Bronx, N.Y., June 28, 2006 — Wow! The Yanks went 12 innings to beat the Braves 4-3 in Wednesday’s game, and two to one in the three game series, finishing off their former playoff rivals on an Alex Rodriguez two-run, come-from-behind bomb to left field. Alex, who has had a forgettable June after a scintillating May, salvaged something from this season’s third month.
That this one was a pitcher’s duel was predicted; that they managed to play four uninterrupted hours with no rain was not. The game was played under almost pleasant, if steamy, skies, and John Smoltz and Chien-Ming Wang both brought their “A” games.
Wang featured his usual “grounded” game, coaxing bouncers, hoppers and rollers all afternoon with his 94-mph sinking fast ball, mixing in the occasional slider at roughly 10 mph less. After retiring the Braves on a strike out, grounder, and popup to start the game, he recorded his next 12 outs on groundballs, and 19 of 24 in his eight-inning day. The young righty hit 40 bats with his 60 strikes, and allowed two runs on seven hits through eight on just 91 throws. He threw 21 of 31 first-pitch strikes, and none of the 24 putouts while he was in there was posted by an outfielder.
Still, he was down much of the game, and left on the short end, due to the efforts of the superb John Smoltz, who mixed it up quite a bit more, posting strike outs, fly outs, ground outs, and popups and liners in roughly equal numbers. The Yanks threatened early on a Derek Jeter double to the right center field gap and the obligatory Jason Giambi walk. Though Smoltz escaped the first when A-Rod lined to center, the 23 pitches it took him were a weight he carried all game. The veteran righthander pounded 95 mph fastballs all day, produced ugly swings with a 78 mph curve, and threw in an occasional change of pace in the low 80s to keep Yankee batters honest.
As happens often when the pitchers are doing well, the defenses rose to the task several times. After the Braves took a fourth-inning lead on Edgar Renteria and Andruw Jones doubles, the Yanks threatened, but a two-out Andy Phillips liner with A-Rod on second was an “et ’em” ball snatched by second baseman Marcus Giles. The next time Phillips figured in a threat, the other side of Smoltz’s infield defense came through.
The Braves doubled the lead on sixth-inning, two-out singles by Chipper, then Andruw Jones, and catcher Brian McCann. But the Yanks halved that lead right away on Melky Cabrera and Jeter singles, and an Alex Rodriguez fielder’s choice grounder that Smoltz deftly deflected for a 1-6-3. The Yanks’ best chance came in the eighth inning when Phillips coasted into third when Andruw Jones tried and missed his liner to the gap leading off the home eighth. After a quick grounder, Jorge Posada batted for Kelly Stinnett, and fouled off three tough pitches with a 2-2 count and the infield in. He lined pitch no. eight hard past Smoltz’s right shoulder, but Edgar Renteria dove and speared the liner on a great, but deflating, play. After a walk to Johnny Damon, Smoltz struck out Melky Cabrera.
It has become almost a cliche that the biggest problem facing the Braves this year is that Smoltz can’t close his own games. That became immediately apparent Wednesday afternoon. John now had a lead through seven, but it cost him 110 pitches, and he was done. Righty Ken Ray came on for the eighth, retired Jeter on a hard liner to right, and surrendered a towering, tying Jason Giambi home run to right on the next pitch. Ray walked the next two, but Chad Paronto came on to strike out three straight and hold the Yanks at two through the ninth. Mariano Rivera pitched the ninth and 10th for the Yanks, and Kyle Farnsworth started the top of the 11th. He retired two, allowed a broken bat single over first, and Joe Torre removed him when a liner to third glanced off A-Rod’s glove for an error.
Scott Proctor closed the 11th, but he was reached for a homer to left by Marcus Giles with one down in the 12th. It had taken the depleted Yanks eight frames to score two, and they were held there through the 10th and 11th by Oscar Villareal, as Renteria continued to make the plays behind him, including a force at second on Phillips with one down in the 10th. When the Yanks came to bat in the 12th, the Atlanta shortstop made a fine run, grab, and throw on Jeter’s first-pitch bid for a single up the middle.
The Yanks continue to hold their own in the AL East, but their offense has been largely dormant. Revitalized starting pitching that has kept them close. A great Randy Johnson start copped them the first Braves game Monday, and Wang kept them in it today. It makes for exciting, tense games, but it can be a little tough on a franchise whose fans have been spoiled so many times in the past. The June 28, 1939, doubleheader against the A’s, for instance, was emblematic of why the team is called the Bombers. They blasted 13 home runs that day, scoring 33 runs to the A’s 2.
The frustration that low scoring games has produced is taken out on the players, and no one has suffered more for this than 2005 AL MVP and third baseman Alex Rodriguez. I try to keep it all in perspective. In my formative fan years, Jerry Kenney held down the hot corner in the Bronx for a full year while batting just .203, and just before the team’s current 11-year run of playoff baseball, one of their highest-paid free agents was Danny Tartabull. So although I can’t say that I would absolutely never boo a Yankee player, my “boo” threshold does not approach the performance 2006 Alex has produced.
Alex’s 11th-inning misplay notwithstanding, the Yanks played crisply this day too. First baseman Phillips made a fine stretch on a low Jeter throw in the third and he teamed with Jeets on a sparkler on Wilson Betemit’s hard bid for a base hit into the shortstop hole in the seventh. Jeter snagged the hard hopper that was actually already past him, and Phillips made a sweeping scoop on the off-balance one-bounce throw. Jeter also flagged an Andruw Jones eighth-inning liner on a quick, well-timed leap.
The game was quickly played, though things did bog down a bit as the teams got into one another’s respective pens. The field and fans were intermittently baked under a hot sun under still skies, then cooled on a right-to-left breeze and on-again, off-again cloud cover. The announced crowd of 54,000-plus filled the stands to their furthest extremities, but a sprinkling of blue seats revealed that some had heeded weather forecast warnings and did not risk the inconsistent skies and stayed home. And as the game stretched toward inning 12 and hour four, the blue seat count grew as some made for the exits.
I’ve always found that times like these present the best opportunities for fans to get foul ball mementoes, but that was the last thing from my mind as former Devil Rays hurler Jorge Sosa came on for the 12th-inning save. After Jeter bounced into the first out, Giambi took a ball and lifted a foul fly that carried over the third base dugout and into the seat just behind mine. I made a futile stretch, but the ball glanced off a fan’s hands and smacked my chair. As two boys leapt at my seat, I utilized a lesson I learned long ago, reaching under the chair and copping the trophy as they battled above the chair.
I resolved to keep the ball, a little put off by the boys’ aggressive behavior. I cheered Giambi onto a seven-pitch walk, and sensed a chance as Sosa fell behind Rodriguez 3-1. Alex came through, blasting a no-doubt-about-it 450-foot shot to the back of the visiting bullpen, and the Yanks had won, 4-3. The clutch long ball gave the Yanks a much-needed win, it gave Alex a much-needed moment of joy, and it sent those of us there home on a high note. Oh, and it (and I) gave young Nicholas, who moments before had just about bowled me over, a trophy I hope he never forgets, his first foul ball.
BTW,TYW
YANKEE BASEBALL!!!