Bronx, N.Y., May 8, 2008 — Nature abhors a vacuum, or so I was told in science class a significant number of years ago. This thought popped up as I watched the Cleveland Indians not take batting practice about noon Thursday afternoon. The Stadium staff had it all set up for them, with green tarp stretched on the field around home plate, various screens propped up through the infield and outfield, and the big batting cage sitting empty as well.
It seemed a curious choice, and made even more so by the fact that the accoutrements remained set up but unused until 12:20. Did they not communicate their decision to take a pass to the groundskeepers? Was the field kept at the ready in case they changed their minds? But most of all, how could either of these struggling teams, with group batting averages hovering decidedly on the lower side of things, not take batting practice?
Speaking as a fan of this Yankee team that is missing two big offensive stars, I know from where I speak. This team has struggled so mightily for five weeks to assemble a competitive pitching rotation that only three among five starters had earned a victory until four days ago. But even with all the difficulty on the mound, the Yankees would still easily be in first place, or battling for it, but for a few well-timed hits. Chien-Ming Wang lost a game yesterday where his team scored no runs, and Andy Pettitte’s Tuesday win went down the drain because the visiting Indians pushed across a fourth (and fifth) run in the eighth inning.
This one got off as scheduled, with Mussina sneaking an 84-mph fastball past Grady Sizemore at 1:08. We were in for a close battle, we knew, when Paul Byrd threw a pitch of exactly the same speed to Johnny Damon to start the inning’s bottom half 11 minutes later. Sizemore reached Mussina for a single to right in his at bat, but he never budged from there, and Mike proceeded then to retire 12 straight through four innings.
The Yanks were going quietly too, with Hideki Matsui’s second inning single all the offense they put up through three. (That safety improved the Yankee DH’s hitting streak to 17 games.) But it all changed when Damon lifted a long fly 20 feet fair down the right field line leading off the home fourth. A single and a double play later Matsui singled yet again, and Jason Giambi, who had homered twice off Byrd in Cleveland a week and a half ago, lashed a first pitch that matched Damon’s in direction and arc, and perhaps bettered it in distance, for a 3-0 Yankee lead.
It was incumbent upon Mussina to hold Cleveland after the breakthrough, but he wasn’t able to. After getting ahead of left fielder Ben Francisco 0-2, he hit him with a soft pitch, and Franklin Gutierrez singled him to third. Ryan Garko gave Moose just what he needed on a popup to second, but third baseman Casey Blake doubled past a hard-runnng Bobby Abreu in right and cruised into third when Abreu’s throw went home. Curiously, Manager Joe Girardi opted against bringing his infield in close, a strategy decision with no real consequence when catcher Kelly Shoppach singled through the shortstop hole for the tying score. Cleveland bats slumbered early, and would again late, but they rallied well in the fifth. After having used 46 throws to retire 12 straight, the Indians made Mussina work, and he threw 35 in the top of the fifth.
Struggling Yankee second baseman Robbie Cano had lined deep to center leading off the third inning; now he doubled off Garko’s glove at first base to start the home fifth. Wilson Betemit’s deep liner to left center moved Robbie to third, and the Cleveland infield played in. This move worked, at least for one out, when Jose Molina bounced to short. But Damon flared a double down the left field line and the Yanks led 4-3.
With the one-run lead and the taxing frame behind him, Mussina gave way to Ross Ohlendorf, and if the Indians had honed into the mid-eighties heat, Ohlendorf had a surprise for them. Moose had garnered seven ground ball outs and three strike outs with his middling fastball and an assortment of cutters, changes, and a very slow curve. His 58/28 strikes/balls ratio was very good, and he threw 15 first-pitch strikes to 20 batters.
Ohlendorf’s four-seamer, on the other hand, upped the ante by eight to 10 miles per hour, and the Tribe batters failed to make the leap. The Yankee outfield got into the defensive mix, settling under lazy flies struck by bats unable to catch up. Young Ohlendorf retired six of seven through two frames with four fly balls, a popup, and a strike out.
Getting right back on the horse that threw him, Joba Chamberlain warmed during the Yankee seventh, and Cano doubled the lead and sent Byrd to the showers with a rising liner over the wall in right. Masahide Kobayoshi missed with two straight to Betemit, then Wilson homered to dead center to forge what would be the final 6-3 score.
A resurgent Chamberlain took the mound in the eighth. The curve ball from Tuesday night was nowhere to be found, as were the head shakes at the signs Molina gave him. Pounding mostly heat, he got a groundout to short and a fly to right. Dave Dellucci followed, but not only did he fail to drive the ball, he missed it entirely, striking out on a 1-2, 86-mph slider. Mariano Rivera pitched around a one-out double and this one was over in a cool (warm, actually) 2:33.
The Indians had just seven hits, as did the Yanks, but the Bombers cleared four fences for all but one of their runs. The sight of Alex Rodriguez working out pre-game on the outfield grass was encouraging. But not as encouraging as the at bats of the “lost sheep” of the Yankee order. Starting the day hitting in the .150’s, Cano drilled three vicious line drives, two for hits, and he scored twice and knocked in one. Damon has been in the middle of a mini-renaissance in the Yankee order for a week. He matched Cano with a homer, double, a run scored and two rbi’s. Giambi homered off Byrd, and his long, sixth-inning liner to dead center was the fourth ball he’s hit hard that way in the last few games.
But if the Yankee line up is working itself into shape, with a star on track to return next week, the starting catcher won’t be back for weeks, a young stud pitcher may be gone until August, and failed 2007 starter Kei Igawa will be making a start in Detroit tomorrow. Darrell Rasner follows, and though he pitched well vs. the Mariners on Sunday, the Tigers represent more of a threat. But it doesn’t matter. If the holes in the lineup are coming around, I’m OK. Mad Magazine had its debut 56 years ago this day. You can put me and Alfred E. Neuman on the same philosophical page: “What, Me Worry?”
It turned out to be quite a passable day, though rarely sunny. The game-time temp hovered at a warm 74 degrees, almost steamy coupled with the 57 percent humidity. Threatening skies at first pitch morphed to sprinkles in the third and a misty rain in the fourth, but the ponchos and umbrellas that shot up were shelved in a bit and it rained no more. Indians fans were much in evidence, but even with two wins in two tries, they were respectful visitors, and good fans. It was easy to feel on edge with the red lettering and other crimson effects on their ballclub-inspired clothing, but it soon became clear that most were in New York to see their team play, yes, but more so to catch the grand old stadium before she is gone.
So in the early innings with the offenses sputtering, some among them expressed surprise with how down fans were on Jason Giambi, for instance, while speaking in clipped, annoyed phrases about Cleveland DH Travis Hafner’s two-year (now) slump. Trades featuring those two were offered up and ridiculed. And that’s not all. A Yankee in the back seat of a Section 12 Tier box, spying an Indians fan amid a group of five taking pictures during a brief spot of sun, laughed and snickered, “That’s a pink camera!” Blushing, the Tribe fan chuckled, “Hey, my daughter has a better camera than mine.”
Following a short pause, nods of agreement made the rounds, and the Yankee fan replied, “Heck, it’s not pink anyway.”
“More of a mauve.”
BTW,TYW
YANKEE BASEBALL!!!