Bronx, N.Y., May 8, 2005 — The initial weather report for Sunday in the Bronx called for the voluminous Saturday rains to taper off, with the day becoming a nice one around the time the opposing managers would be going to their bullpens. But Saturday had dawned with iffy skies, and while the day drifted toward the charming, Mike Mussina brought Yankee fans back from the brink with a masterful shutout win. OK. The skies were inclined to cut us a break. How about the Yankees? Moose gave the team a boost. Could enigma Kevin Brown follow it up?
Last Monday Mike Mussina took the mound in Tampa for a team that was reeling after an ugly 8-6 loss to Toronto. The Yankees train in the area, and since the Rays have joined the league they’ve treated Tropicana Field like a home away from home. But once Moose set the stage with a dominating win Monday, that worm turned as the Rays battered Brown for eight hits and six runs in the first frame, and the Yankee engine stalled. Three ugly losses followed and Mussina righted the ship Saturday yet again.
“Paging Mr. Brown…”
Yes, it was the same old song, but Kevin pitched to a different beat in the Bronx this time out, and suddenly the Yanks not only have a two-game win streak, they won a series, and their pitching has held the opposition scoreless for 18 straight innings. Brown worked hard, and he held the Oakland A’s scoreless through seven on 106 pitches and a big dose of heart. The Yankees won 6-0, but be assured it was a much closer game than that.
Once Brown and Oakland starter Rick Harden traded 1-2-3’s in the first, the A’s threatened to pounce on Brown the way the Rays had Tuesday. Scott Hatteberg singled to right to start the top of the second, and he strode to second once Kevin walked Bobby Kielty on four straight. It seemed only a temporary break that Hatteberg was leaning back to second as Erubiel Durazo singled over second baseman Robinson Cano, as the A’s had the bases loaded and there was nobody out.
The crowd groaned and tried to stay positive as Kevin fell behind second baseman Keith Ginter 2-0, but then Brown got his first swing and miss of the day, and he subsequently retired Ginter on a soft liner to A-Rod on a 3-2 pitch. We didn’t know it then, but when Oakland left fielder Eric Byrnes strode to the plate, the game was about to turn. Home plate ump Danley punched his right fist on back-to-back offerings, and the rhythmic clapping accompanied Brown’s 0-2 pitch. Foul. Then again. Then ball one. There looked to be a play as Byrnes smacked the next one down third. A-Rod reacted quickly and just avoided the head of Byrnes’s shattered bat as the ball rolled foul. Foul back on the seventh pitch. Finally, Brown got Byrnes to swing over his next toss, a darting sinker ticketed for just beyond the low outside corner. Five pitches later Marco Scutaro took strike three, and the crowd breathed a collective sigh of relief.
The Yanks responded with a sacks-stuffed threat of their own. But it was largely donated, as Matsui beat out a swinging bunt to third, Rodriguez walked, and Giambi did the same following a Tino Martinez strike out and a Jorge Posada roller down first. But young Cano looks lost at the plate, and he didn’t find himself today, although his 4-3 to close the frame was well struck. The third inning passed quietly but for a Derek Jeter single to right that first baseman Hatteberg should have had, but the A’s threatened again in the fourth. Hatteberg dropped a bunt on Brown’s first pitch and A-Rod had to eat it. After Kielty took strike one, two, and three, Durazo singled over Jeter, giving him and Hatteberg an even split of the A’s four hits. Brown made us sweat by hitting Byrnes with his first pitch after Ginter flied to Womack. He fell behind Scutaro 3-1, but two fouls later, Marco lifted an easy fly to Hideki Matsui in center.
The A’s had to rue all their at bats with men in scoring position when A-Rod drilled Harden’s first pitch in the home fourth over the wall in center for a 1-0 lead, but they threatened to retaliate immediately. Kotsay fought off strike three three times in the fifth before stroking a lead-off single to right. After Jason Kendall flied to right, Eric Chavez lined one that way toward the gap. Sheffield broke quickly to his right, seemed to overrun the ball a bit, and lost his footing trying to break back, but he reached up and grabbed the liner while planted on the outfield grass to preserve the Yankee lead. Joe Torre and trainer Donahue spent some time with him, but Gary and his ankle appear to have come through that play OK.
The Yanks doubled their lead to 2-0 on a Matsui rbi single in the bottom of the fifth, and the A’s couldn’t get to Brown through seven, though he had help. Matsui gamely stayed with a long wind-blown Durazo drive to center in the sixth, and he cut in front of Sheffield to snatch a Scutaro liner in right center in the seventh. Although Kevin earned this win by surviving what could have been an ugly second inning (like the first in Tampa Tuesday) his numbers were good. He blanked the A’s through seven on five hits, notching two of his four strike outs to close the dangerous second, and he allowed just one walk. That he threw a first-pitch strike to just 12 of 28 batters is deceiving; he stayed ahead of the hitters much of the day, with a fine 69/37 strikes/balls ratio.
Harden was good too, but these A’s don’t hit a lot, and once they couldn’t take advantage of Brown’s early troubles, Rick was doomed to a loss. All is not right in Yankee land, and the New York offense hit safely just five times in Moose’s win Saturday, and five more against Harden through seven. But that was too much combined with four walks and a hit by pitch. Rick’s first-pitch strike ratio (13 of 30) mirrored Brown’s, but the 58/49 strikes/balls ratio didn’t. The high number of balls off the plate hurt him (Womack scored the second run after walking), and it hurt the A’s too.
Flash Gordon came on for the eighth, with Mariano prepping for the ninth despite the 50-plus pitches Friday. Gordon dominated with meek 4-3’s sandwiching a swinging strike out of struggling power hitter Chavez. But the Yanks put up a crooked number (4) in the eighth, and Tanyon Sturtze got in some needed work to close it in Rivera’s stead. Sturtze bent but did not break, and when A-Rod squeezed Scutaro’s infield pop at exactly 4:00 pm, the Yanks had a 6-0 win and back-to-back shutouts.
The high clouds did not dissipate much this day, although there was some bright sunshine in the third and fourth, and rain never threatened on a well-attended (47,575) Mothers Day. Once Kotsay rolled to Martinez at first to close the top of the seventh, the Scoreboard gave us an abbreviated recording of Ronan Tynan’s God Bless America. But rather than following with the traditional Take Me out to the Ballgame, Bob Sheppard led the crowd in a verse of Let Me Call You Sweetheart in honor of the Day and mothers everywhere.
With it falling on a May Sunday as it does every year, fans have witnessed many a fine baseball contest on Mothers Day. Hall of Famers Hank Aaron and Frank Robinson share the record for each having homered nine times on this special occasion. Until today, three men shared the lead among active players in homering on Mom’s day with five. After the A’s brought Kiko Calero in to pitch the home eighth, he walked Matsui on eight pitches and allowed a hit and run single to A-Rod. Calero threw three off the plate to the Yankee first baseman, and when Tino Martinez got the green light and delivered it just over the right field wall, the close game was broken up, and the three-way tie was broken. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you the new leader among active players clearing fences on Mothers Day with six; it is Tino Martinez. When Posada blasted the next pitch to the upper deck, the game’s 6-0 final score was forged.
Today Kevin Brown stepped up and took his spot. With apologies to Fox Sports Network, if he can do that on a regular basis, the horror show that has been the Yankee season could easily become the best da__ed sports show, period.
BTW,TYW
YANKEE BASEBALL!!!