Tampa, FL, February 29 — A few years back, the Houston Astros broke a long streak and lots of Yankee fan hearts when they strung together a no-hitter against the Bombers, the first no-hitter in major league history shared by six pitchers. Friday, six of the Yanks’ most promising new arms allowed one single among them, pitching to just 25 batters in eight innings of an 11-4 victory.
Granted, it was a Spring Training exhibition. Yes, it was the first day of live action; pitchers report first, it’s a truism that they have the early advantage over batters. Every baseball fan knows this result was meaningless. And the biggest “Yes” of all, the dominant pitching was delivered against a college team, the University of South Florida. We can’t know if the promising results carry any meaning going forward. But to a Yankee fanbase that knows the team has stacked all its marbles on young pitching, it could hardly have sent a better message.
The Big Three started things off. Joba Chamberlain and Ian Kennedy went two frames apiece, and Phil “Franchise” Hughes threw the fifth. The result: 15 of 16 retired, no walks, five strike outs, a soft but well placed single off Kennedy, all on just 59 throws. Chamberlain and Hughes were particularly good, dominant in their execution. Kennedy’s control was an issue; he fell behind 2-0 three times. But a fourth-inning single over second by South Florida right fielder Consolmagno was the only base runner.
Better still, the trio of Jeff Marquez, Alan Horne, and Chase Wright were perfect, throwing the seventh, eighth, and ninth inings, respectively. Marquez coaxed three straight weak grounders, and two of southpaw Wright’s victims batted right-handed. Horne, coming off recent injury, was inspired. He fires the ball shotput-like. The motion gives him some deception, making his pitches “sneaky-fast.” Though thrown with less velocity than some of his counterparts, his ball is on the batter before he can effectively react.
The Yankee offense was ready, but not as impressive, despite the nice scoreboard number. A-Rod delivered Jeter with a sac fly in the first once Derek reached on a hit by pitch. Four-run rallies in the second and fourth were fed by five walks and an error. The six at bats by Rodriguez and Abreu produced two hits, three walks, and a sac fly. Melky Cabrera went 2-for-2 with a sac fly, and Jorge Posada slugged a double, then a triple, coasting into third on the second due to a weird carom off the right field wall. And in for Abreu, outfielder Collin Curtis made a fine darting stab on a sinking liner in right field in the fourth.
But if the 11-run explosion was largely fed on college pitching, the well-pitched Yankee game became a sham too. This is because after the Big Three dominated through five, and before three more retired nine straight to finish it, the Japanese enigma Kei Igawa pitched a horrendous sixth. It was as if he created a portfolio from his least effective 2007 starts, and made his sales pitch using it. He struck out two in the frame after coaxing a fly to right to start matters. But he walked the second batter, wild pitched him to second as he walked the next, hit the fifth batter to load the bases after a strike out. Then pinch hitter Eric Baumann drove a 1-2 bp fastball over the wall in left, the local college fans went nuts, and the lead had shrunk to 9-4. Nothing earth-shattering, the game’s result did not matter. And the game was in hand. But the inning was the 2007 vestige I least wanted to see, except of course for the bug swarm in Cleveland.
I would not be the first to point out, by the way, that what happened in Cleveland in Game Two of the 2007 ALDS is the kind of stuff you usually see on the horror channel, not the baseball one. You could place the tape of that game into any of a list of pseudo-biblical flicks detailing the Dark Side. February 29, 2008, is not just Leap Day in a Leap Year. It’s also the 316th anniversary of the opening of the first Salem Witch Trials. With that kind of history permeating February’s extra day, perhaps the Yanks can get past Igawa’s disappointing rookie year, and his bad day. Maybe they can look past today’s implosion as a weird Leap Day glitch. Creepy yes, but something from which the hard-throwing lefty can recover.
Were Joe Girardi and his staff to take that stance, however, they’d be showing a lot more patience than this fan. I have a feeling I’m not alone.
BTW,TYW
YANKEE BASEBALL!!!