Tampa, FL., March 5 — It changed on Kevin Millwood’s 20th pitch. Not that it was a bad day before then. The weather was a gorgeous, hot-and-sunny kind of afternoon New York area Yankee fans have been dreaming about through a long, cold, brutal winter.
Legends Field was decked out and festive, with three skydivers from nearby MacDill AFB landing in short left field before the game. And an F-15 flyover after the National Anthem had the overflow crowd in the mood for something great. The pregame introductions were as impressive as always, with the likes of Doc Gooden, Tommy John, Willie Randolph, Luis Sojo, Mickey Rivers, Roy White, Gene Michael, Ron Guidry, Bucky Dent, Mel Stottlemyre, Reggie Jackson, Don Mattingly, and Paul O’Neill taking their bows, before immortals Whitey Ford and Yogi Berra collaborated on the ceremonial first pitch.
Kevin Brown took the mound and got a call strike on Doug Glanville on the belated 1:15 pm first pitch, and then the Philly centerfielder provided the first dramatics, forcing newly relocated third baseman Alex Rodriguez to take a step or two back and to his right on a hopper down the line. Forced to make a deep throw from his heels, Alex nailed the speedy Glanville and passed his first test.
Brown continued throwing strikes, but Rollins singled over second and rightfielder Michaels bounced a ball sharply past Rodriguez and through into left field. Matsui, showing mid-season form, corraled the ball and his two-bounce peg was in A-rod’s glove at third when Rollins slid in. Burrell bounced to Jeter (who threw a high but manageable peg to Giambi) to close out the first, but then Lieberthal and Utley each stroked 0-1 singles to right leading off the following frame. Giambi knocked down Tomas Perez’s hot shot and nonroster first baseman Jim Rushford came to the plate with runners on second and third with one out. He lifted Brown’s first pitch to medium right and Sheffield, showing no temerity after a throwing error Thursday, pegged the lumbering Philly DH out at the plate with room to spare.
The Yankees, meanwhile, managed four groundouts and two whiffs on 19 pitches through two, and Kevin Millwood looked to be picking up where Padilla and Milton left off the day before. But neither Jorge Posada nor Ruben Sierra had a part in that fiasco, and they were about to take over. The Yankee catcher took the Philly righty’s 20th pitch to right for a single and Sierra battled him to a 2-1 count, fouled two back, and the only question remaining when he drilled the next pitch to left center was whether or not it would clear the left center field fence.
The homer ended Millwood’s day, or should have. Enrique Wilson was out on a hard liner to first, Lofton walked on four pitches, Jeter singled to left on an 0-2 pitch, and Rodriguez showed maturity and patience in taking a 3-2 pitch to fill the bases. Young Philadelphia lefty Victor Alvarez relieved and followed a foul strike and a ball to Giambi by coaxing a half swing. When the third base ump ruled no swing, Jason brought the crowd to their feet by lashing a no-doubt-about-it bomb to the right of the batter’s eye in center, and the Yanks’ lead ballooned to 6-0.
The rest is bookkeeping really, although it needs to be said that Donovan Osborne was a pleasant surprise. After allowing a booming ground rule double to young catcher Jeremy Salazar on the first pitch of the third inning, he mesmerized the Phillies batters with an effective slider and a devastating change, and gradually unleashed a fast ball that must have looked very quick after the soft stuff. Scott Proctor, picked up from L.A. with outfielder Bubba Crosby (who picked up a single later in the contest) for Robin Ventura, threw hard despite allowing a two-run jack in the sixth.
The game’s final score was forged when Felix Heredia followed two quick groundouts in the seventh by throwing nine straight out of the zone and then allowing Mark Smith a three-run bomb. But the Yanks would repay an old debt to former Expo Smith. Mariano Rivera was victimized by a bad call on a ball that should have been ruled foul but which was called a 10th-inning home run, stroked by Smith in the Stadium in an interleague game in 2001. The Yanks were so incensed by the bad call that they extended a painted yellow line from the bottom of the left field pole in response. I wonder if Mariano remembered that game when he blew Smith away on a weak hack to end today’s game.
Alan Clark, keyboardist of the band Dire Straits, was born on March 5 in 1952. This day’s final score was 7-5 because the 2-for-2 Jorge Posada launched an opposite field home run leading off the fourth inning. The formula for success this day, and one expects for many days in the upcoming 2004 season, was that the Yanks could have been described by the title of one of that bands biggest hits. Today the Yanks were The Sultans of Swing.
BTW,TYW
YANKEE BASEBALL!!!