Bronx, N.Y., July 21, 2007 — The naysayers in Yankee land had spread the sad news all over the ballpark by the time Saturday’s double dip with the Devil Rays began at 1:07. The Yanks would be throwing less than front-line starters in both games coming off two straight losses. And it’s true that Kei Igawa and Matt DeSalvo allowed two long bombs and six scores while failing to complete 10 innings between them.

What the dwellers in doom neglected to mention was that Tampa Bay, too, would be dipping close to the bottom of their starting pitcher barrel, a barrel that is sadly bereft of a lot of quality even floating at the very top. The Yankees not only reached Scott Hammel and J.P. Howell for nine runs through five (while allowing just the six), they also pounded the Rays pen for 15 more tallies, plating five runs in the sixth inning in both games, and throwing in a followup five-run uprising in the seventh inning of the 17-5 nightcap.

Suffering less control probems than has been his pattern, Igawa left game one tied 2-2 after five after having surrendered two singleton home runs. And treated to an early three-run lead, DeSalvo actually struggled more in the nightcap. He walked only two and threw an uncanny 18 of 23 first-pitch strikes, but he allowed twin tallies twice, blunting an early 3-0 lead, and then a 7-2 bulge after three.

But by then it didn’t matter. These games figured to feature offense, and they did not disappoint in that respect. Hideki Matsui gets top accolades, as he blasted a two-run first-game home run to get the Yankee offense rolling, and then capped the day’s scoring with a shot in the night game that plated the last three (of 24) runs on the day.

But Matsui was hardly alone in the Yankee onslaught. Robbie Cano delivered the key tie-breaking base hit in game one, and Andy Phillips and neophyte Shelly Duncan matched Matsui’s two rbi’s, the latter on his first major league home run in just his second major league game.

The nightcap was louder with more bats delivering significant damage. Struggling leadoff hitter Johnny Damon drove in four on two hits and a fielder’s choice, but the offensive star was Alex Rodriguez, who was greeted with well-deserved chants of “MVP” while lining two doubles and a home run, all to left field, and then capping his four-rbi performance with a sac fly to right that fell several feet short of being a grand slam. Melky Cabrera delivered hard hits his first three times up, the first two by jumping on the first pitch. Bobby Abreu had two hits and three rbi’s, Derek Jeter and Andy Phillips delivered two hits apiece, and Robbie Cano and Wil Nieves used twin safeties to knock in two each. In Wil’s case it was his best Yankee game, and sadly his last one, as a mid-afternoon trade brought the Yanks a veteran backup catcher. Wil even made a fine throw to second trying to catch Dioneer Navarro stealing in the second.

The bullpen was superb in both games, and Luis Vizacino came out the winner in both tilts, the first time a Yankee reliever has attained that double since Lindy McDaniel ended his Yankee career 34 years ago.

The Yanks survived game one, a key win after having dropped two straight to blunt a second-half charge. But all cylinders were going in the nightcap, where in addition to all the offense, they turned in three defensive gems. Johnny Damon played left, with Matsui DH’ing, and he made a great over-the-shoulder snatch right in the corner once third baseman Iwamura belted DeSalvo’s first pitch of the game that way.

DeSalvo closed that inning with twin strike outs, but trouble was brewing. The Yanks had jumped on Howell for three runs right off the bat, but the Rays replied with two of their own in the top of the second. But when Iwamura threatened to hand Tampa the lead by lining hard into the left center field gap, Damon put a stop to that. He ran down the Tampa third baseman’s hard liner with the two runners streaking toward an easy score, then left his feet to spear the drive. Ironically, Cabrera, who took Johnny’s center field job earlier this year, made a similar catch heading toward left on Mr. Iwamura, yet again, in the ninth inning.

While the Yanks were pounding seven Tampa pitchers for all this offense, we were surprised when game two starter Howell was replaced by former Yankee reliever Jay Witasik. Listening to fans peppering Mike Myers, Scott Proctor, Brian Bruney, and Kyle Farnsworth with boo’s the last few months, it was informative (from a comparison standpoint) to see the righty from the 2001 Bronx bullpen. The Yanks surrendered a genuine prospect for Witasik back then, and he just failed miserably. I found myself hoping that Jay would do as poorly against the Yanks as he had for them, and he did not disappoint. He pitched the one inning, faced 10 batters, walked one, surrendered five hits and five runs. The number of pitches it took Jay to navigate that frame matched the number on his back, 45.

Although the Yanks were poorly served by a shaky Mike Mussina start Friday night, followed by a bullpen meltdown, it was really the offense that never answered Tampa’s attack, the same offense that let a 2-0 lead fade to a 3-2 loss against Toronto Thursday afternoon. The season headed south largely due to pitching injuries early, but what was supposed to be an explosive offense stumbled out of the gate as well.

The American literary world celebrates the 108th anniversary of novelist Ernest Hemingway’s birth on July 21, 2007. Quoting the lead character’s father talking about Joe DiMaggio in his Nobel Prize-winning novella The Old Man and the Sea, Hemingway has him say, “Have faith in the Yankees, my son.”

Following a 28-hit, 24-run Saturday afternoon, those are words worth considering for all Yankee fans.

BTW,TYW

YANKEE BASEBALL!!!