Bronx, N.Y., April 27, 2004 — In light of recent Yankee history, I suppose “the Rise and Fall and Rise” might be a more appropriate title for a Yankee victory only a fan in desperate need could love. But I like to think that this was the kind of game that proves baseball is such a great sport. The Yanks haven’t produced many hits this year. Tuesday night they stroked 10. We’ve been joking that new third base coach Luis Sojo has been the loneliest man in the Bronx. But this night he waved 10 men in Pinstripes by. I’ll take it.
After having suffered through such a frigid and wet Sunday where sun and 60 degrees was the forecast, on Tuesday 33,000 fans were able to take a dizzying emotional rollercoaster with their team in pleasant temps while the promised rains never came. There was pregame concern about starting pitcher Mike Mussina, about the Yankee bats, about a team in disarray, scheduled to face the first of three young aces from Oakland just when their flailing swings could least afford it.
How did it turn out? Well, titular ace Mussina was extended to 109 pitches in just six innings, and allowed 10 hits and five runs (four earned) pitching for a team that hadn’t scored that many in nine innings (or twelve) in a week. The minimum three Yankees came to bat in four different frames; they fell on just eight pitches to the plate twice (one of them included a four-pitch walk!) and 13 pitches twice. Turmoil? They committed two errors, could have been charged with two more, and used their gloves to deflect balls almost as often as they did to catch them. And despite a sudden four-hit, four-run outburst in the third, they managed but one other hit against Tim Hudson by the time he left after seven.
Unbearable huh? Well, not really. Even though the young A’s never stopped hitting all night, Mussina really displayed some great stuff, mixing curves and circle change-ups with fastballs that were used sparingly enough that their speed was deceptive. Even though he chalked up 31 called strikes and only seven swinging in his 76 pitches in the zone, four of his seven punch-outs were of the swinging variety. He threw 18 of 29 first pitches for strikes, walked but one batter, and his 76-33 strike-to-ball ratio easily exceeded successful-starter spec.
And yes, Mr. Hudson was dynamite, and it showed in the Bronx. When Eric Chavez reached Moose for an opposite field home run following back-to-back strike outs way back in the third inning of what then promised to be a pitchers’ duel, the crowd shifted uneasily in their seats, wondering if their team could put together enough good at bats to overcome even a 1-0 deficit. But unease apparently doesn’t translate well, and Hideki Matsui calmly got the Yanks started almost immediately on an 0-1 single to left in the bottom half. Hudson seemed confident, and in no mood to waste pitches, as his next seven offerings were strikes as well. Tony Clark was badly behind two hard ones but caught up just enough to line the third dart into the left field corner for a double. Miguel Cairo, too, looked overmatched on two fouls, and then flicked the third pitch into short center for a 2-1 Yankee lead.
The crowd howled in realization that their team had come to play, and kept it up as the Yanks resorted to “little ball” to extend the rally. Cairo had run all the way and made second safely even though the throw from center was cut off at the pitcher’s mound. Jeter, who had tried to snap out of his funk by bunting on Hudson’s first pitch of the game, pushed one so expertly down third then that Chavez’s quick charge and throw barely nipped him at first. Williams walked and Rodriguez extended the Yanks’ lead with a slow hopper to third that scored one runner and moved the other. And Giambi’s liner up the middle fell for an rbi single as the overshift was abandoned once Bernie had taken second base.
But just as quickly as the Yanks “rose” from the carpet and plated four, the A’s came storming (meandering slowly, really) back. Hatteberg singled to right on a 3-1 pitch leading off the visiting fourth, and when Cairo gambled on snaring Durazo’s hard hopper to try to turn two, it glanced off his glove, a play charitably (though it did no favors to Mussina) ruled a single. Shortstop Scutaro bounced a 2-2 pitch to Moose’s left, but it glanced off his glove — two on with a run in. Another hit? You see why that four earned runs number is a bit fuzzy. Singles by Melhuse and Kotsay around a Menechino twin killing tied matters up.
