Believing?

Well, um, would you believe that rain spoiled and then perhaps saved the Yankees tonight? We don’t know the outcome of Thursday night’s game between the Yankees and the Orioles because it was suspended with two out in the top of the eighth and won’t be continued until the Yankees are in town again, which is at the end of July. The game was delayed just after the O’s took a two run lead in the seventh. Then, it was called for a second time immediately after Derek Jeter singled home two runs off Chris Ray in the eighth, giving the Yankees an 8-6 lead. Melvin Mora berated the umpires for not stopping the game sooner. According to the AP:

Before Jeter stepped to the plate, Mora pleaded with third base umpire Tim Tschida to stop the game.

“I just asked him, ‘You don’t think it’s too wet?’ He started yelling at me and cursed,” Mora said. “I said, ‘This is worse than when you stopped the game when we was winning. Why you don’t stop it now? I can’t even see the ball.’

“He just tried to make Jeter hit so they can score one run so they can get out of here. That’s what I think,” said Mora, who was ejected from the game.

So the Yankees end one of the worst road trips in recent memory with an incomplete (just for the night, not for the trip). They didn’t actually win a game, but they at least they were leading when it ended.

Chien Ming Wang didn’t have dominant stuff but he pitched efficiently for the first six innings. Alex Rodriguez made a fine, one-handed play on a bunt attempt by Melvin Mora early in the game. Several innings later, Brian Roberts robbed Derek Jeter of a hit by backhanding a ball hit up the middle and then turning and making a great throw as his body was falling away to left field.

The Yankees couldn’t come up with a big hit, but they were driving in runs with outs and working deep counts on Daniel Cabrera, who was characteristically wild. Rodriguez had a chance to break the game open in the sixth. He came up with the bases loaded and one out and was sitting on a 3-1 count but grounded into a 6-4-3 double play.

Wang then quickly gave up a 4-2 lead as Baltimore scored four runs in bottom of the seventh. I couldn’t believe the Yankes were going to blow another game. You have got to be kidding me. And it all came apart on Wang so suddenly. But I give the team credit for how they came back in the eighth. Jeter’s two-out hit is something he’s done so often over the course of his career, it’s almost easy to take for granted. But even though it didn’t secure a win tonight, I’m sure Jeter and the rest of the Yankees are appreciating it plenty.

This has turned out to be a strange season hasn’t it?