Bronx, N.Y., July 20, 2008 — Famously, a squirrel cavorted on the right-field foul pole last August as Andy Pettitte was pitching the Yanks to a win in a sweep of the Red Sox. The “Dog Days of August” have not arrived in the 2008 baseball season yet, but it could hardly have been hotter as the Yanks swept the A’s 2-1 behind Pettitte Sunday afternoon. But don’t take my word for it; we spied what could have been the same squirrel scurrying for the shade under a car in Parking Lot 8 after the game.
This one was all Mr. Pettitte, the wily lefty who pounded 114 fast balls and cutters past Oakland bats for eight steamy innings. Not only did Andy walk none, he didn’t go to a three-ball count until the sixth inning. He struck out nine and allowed just four hits, with two apiece falling in the third and sixth innings.
Unfortunately, the A’s pushed across a run in the latter frame, which was enough to tie the Yanks 1-1, as they struggled to find some offensive footing against a very good Justin Duchscherer, a former reliever having a fabulous season in his first year starting games in the bigs. The righthander, surely a pitcher and not just a thrower, mixed in just a few changes and a smattering of slow curves while keeping the home team off balance on an assortment of mid-eighties fastballs.
The Yankees got to him early, however, bunching singles around a walk after two were out in the first inning. But right fielder Ryan Sweeney pegged Alex Rodriguez out at the plate on Cano’s hard bouncer through the hole, just as he had in the first inning of Friday night’s 7-1 Yankee win. The Yanks went quietly in the second, and Oakland failed to score in the third on Donnie Murphy and Mark Ellis singles because Pettitte rose to the challenge and struck out the side. Following a one-out Derek Jeter double in the home third, the Bombers took a 1-0 lead on a Bobby Abreu single and first-pitch A-Rod sac fly to right. But as quickly as the Yankee offense had come, it went away, something anyone who saw Saturday’s marathon can understand only too well. The Yanks failed to score for six straight innings then, a first-half trend they yearn to leave behind. Giambi took a free pass, but Duchscherer snuck a 3-2 curve past an unhappy Robbie Cano to close the inning. The A’s righty retired the next six Yanks on four flies, a liner to short, and a popup.
Pettitte battled light-hitting lefty swinging first baseman Jack Hannahan, pressed into action due to a Daric Barton injury sustained over the All Star break, to lead off the top of the sixth. But Andy picked a bad time to struggle with his control, and fell behind 3-1. After a foul, Hannahan lofted a fly down the right field line that bounced just fair for a grounds-rule double. Ellis bunted him to third, and Pettitte battled lefty swinger Sweeney. At 1-1, the Oakland right fielder barely nicked a foul, then lofted a pop fly single to short center for the tie.
A-Rod bounced to second on a 1-1 pitch to start the bottom half, then Giambi worked to the same count through two throws. Jason continues to get his walks, but following a hot six weeks that lifted him to .268 after a six-rbi game July 2, he has fallen to near .250 despite a home run off A.J. Burnett the last game before the break. An inside Duchscherer fast ball got too much of the plate though, and Jason lashed it into the lower seats in right for a 2-1 lead. Cano followed with his second hard single to right, but that was it for the day except for a Giambi swinging bunt down third for a single in the eighth.
Pettitte pitched a 10-pitch seventh that got him back out for the eighth, which he finished in fine fashion on two swinging strike outs and a Hannahan fly to right. Mo Rivera pitched a successful, if a bit too adventuresome, ninth for the save. Sweeney’s one out bouncer up the middle missed Mariano’s swipe try for a single, and Abreu dropped Bobby Crosby’s fly under a dazzling sun in short right. Saturday we got to see a rare obstruction call on the basepaths. But Sunday had its candidate for the “never saw that before” category when Abreu’s throw toward second sailed high. Sweeney was retired at second finally on a rare 9-5-6 force play. Two pitches later, pinch runner Rajai Davis learned what most who have tried Jose Molina’s arm trying to steal second have discovered: Don’t try it.
So following the first weekend after the break, the Yanks have inched closer to the two AL East challengers in front of them as they try to copy their second-half success from a year ago. Friday, two-out hits abounded as Mike Mussina showed a young lefty how it’s done despite allowing nine hits, and the Yanks outlasted Oakland Saturday in another good start that young Joba Chamberlain deserved to win (again). And Pettitte’s line was good enough Sunday that I’m sure the squirrel is kicking itself that it hid in the shade rather than romping on the foul pole. Andy threw first-pitch strikes to 17 of 27 A’s batters, had a superb 77/37 strikes/balls ratio, and he actually got Oakland to swing and miss 15 times during his 11th win.
Jan and Dean scored the first ever number one surfing hit on the pop charts on this day in 1964. Andy Pettitte dominated Oakland bats by getting not only nine ground ball outs, but nine punch-outs as well, although he did not do it with a pitch that could be called Dead Man’s Curve. More like the Killer Cutter. But the thing that Andy’s win has in common with that ’64 surfing hit, “Surf City,” comes from the lyrics’ oft-repeated refrain:
Going to Surf City ’cause it’s two to one.
Yanks win, 2-1.
BTW,TYW
YANKEE BASEBALL!!!