Bronx, N.Y., August 28, 2003 — It might have been downright creepy Thursday afternoon in the Bronx, except for a couple of very obvious factors. Strange phenomena notwithstanding, the Yanks jumped on rookie White Sox lefty Neil Cotts for five big runs in the first, a lead they would never relinquish, and it happened to be just about one of the most gorgeous days there has ever been.

Good thing, because the Yanks have sunk into some pretty ugly play this season, a factor not absent from this game (in the baserunning aspect anyway) despite the final score. But that is not what made the game strange. The Yanks took the nice lead (after Texas had forced 30+ pitches out of Mike Mussina in a two-run top of the first) by doing something they still do as well as anyone: They did not swing at bad pitches. But it was ironic that the only two short at bats in the bottom of the first did the most damage, but not until Cotts had generously set the table.

An Alfonso Soriano who has not been getting deserved credit for being more selective at the plate, and taking more pitches, took two in his lead-off at bat, and stroked a double down the left-field line on the sixth offering. Cotts then walked Johnson and Jeter on nine pitches, and Bernie Williams, at cleanup with Giambi resting his sore hand, did not hesitate to accept the young lefty’s generosity, as he singled hard to left on the next pitch for one run. Ruben Sierra, making a rare appearance in the starting lineup as the DH, took a strike and then bounced one right over the third-base bag. Left fielder Carlos Lee initially got a break when the ball caromed toward him off the sidewall, but he overran it in his haste and all three runners scored. It took 15 pitches to load the bases, and by the time Cotts had thrown the next three the Bombers had plated four runs.

Returning to the theme of patient at bats then, Matsui hit a soft liner to center on five pitches, but Aaron Boone battled Cotts for eight pitches before walking and Rivera reloaded the bases by walking on four. That was it for Cotts, but John Flaherty’s fly to center off Dan Wright was easily deep enough to score the fifth run of the frame before Soriano stuck out.

Mussina, meanwhile, settled down and handled the explosive White Sox for a while, but all the pitches in the first took their toll, and he lasted only six. He gave up a Sandy Alomar double in the second, a Carl Everett (four for four, with the bomb and three rbi!) homer leading off the fourth, and three singles during the next two frames, but two of those were infield rollers. He only struck out three, all in the first two innings, when his only walk happened, but both his strike/ball ratio (66/38) and his first pitch strikes (18/9) were good, and he left after six with a 6-3 lead, because Aaron Boone scored a run after leading off the sixth with a double into left. The Yanks were turned away in the fourth when third baseman Crede made a fine backhand stab on Jeter’s hard bouncer over the bag after Johnson had doubled, and the Yankee base runners did their best to snuff a few rallies of their own, particularly Flaherty getting nailed on an 8-6-4-2-5 after a Nick Johnson single once Boone had scored that run.

The weather was unbeatable all day, and as one who spent every moment in the sun in the left field side Tier boxes, I can tell you it was not hot. The fans were often into the day’s action, when they weren’t nervous about whether or not the big Chicago bats from the last two nights would re-emerge, and they were in a mood to frolic and throw themselves around for a souvenir or two too. A fan in the section 4 Tier boxes made a one-handed grab on a Crede foul in the fourth, but he was the exception, as most of the shots from Joe’s right-handed platoon and the righty-dominated Sox traveled to the right side, section 7 in particular. Three were struck by Jeter, one a carom off the steps between that section’s Tier boxes right into the hands of a fan who stood 10 feet to the left, but Derek lined two into the Loge in succession before flying to right in the second. The first glanced off a camera man’s hands in the box attached to the Loge facade, and the next found a glove about three feet over his head and five feet to his left.

The aforementioned Crede grab on Jeter’s bouncer was not the only sizzling defensive gem of the day, as the Yanks brought their gloves too. Nick Johnson robbed Jose Valentin on a hard smash toward the first base line in the second, tossing to Moose on a 3-1 to lead off the inning with an out rather than a double. Moose also handled a hot shot right back at him by Konerko in the fourth; Juan Rivera, after a long run, caught a fly struck by Robbie Alomar into the impossible narrow lane of foul ground that hugs the line in right in the fifth; and Soriano robbed Robbie in the seventh by corraling his bid for a base hit into the hole and nipping him at first. And Bernie Williams made a long, running grab of a deep liner into the left center field gap in the ninth, struck by Carlos Lee representing the tying run.

