Clearwater, FL., March 3 — The 11-10 barnburner of a ballgame the Yanks lost to the Phillies in their spring home opener in Clearwater Friday afternoon had something of everything except for good, crisp play. This may not explain why it was very entertaining but it rarely got boring. At three hours, 20 minutes it eclipsed the running time of Thursday afternoon’s loss by the better part of an hour. The game exploded early on the Yanks, and the man who detonated the charges was Phils first baseman Ryan Howard.

Jaret Wright pitched an acceptable two frames to start it, allowing one run on four singles, three of them ground balls that found holes. But he established an early pattern allowing two safeties a frame, one that would continue and keep the Phillies on the verge of scoring virtually all game. With as many Yankee starting position players off to the WBC as played this game in Clearwater, the Bombers and everyone in Brighthouse Networks Field knew that most of ex-Bomber Jon Lieber’s pitches would find bats. The visitors appeared to have decided to attack early with their running game, a plan that backfired. Although Lieber allowed leadoff singles in both the first and second innings, he faced just six batters and got six outs on 15 pitches. The veteran righty used just seven more throws to garner two outs in the third and an 0-1 count to shortstop Felix Escalona, when things went awry after he hit Escalona with a pitch. Kevin Thompson (3-for-3 with a walk) singled up the middle, Robbie Cano delivered Escalona with a double to left and the Yanks took a short-lived 2-1 lead when Jimmy Rollins made the first of five Philly errors (only three were charged) by throwing Andy Phillips’s bouncer wildly to first.

Jorge DePaula, who caused quite a bit of excitement a few years back with a near no-hitter, followed by multiple arm surgeries, took the mound for the third. The good news is that he raced to an 0-2 count on four of the first five batters he faced. But he had no out pitch, and walked Pat Burrell to start the frame. A lefty batter with a huge frame, first baseman Ryan Howard gets to start this year with Jim Thome traded to the White Sox. He followed by taking a strike, flailing wildly for strike two, and just barely tipping another backup slider. Then Howard wasted two more pitches before blasting a two-run bomb to right center that just barely caught the back wall atop a berm behind the home run wall below. When center fielder Aaron Rowand, who came to Philly in the Thome trade, homered to left on a 1-2 bp fastball, the Phils led 4-2 before DePaula settled down and survived his only inning on 34 tosses.

Yankee lefthander Ron Villone came on strong in the fourth before allowing a two-out single and walk, and Howard strode to the plate yet again. At this moment, I noticed ominously that a car dealer promotion over the right field wall in Clearwater to the left of the 330 mark down the line announces that their lot is 750 feet away. Villone got a swinging strike high and tight and went 0-2 with a foul back. But the next fastball was neither high nor tight enough, and Howard sent a moonshot that easily more than halved the distance to the dealer; with any kind of bounce, they’ll be displaying that ball in their window tomorrow. Ron Guidry removed the shellshocked Villone in favor of nonroster invitee Scott Erickson, who pitched well. The Yanks added two singles to three walks and the third Philly error to close to 7-5 in the fifth. But Erickson put two on around two K’s and Robby Cano made the only Yankee error in the first two games to load the sacks in the home half, and Peter Bergeron singled to stetch the lead to 9-5.

But with all their starters but center fielder Melky Cabrera and DH Andy Phillips gone from the game by the top of the seventh, the baby Bombers rallied for three more. Cabrera, 4-for-5 with two rbi’s and two runs scored, singled behind a walk, and two more singles closed the game to 9-8. Philly scratched a run off Ramiro Mendoza and the Yanks were down 10-8 entering the eighth. Mitch Jones replaced Thompson in left and added two safeties to bring the Yankee leadoff position to five hits with a walk. He led off the eighth with a double, and third base coach Larry Bowa’s decision to hold him at third on Phillips’s one-out single to left was probably the right one, except if you take into account the Phillies’ consistently shabby play. Russ Johnson walked to load the bases with the Yanks down two and just one out. But righty Brian Sanches jumped to an 0-2 count on young catcher Will Nieves, and he bounced a 1-2 pitch into a 5-4-3 to preserve the Philly lead as the many Yankee fans in attendance groaned.

