Bronx, N.Y., July 24, 2003 — It’s always hard to take a clear view at a homestand without seeing it all through the prism of the last game. In this case, the last contest was a stinker and, although Sterling Hitchcock may finally have pitched himself off the team with a very good outing, it would be difficult to find much more positive that came from it.
We didn’t know it in the stands, but this one was over early. Orioles starter Sidney Ponson was dominating, and the Yankees failed to take advantage the few times he lost his footing. Roger Clemens came out looking good, getting the first two table setters in the Orioles’ lineup out on ground balls, and not hard-hit ones. But Melvin Mora, not your typical number three hitter, tried to bunt his way on on the 1-0 pitch, and Clemens hit him with his next delivery. Perhaps Roger was making a bold statement. If so, it was one he failed to back up, as Jeff Conine blasted the next pitch 399-plus feet from the plate, and the Yankees were down, 2-0, before much of another impressive crowd had even found their seats.
Although right fielder Jay Gibbons finished the inning by lining hard and deep to center, Roger seemed to have settled himself when he whiffed Tony Battista on the 3-2 pitch to lead off the second. He made Surhoff look bad too, at least for four pitches. B.J. took strike one and strike two, but Roger couldn’t finish him off. A foul ball followed, then another. But with Surhoff still behind, 0-2, Clemens caught way too much of the plate, and the Oriole DH lined one into the short porch in right for a 3-0 lead.
The Yankees, meanwhile, came out swinging. Soriano lined Ponson’s first offering down the third base line, but Battista made a fine grab. Then Jeter immediately sent center fielder Matos to the warning track to haul in his drive on the next pitch. Two batters in, the O’s had managed meek grounders, while here we had a hard liner and a bomb with too much air under it, and hopes were high despite the early deficit.
Obviously convinced that Roger had intentionally hit Mora, Ponson had the perfect opportunity against Giambi with two outs after the Soriano and Jeter drives, and he took it, by hitting Jason on the 1-0 pitch. Home plate ump Wegner warned both benches, and the game went on. Unfortunately, on Thursday we would get the Bernie Williams who has been struggling to find his stroke after the DL stint, and not the guy who went 2 for 4 Wednesday night with two flies to the wall. The crescendo of the Bronx crowd grew as Ponson threw Bernie Ball One and Ball Two with Jason on first, but Bernie bounced the 2-0 pitch softly to third.
Clemens pitched around a one-out double to Conine in the third, but the Yankee bats remained quiet. Matsui lined hard to center leading off the second, but Posada and Ventura went meekly, and Ponson got through the first two frames on a mere 13 pitches. Then Sierra and Mondesi started the third with back-to-back two-pitch 4-3’s and the crowd began to mutter. Soriano finally got the first hit, as he lined hard to left with two outs, and Jeter and Giambi each walked on five pitches to fill the bases.
As the crowd cheered lustily, I thought back to a day game in July of 2000 (July 6, it turns out) where the Yanks clawed back from a a 7-0 deficit to Ponson on the strength of an eight-run second inning highlighted by Sidney walking four consecutive batters. But on this afternoon in the Bronx, Ponson got the call from Wegner for 0-1 against the still struggling Williams, and got Bernie to foul off the next two. He then accepted a meek bouncer back to the box to close the frame without having given up a run. It was a missed opportunity that would haunt us the rest of the game.
Surhoff and Deivi Cruz lined singles to left to start the fourth, and Fordyce bunted them up on his second try. Leadoff batter Brian Roberts garnered four singles on the day, but none hurt more than the one that followed. Torre sensed that 3-0 down was a big enough deficit already after we had failed to capitalize on Ponson’s wildness in the last half inning, and therefore had the infield play in. The right call perhaps, but Roberts’s seeing eye grounder got past Giambi, and the score was 5-0.
Ponson, meanwhile, recovered completely from his bout of wildness in the third to send the next six batters down despite Ventura’s long drive to center, and he entered the sixth still up, 5-0, after having thrown only 52 pitches through five. He had worked through the Yankee order the first time with only four first-pitch strikes, but he was dealing now, and threw eight of nine the second time through.
But then the Yanks came to life, as Jeter led off the sixth with a hard single up the middle and Giambi walked. Bernie (0 for 4, softly) failed again, lining softly to short, but Matsui singled in Jeter and we were on the board. Posada lined hard to right, an “at em” ball, but Roberts couldn’t handle Ventura’s hard one-hopper, and we were down, 5-2, when Giambi crossed the plate. DH Ruben Sierra, however, failed to figure Ponson out too, and he bounced to the box to close out the home team’s best inning of the day.
Roger Clemens did not return to the mound after the five runs allowed through four, and lefty Sterling Hitchcock took over and did his job and more, by holding the O’s right there. He surrendered three hits through the next three and two thirds, but gave up no walks (or runs) and notched five strike outs (Clemens only had three).
The two-run Yankee sixth had cost Ponson 25 pitches, but they failed to follow up on it, just as they had after loading the bases in the third. In fact, Ponson did not allow a ball to leave the infield until Ventura singled with one out in the ninth, and he retired six in a row in the seventh and eighth on only 23 more pitches. Mondesi managed to double Ventura in with two outs in the ninth, and force Baltimore manager Hargrove to bring in Julio to close it, but Soriano, up as the tying run, popped high behind the plate and the game and the homestand were over.
It was the second loss of the scheduled eight-game stand. We played 5-2 ball with a rainout, but we started 4-0, and finished 1-2. It would have been easy to have unrealistic expectations about the team after we went 4-0 over the struggling Indians, but the disturbing impression one might have gleaned from the quiet offense in the last three vs. Hendriksen, Helling and Ponson could easily be overblown too. We lost, 5-3, today, while the rival Red Sox lost, 15-9. Altough they were both losses, the scores were vastly different, as were the games. Ponson shut us down, while the Rays slapped the Red Sox around. As in the four-gamer the teams split before the break, the big scores favor the Sox, the low ones the Yankees.
Against the Indians, the Yanks trotted out the four guys who would start games in the playoffs, should they start today. Among them, they averaged only 94 pitches over 6.7 innings. The mean was seven hits allowed, with one walk and seven strike outs. The first pitch strike ratio was exactly two to one (72-36), and the strikes-to-balls ratio was just over two to one, at 254 to 125.
The seven games uplifted a lot of spirits, but raised a lot of concerns. One question, however, has been answered. This Yankee team is exciting more fan interest, fans from more walks of life, and from more places, than ever before. And I offer my experience during this homestand as a microcosm of that very phenomenon. Today’s crowd was announced as 49,649, and many were there as the partly cloudy weather treated us well all day. It’s no secret, however, that the number given is ticket sales, and that many of them did not make their way to the Bronx. But it was a big group anyway.
The Yankee experience is a hit, however, and the crowds they attracted throughout the homestand were astounding, really. Starting with the 46,401 last Thursday night, they averaged almost 49,000 over the games, without a real playoff contender among the opposition. I attended Thursday’s game with my better half, and the Friday game with the rain delay on my own. For Saturday’s Old Timers Game, I welcomed many friends, both new and old, and sat with a crowd that included one fan from Poland and two from England. Sunday I hosted my niece and her husband, who hails from Guatemala. And today I took my place in Box 622 with two second cousins from Northern Ireland and two of their friends.
My favorite name for the Stadium is the Baseball Cathedral. Many favor The Home Office for Baseball or the House That Ruth Built. Looking around at the Thursday afternoon crowd, I have another:
We Are the World
YANKEE BASEBALL!!!