Jeff Nelson shut the Sox down in the seventh, and looked to do the same in the seventh when he struck Thomas out leading off, but single, double, single in succession by Ordonez, Everett, and Konerko erased two thirds of the Yanks’ three-run lead. Gabe White’s reported talent for facing righties and lefties paid off as he made his first game-on-the-line Yankee appearance and retired righty Graffanino, batting for Valentin, on an infield pop. And then Mo came in for the four-out save.

And despite Lee’s long drive, I thought Mo looked very good. He has had a few bumps in the road when a homer or two have been struck, then gave up four singles to the Royals. But the two things I have missed in his recent work is his former penchant for starting batters with strike one, and the fact that he hasn’t been breaking batters’ bats. Well, he threw strike one to all five guys (and 12 of 15 pitches for strikes) he faced this day, and the only trouble he found really was due to the broken bat knuckling pop past the mound that Sandy Alomar legged into a lead-off base hit to start the ninth, although Alomar seemed to have hurt himself pretty severely in the process.

So the Yanks got a win with a good start out of Moose, and a shut-the-door close by Mariano. They batted patiently and took the seven walks the White Sox gave them, and caught the ball well. All par for the course.

What wasn’t par for the course was the lack of a long ball today and the 9-1 advantage the White Sox enjoyed in that respect in this series. And Yankee fans are hoping the offensive disappearances we have been seeing all too often are not business as usual too. With all due respect to a good relief outing by Dan Wright, the three hits the Yanks managed in the five-run first would have very little company, only four more the whole day.

And there was one more candidate for one of those Discovery or Learning Channels wierd-happenings specials that appear in the TV listings so often. As related above, Mussina left with a three-run lead after Boone scored after a leadoff double in the sixth. But it was the manner of his trip from second base to home that will schock and amaze you. Juan Rivera successfully sacrificed Aaron to third on a 1-0 pitch, a strange enough development in Yankee land, but not too surprising considering Juan’s struggles with the bat. But then Yankee fans found themselves in a difficult position. White Sox Manager Charlie Manuel brought in their new bullpen acquisition, righty Scott Sullivan of the submarine delivery, and brought his infield in. Fans screamed for a fly ball from backup catcher John Flaherty while knowing full well that the low-ball Sullivan can’t possibly give up many of those. The crowd tensed as Flaherty swung and missed at Sullivan’s first offering.

The comedian Steve Martin was born in August, and way back before he became famous for his many (eternally rerunning) Saturday Night Live! guest appearances, being a “wild and crazy guy,” and singing his smash King Tut parody, he released a comedy album called, “Let’s Get Small.” With a one-strike count on Flaherty with one out and Boone on third, that is exactly what the Yankees did. John shocked the White Sox and 95 percent of the people in the stands when he dropped a perfect safety squeeze bunt 15 or 20 feet down the first base line. He didn’t fool Aaron Boone, who charged hard once it was succesfully on the gound, but I do think he fooled the official scorer too, because although Flaherty deadened the ball expertly and placed it well, the startled Sullivan stumbled as he reached for it, allowing our catcher to safely reach first. Flaherty should not have been penalized because his execution was so perfect; the ball was clearly a base hit (and rbi), and not the E1, sac bunt, rbi he received.

The Yankee offense disappeared against Baltimore on both Friday and Saturday after some early home runs. It didn’t show up against Loiaiza or Colon in this series’s first two games, and ended its visit to the Bronx in this game after the first inning. Fans have been clamoring for this for some time, but with the explosive Sox (both Red and White) potentially standing between the Pinstripers and the World Series, and the flashing of Yankee power an occasional feature, the club needs to do something to score when the long balls are not coming. The squeeze option is not one they can use often, but they’re already better off just by the fact that the threat of it is out there. The Yanks had two successful sac bunts on the day, and Flaherty delivered a run on a sac fly too. Later Jeter’s attempt to bunt his way on went foul, and Soriano should follow the Captain’s advice and drop one every now and again too. He is closing in on another 30/30, and Giambi trails only the red hot Frank Thomas in the league home run race. But next time the Yanks get into another one of those inning after inning offensive funks, they should look back at what our backup catcher did today and think,

“Let’s Get Small!”

BTW,TYW

YANKEE BASEBALL!!!