of them, a good thing because the quiet San Diego bats were far from done. Edwar Ramirez was electric following Rasner, getting five quick outs with three strike outs, but Giles got a hold of a 3-2 fastball and homered to right with two down in the seventh. Three pitches later, the elder Gonzalez did the same to close it to 5-4. Joe Girardi visited Ramireez but left him in, and Edgar notched his fourth strike out on the next three pitches.
The Yanks answered with two on a Jeter double and Abreu and A-Rod singles. It was a good thing they did, because Headley greeted Kyle Fransworth with a leadoff home run in the eighth, and Greene doubled with one down. That was it though, and the Yanks added one on the third hits each by both Betemit and Damon in the home half. Mariano Rivera came on for the save, but the younger Gonzalez surprised him with his second double. Not to worry though, as Giles took a third strike. When Adrian Gonzalez lifted a soft liner to short, his brother inexplicably broke for third with his team down by three, and Jeter doubled him off to end the game.
This night was a test for Rasner, both because his last start had been his only really poor one, and because the Yanks need to replace all the wins they count on from the injured Chien-Ming Wang. Darrell threw only 11 of 24 first-pitch strikes, and his 55/41 strikes/balls ratio was inadequate too. It is interesting that with replacing Wang’s wins on everyone’s mind, four Yankee pitchers retired just five Padres on ground balls. They struck out 11 though, and the five Rasner walks were the only free passes Yankee pitching allowed.
Sitting in the driving rain before this one at about 7:30, I gazed amazed at a majestic rainbow arced across the South Bronx sky. Its arc began near the upper tier in left field and soared all the way beyond the right field foul pole, stopping at the facade roughly in section 21. And a second rainbow began to form too, even closer to home plate. The sky under the original arc, though dark, was a different shade, a seemingly benevolent one, and I knew a clear night was coming.
This is a year where coming to the Stadium is about seeing some things for the last time, but this was certainly the first time I saw a rainbow like this in the Bronx. It made me feel good about the home team’s chances. And I felt better still having seen it when the Yankees, rather than selecting from star of yesteryear, sent out a corporate shill from MetLife to push the lever counting down the games left in the grand old ballpark, the Baseball Cathedral.
The countdown happens after the bottom of the fifth, when the game is official. This also marked the end of righty Rasner’s night. Wondering if the three-run lead he left would be sufficient, my eye caught another celestial wonder directly over the right field foul pole. A dazzling and vivid full moon dominated the southeast sky.
It made me feel good about Rasner’s, and particularly the Yankees’, chances, both this night and going forward.
BTW,TYW
YANKEE BASEBALL!!!