It was an even hotter day Friday, and a capacity crowd cooked in 77-degree temps and bright sunshine. With the throng almost evenly mixed in their allegiance and so many Floridians having some New York experience in their pasts, the barrage of hits and runs kept most into the game and pulling for their teams. We were perched in the second row in short right just beyond the rolled-up field tarp. One or two grumbled that our view was blocked from time to time by the first base coach and the ump manning that bag on the one hand, but nobody complained when attractive Hooters brunette Rachel took her place as ballgirl. Men of all ages peppered her with jokes and offers to protect her from fouls, but the only one to get to “first base,” so to speak, was a wise 10-year-old who brought her a ball and asked for her autograph. Interestingly, aside from a Howard liner prior to his first home run, no balls screamed our way, and all was sweetness and light and camaraderie except on a Cabrera foul fly 10 rows deep 20 or so seats to our left in the fourth. A fan reached to the sky with both hands outstretched and his eyes squinted in the sun, and the ball split his attempted grab and caromed 40 feet away off the top of his forehead. This “lucky fan” (Bob Eucker in “Major League”) was escorted wobbly from his seat with a towel held tightly to his head.

The Yanks did not give up after their eighth-inning try fell short. Earlier we referred to a “pattern” by the Yankee mound men. Picking up where starter Wright left off, Yankee hurlers allowed exactly two hits in every inning through the seventh, except the sixth when Mendoza held the Phils to one. The Yanks notched six K’s on the day (as did the Phils), and Erickson and Mendoza accounted for all six with three apiece. But unheralded righty Matt Childers replaced Ramiro with the sacks filled and one down in the seventh, and he did what no other pitcher did all day: He retired the next five Phillies on just eight pitches. This got the game to the ninth, and ex-Yank Tom Gordon came on to close it out. The loudspeakers greeted his arrival with “Superfly” rather than the “Flash” we were accustomed to in New York. Perhaps they need a new song, but Tom struggled mightily. Cabrera doubled to left, and Phillies right fielder Shane Victorino saved the game (to more Yankee fan groans) with a sprawling grab of a Kevin Howard liner. Chris Prieto delivered Cabrera with a sac fly to center, Kevin Reese walked, and Mitch Jones singled him to second. Yankee third base prospect Eric Duncan, shifted to first last year after the Alex Rodriguez trade, bounced into a twin killing Thursday with the game on the line, but this time the “rook” came through, tying the marathon 10-10 with a single up the middle. Fans on both sides held their breath as Andy Phillips ended the top of the ninth with a warning track blast to straightaway center.

But a Yankee win was not to be. Young lefty Frank Brooks allowed a Matt Kata single to start things, the Phils sacrificed and Shawn Garrett was intentionally passed. Brooks got a fly to center for two outs, but when nonroster invitee Chris Coste singled for the Phils win, the home team got their seventh rbi from the cleanup position on the day. The Yanks allowed two hits in one more inning and it cost them the game. It’s hard to sum up a game like that. The Phils have homered the Yanks into submission two days running, and Ryan Howard added two singles to his two dingers and five rbi’s. The only Yankee pitcher who showed nothing was DePaula, and it was a bit disturbing to see him staring at our Hooters girl as he did his wind sprints in right field not five minutes after being shelled. The Yanks played crisply in the field, a claim Philly can not make, and Jason Giambi made another fine play early on a diving stab of Bergeron’s hard hopper into the hole. Giambi also smoked a one-hopper off the right field wall that inning, but was removed on a failed hit and run as Kelly Stinnett made a painfully inept try at a Lieber slider off the plate. The Yanks outhit the Phils 16-15, and scrambled to catch up after the Howard bombs all day. And one more weird number on a strange and not very pretty game: Each staff threw 168 pitches apiece.

YANKEE BASEBALL!!!