The Yanks then returned to their ineffective offense, the one we’ve seen too much of this season, and in the last week in particular, managing two walks and a Matsui single in four uneventful innings that Hudson coasted through on 46 pitches. The A’s, however, were managing a hit an inning early and they restored and improved on that strategy once Mussina posted his only one-two-three in the fifth. Clark booted Hatteberg’s roller down the line to start the sixth and Melhuse and Menechino singles plated him, though Sheffield made a great sprawling catch on Kietly’s soft liner to short right to prevent more damage. Moose left with a mixed scorecard, as the pitcher of record on the losing side of a 5-4 score.
Gabe White, Paul Quantrill, and Donovan Osborne picked up on the “little bit good, little bit bad” mound theme Moose had established. White was overpowering in popping up Chavez and Dye, but gave a booming double (that Williams tracked neither well nor quickly) to left center to Hatteberg and a following one down first to Durazo, though the latter looked clearly foul from my perch on the third base side. Quantrill came on, allowing a third double (and another run in the seventh), and an unearned run in the eighth once Sheffield misjudged Kielty’s hard liner. To be fair, however, the E9 ruling was severe in light of the earlier goings-on. Osborne closed the A’s out in the eighth to eventually earn the win, but not until he allowed a run on an infield single expertly stopped by a diving Jeter, who just barely missed the out at second.
If there is a batter in the lineup whose plate struggles have been as emblematic of the team’s ineffectual offense as Captain Jeter’s, it would be Bernie Williams, who may not be totally healthy. But Jeter bounced hard to short in the fifth, and Bernie stroked a shot to center in the first that Kotsay grabbed at his shoetops. Still, Bernie had taken three strikes in the fifth, and he took two (with three balls) from reliever Jim Mecir to start the eighth. I will not tell you that the rally that ensued was a thing of beauty. But the thing about the eighth inning, and about this comeback win in total, was that it was such a team phenomenon. A parade of four singles and two walks initiated by Bernie’s sharp shot to right brought the Yanks to within 8-7, and once Clark whiffed for the first out (against lefty Rincon, who had just come in and walked Matsui to plate the third run), Miguel Cairo made it all the way to the plate before he was called back and Ruben Sierra replaced him.
Rincon threw a ball, then got a called strike. Sierra showed discipline in taking one just outside, while ball three darted near his foot in the right-handed batter’s box. Clark had lined hard and several feet foul before taking strike three, and the crowd held its breath as Ruben’s 3-1 liner took a similar path in heading for the left-field corner. It landed just fair and the Yanks had the lead. Jeter was walked and Bernie delivered an insurance run with a fielder’s choice to second. It was 10-8, Yanks, and the crowd roared as the strains of Enter Sandman announced Mariano Rivera’s Yankee-record-breaking 523rd appearance. Six pitches later it was over as Mo coaxed a 5-4-3 after an infield single.
What I liked about this win was that everyone contributed. The biggest of the 10 hits (and only one of two for extra bases) belonged to pinch-hitter Sierra, and the icewater-veined Matsui stroked two with a walk, an rbi, and two runs scored. The struggling captain kicked in a huge sac bunt and a walk, though no hits. The other seven starters each stroked one hit, and scored at least one run (Bernie scored two). Every place in the order knocked in a run except Jeter and Clark and they set up runs. Quantrill and White both got two outs, and both allowed two hits; for Osborne, it was one and one. And Mussina pitched like an ace for almost three frames, and fought in the trenches for the other three. He showed grit, and did not wilt under undeserved adversity.
April 27, 1737, was the birthday of hstorian Edward Gibbon, famed for his masterpiece study, The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. The only disgruntled paying customers this night were the few who love a rainy night, the Yankee lovers who stomped out in frustration before the end, and fans of the Decline and Fall of the Yankee Empire.
BTW,TYW
YANKEE BASEBALL!!!