Tampa, FL, March 7 — I can’t tell you at what point this season watching and rooting for Andy Pettitte in a game will lose the sense of nostalgia and thrill at having him back. At some point, I’m sure, it will morph into the more workmanlike (though thrilling) work of pulling for the team and the guy representing them on the mound, just because that is what I do. It hasn’t happened yet for sure, and let’s just say that it took a moment to recover from the sight of Chris Denorfia’s bat head hurtling toward number 46 in the first inning of tonight’s Reds/Yankee game in Legends Field.
It turned out that Andy was fine, and his three-inning outing was as well, fine though not exceptional. On the one hand, he allowed the Reds three hits and two walks. On the other, the nail-biting, second-inning escape from bases loaded, nobody out, was textbook, rock-solid Pettitte. That was the Reds’ great chance. The Yanks would waste theirs too, and in the same inning.
Alex Rodriguez led off with a hard double to the wall in right, the first of his two hits on a night where neither team generated much offense. He decided not to attempt the scoot to third on a potential short wild pitch on an 0-1 pitch to Hideki Matsui, but when the Yankee left fielder lined a sharp single to right on the next pitch, Alex tested Norris Hopper’s arm. The throw was strong though a bit up the first base line. Perhaps Alex didn’t cut the third base bag as well as he could have. It was a bang-bang play and Greg Gibson punched Rodriguez out. A-Rod would have scored easily either on Jorge Posada’s ensuing deep fly to right or Robbie Cano’s single, but the Yanks wasted an opportunity in an inning in which they stroked double, single, long fly, single.
In the next four frames, the home team mastered at torturing their fans. Melky Cabrera bounced into a first-pitch twin killing in the third after a Kevin Thompson one-base hit and before Derek Jeter’s single and a Jason Giambi hit by pitch. Robbie Cano lashed a 4-6-3 on the first toss after Posada’s fourth-inning single, Jeter and Giambi struck out following a walk and hit by pitch in the fifth, and it was Posada’s turn to hit into a dp after A-Rod’s single and a fielder’s choice in the sixth.
It was a particular shame too, because Darrell Rasner allowed but a single and a double while striking out two from the fifth through the seventh after Mariano Rivera had tossed a one-two-tree fourth, with a strike out. (Mo had done the same exact thing in the sixth inning of a 5-0 win over the Twins exactly one year ago, by the way.) Then Luis Vizcaino looked in June shape whiffing two straight to start the top of the eighth until Cinncy first baseman Joey Votto lifted the first pitch he saw high and deep over the wall in right for a 1-0 Reds lead.
The Yanks, meanwhile, had tired of teasing the fans and went down nine straight from A-Rod’s sixth-inning bingle through the eighth. But after Mike Myers and Jose Veras pitched a quiet top of the ninth, the Bombers responded with a quick, exhilarating tying score, then reverted to a rally that resulted in considerably less than it should have. Third baseman Chris Basak beat the Devil Rays with a home run days ago; he started things with a double down the left field line. After a Kevin Reese sacrifice, Monday hero Bronson Sardinha pulled a pinch-hit shot down first past a drawn-in infield for the tie, but fell down on the way to second, scampering back to first. Miguel Cairo swung through a hit and run pitch that erased Sardinha on a caught stealing before singling himself. Josh Phelps’s liner to left would have won it, but it cleared the fence for a grounds rule double. A walk and a 3-2 pitch extended the game before a called strike three against Brett Gardner, but all the 10th inning provided was a chance for old friend Bubba Crosby to make a diving catch of an Eric Duncan liner before the game was called as a 1-1 final after the one extra frame.
Speaking of Crosby’s catch, this was a day of remembrance, keyed at first by Andy Pettitte being on the mound. This was the day in 1998 that the Yanks signed Orlando “el duque” Hernandez. He made a fine return to the rotation, and even more is hoped for from Pettitte. Then, the worst-kept secret in the ballpark was that the guy in the red jacket behind Joe Torre and his coaches watching his Texas friend and recent teammate was none other than Roger Clemens, there to root on his amigo and fuel oh so many rumors. In addition, bullpen hero from the 1996 World-Series-winning Yankee team David Weathers pitched the Cincinnati sixth, and as anticipated from the moment we saw him warming pre-game, there at the end was Bubba, who was far longer on fan love and appreciation in New York than he is on offensive talent. It was sweet to see Derek Jeter and Crosby share a moment in center field 10 minutes before the 7:15 first pitch.
You can cite Murphy’s Law or give your own explanation. Of course, the ninth inning of the night game before the flight was the longest of the trip. But how to explain the huge crowd crammed into the hotel lobby as we edged through the throng toward the elevator after the game? Well, let me put it this way. I’m a Yankee fan, but catching Indians starter Fausto Carmona’s toss over the dugout in Winter Haven Tuesday was a genuine thrill. Similarly, as a lover of the game of baseball, standing two feet from Coach Roy Williams and the 2007 Tar Heels of North Carolina, in town for the college basketball ACC Tournament, as they filed into the elevators before us, was very very cool as well.
BTW,TYW
YANKEE BASEBALL!!!