Bronx, N.Y., August 17, 2007 — Newer Yankee fans who did not follow the team when Andy Pettitte formerly worked his magic in the Bronx got to see what see what veterans of the Pinstripe passion already knew: When the team is struggling and has suffered a number of ugly losses, Andy is the most reliable guy on the staff to put a stop to it.
In the midst of an impressive and extended post-All Star break streak, the Yanks were blanked by Baltimore 12-0 Tuesday, and the run of losses stretched to three after Detroit beat them handily Thursday night. At one time considered long shots for postseason play, the Bombers have battled back into strong contention, but a prolonged string of losses at this point could cripple their chances. That most of the 54,000-plus paid customers waited through a more-than-hour-long rain delay before the game bespoke how focussed the fanbase is on the pennant push.
Pettitte and Detroit lefty Nate Robertson held the respective big offenses off the board through two, but the crowd was crestfallen when the Tigers drew first blood on a Brandon Inge rbi double to left in the third. On via a one-out infield single, Tigers second baseman Ryan Raburn was able to score when Andy Phillips made the questionable decision to cut off a relay throw that stood a chance of nailing him at the plate. Compounding matters, once Phillips threw to third, Inge was able to scramble from several feet short of the base back to second with Alex Rodriguez in hot pursuit because second base had been left uncovered.
Shaken, Pettitte walked Curtis Granderson and fell to a 3-1 count on rookie left fielder Cameron Maybin, playing in his major league debut. But Andy stiffened and fanned the rook and coaxed a Gary Shefffield fielder’s choice ground ball to stop the bleeding. Pettitte was having trouble finding the zone with his slow curve, an effective weapon against Detroit’s righty power if the Yankee lefty could throw it for strikes. And beginning in the fourth, Pettitte did just that, buoyed perhaps by a two-run home team rally that came with a little help from a bad bounce.
Robbie Cano and Phillips stroked singles to start the home third, but Johnny Damon, getting a rare start in center, flied to right and Derek Jeter took a third strike. The inning looked to be over when Bobby Abreu grounded to short, but the ball took a kangaroo bounce in front of Carlos Guillen, and Cano tied the game when the ball bounded into left center field. Rodriguez followed with an rbi double into the left field corner and the Yanks had a 2-1 edge.
As it turned out, that lead was sufficient, but the Yanks took no chances and added gradually to the score, regardless of the fact that Pettitte was now settling in. Starting the fourth, he caught a Magglio Ordonez first-pitch popup in front of the mound to start a streak in which he retired 15 of the next 17 batters to hold Detroit off the board into the ninth. Mixing a 90/91-mph fastball and a cutter at 87 with an 80-mph change of pace and a mid-seventies lollipop curve, Andy kept the visitors off stride.
Pettittte notched five swinging K’s while allowing just the one walk, and five hits through eight, even if three of those went for two bases. His 71/33 strikes/balls ratio was more than superb, and he pounded 21 of 29 first-pitch strikes. That Detroit batters flailed and missed 15 times shows how off balance Pettitte kept them. And not only were the 11 ground ball outs downright Wang-like, Andy’s first out on an outfield fly came when Hideki Matsui made a pretty running grab on a Gary Sheffield sinking liner in sixth.
This last elicited derisive jeers from the crowd. They were on ex-Yank Sheffield for his recent critical comments about Joe Torre all night. Gary would have loved to silence the boo’s with a long bomb to left I’m sure, but it wasn’t to be. His 0-for-4 this night left him hitless in seven at bats plus two walks in the series. As for me, I don’t listen too much to what Shef has to say; I recall his offensive output in Pinstripes fondly, at least until his third (and last) season in New York was ruined by a wrist injury. But the comments were certainly heinous, so I can understand my fellow fans’ anger.
The two-run third-inning rally would have won the game, but a score that tight would have rattled nerves, and besides, the Yanks needed to establish that they could score regularly on this team, something they failed to do with disastrous results in the 2006 playoffs. Designated hitter Jason Giambi upped the margin to 3-1 with a leadoff home run to right center in the fourth. Robertson kept it right there by notching four strike outs in that inning and the next, but the Yanks opened the lead further following Matsui and Cano singles in the seventh. After finally earning his shot at the first base job due to injury, Andy Phillips got hot just when the Yanks did, but his bat has cooled somewhat of late, and he has lost some at bats to Giambi and to recent pickup Wilson Betemit. But Andy responded with a great game at the plate this night.
In addition, young Detroit outfielder Maybin came into his first game this night with rave reviews, but Pettitte fanned him twice and he retired himself once by running into his own batted ball. And when Phillips followed the two seventh-inning singles with a first-pitch drive into the left center field gap, the rookie took a strange route right at the ball, rather than at an angle that might have enabled him to cut it off. When it scooted by and rolled to the wall, two Yankee runs scored and Phillips stood at second.
Aquilino Lopez replaced Robertson and pitched a one-two-three seventh, then retired Matsui on a grounder leading off the eighth. It has been a difficult season both on and off the field for Yankee DH Giambi, and many fans were worried when he returned little more than a week ago to crack a lineup that seemed to have found its way without him. He homered in back-to-back games on the last roadtrip, but although he has hit he hadn’t shown any of his customary power in Yankee Stadium until this night’s fourth-inning home run. Now in the eighth, he worked Lopez to 2-2, then teed off on a flat fastball and sent it soaring into seats in the right field upper deck rarely visited by the long ball. It cleared everything in a nonce and forged the final 6-1 score. It’s worth noting that four of the six rbi’s, and five of the six runs scored, belonged to the bottom three in the Yankee order.
That settled matters except who would pitch the ninth inning with Pettitte over 100 pitches and Mariano Rivera getting a couple of days off. We didn’t have long to wait, and recently promoted hard-throwing rookie Joba Chamberlain made his way to the mound with Guns & Roses playing, much as Metallica does for Mo. And the crowd responded in a similar manner as well. The first matchup was fastball-loving Sheffield, and he flied to medium-deep left on the first pitch. Magglio Ordonez flared a soft single over second but Carlos Guillen popped out to Jeter at short. Ivan Rodriguez was next, and Chamberlain struck him out on four pitches, with the veteran Tigers catcher swinging and missing three times, twice on 99-100 mph heat, and ending the game by flailing and missing at an 88-mph slider.
So the stopper put a stop to the three-game slide, and Jason looks to have that power swing in gear. And rather than trading away a very good young center fielder or young arms for a veteran bullpen guy, Yankee GM Brian Cashman stood his ground and rearmed the pen from within. But it all matters little if the team doesn’t pick up and move on. Pettitte can stop the losing, but he can’t pitch every day. And it’s clear that neither will Chamberlain.
Exactly 200 years ago, an “enlightened” throng jeered at Robert Fulton and “Fulton’s Folly,” as he launched the Clermont, his first steamboat, from New York City. And much of this season, crowds of baseball fans have questioned one Cashman move after another. It seems clear that if the team resumes its winning ways following the great game turned in by the vets Pettitte and Giambi, and younger guys Phillips and Chamberlain, there won’t be many jeers regarding “Cashman’s Folly” in the months to come.
BTW,TYW
YANKEE BASEBALL!!!