Daily Archives: June 18, 2009

How embarraskin’.

The Nationals arrived in the Bronx having won just 16 games all season, in large part because they were allowing 5.81 runs per game. Over the past two nights, the Nats increased their win total by 12.5 percent by holding the Yankees to a total of two runs over two games. That the Yankees and their fans had to wait through a nearly five-and-a-half-hour rain delay for the capper on that embarrassment only made it all the more painful.

Despite switching catchers, Joba Chamberlain wasn’t sharp again last night, but he wasn’t awful. Despite four walks, he escaped with a quality start (6 IP, 3 R) and six Ks. Alfredo Aceves, Phil Coke, and David Robertson each added a scoreless inning. Unfortunately the offense failed to show up.

Perhaps showing their frustration from the long delay, the Yankees came up hacking against rookie righty Craig Stammen. Stammen needed just 82 pitches to get into the seventh inning, didn’t issue a single walk, and just one of the six hits he allowed went for extra bases, that being the last he allowed, a double by Nick Swisher with one out in the seventh. Swisher’s double also gave the Yankees two men on base at the same time for the first time in the game as it followed a Robinson Cano single and drove Stammen from the game.

Manny Acta brought in ex-Yank Ron Villone to face Hideki Matsui with one out and two men in scoring position. Needing only a productive out to get the Yankees on the board, Matsui struck out. Joe Girardi sent Jorge Posada up to hit for Francisco Cervelli; Villone stayed away from Jorge and walked him on five pitches. Girardi then sent up Derek Jeter, who hadn’t played since the opening game of the series, to hit for Ramiro Peña. Acta countered with Julian Tavarez. On the 1-1 pitch to Jeter, Tavarez pulled a full Luis Tiant, turning his back on Jeter in his delivery. Jeter was badly fooled on the ensuing pitch, but managed to foul it and the next one off before grounding to short to end the inning.

If there was a turning point in the game, that was it. The Yanks got the leadoff man on in the eighth and ninth, but failed to advance him either time, going down meekly by a final score of 3-0.

Blame the offense. The pitching and defense did their jobs, even if Chamberlain’s outing wasn’t pretty. The organization also came through for the fans who stuck out the third-longest rain delay in major league history by opening up the rattle-your-jewelry seats to those who remained in the park after the top of the first and giving all ticket holders a rain check for another game later this season or next. Good on them for that. Waiting five and a half hours to see the home nine get shut out by a historically bad team has to rank among the worst fan experiences of all time.

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The Yankees are going to try to get today’s game in despite the rain. I don’t much like their chances, but just in case, here’s a quick look at the pitching matchup.

The Nats are starting Craig Stammen, a 25-year-old rookie righty out of the University of Dayton. He’s nothing special. Though he posted a 1.80 ERA across seven triple-A starts before being called up a few weeks ago, he was doing it with a 3.2 K/9. He’s made five major league starts since and has yet to turn in a quility start (though he’s not had any real disasters either, lasting a minimum of five innings each time and never allowing more than five runs). His best outing was his last, 5 1/3 innings, 3 runs (2 earned) and a whopping five strikeouts against Tampa Bay.

The Yankees counter with Joba Chamberlain, who has been frustratingly inconsistent since leaving his May 21 start after being hit with a comebacker. Joba walked four and lasted just four innings his next time out, then dominated the Indians over eight innings the turn after that. He followed that with a quality start against the Rays, but his last time out he again lasted just four innings and walked five Mets while struggling to get in rhythm and in synch with Jorge Posada.

Chamberlain will throw to Francisco Cervelli if they play today. That’s a day-game-after-night-game thing, and also a protect-the-fragile-veteran-in-bad-weather thing, but given the meme about Posada’s game calling and Cervelli’s success with A.J. Burnett the last time out, it will only feed the fire if Joba has a good game this afternoon. Of course, the flip side to that is a series loss to the historically awful Nationals. Sometimes you just can’t win.

Speaking of protecting fragile veterans, Derek Jeter (ankle) will sit again in favor of Ramiro Peña at shortstop. Brett Gardner gets the draw in center and leads off in Jeter’s place.

Rain all day. Game isn’t called…yet. Hard to imagine they’ll get this one in.

I never went to a game with Todd Drew. But I can imagine what it would have been like–focused, alert, serious. Todd’s wife Marsha has filled me in on what the experience was like. They’ve been season ticket holders since 2003. In that time, Todd never missed a pitch. He went to the bathroom once before the game and once when it was over. And he kept score. Of course.

Last night I sat in Todd’s seat, a seat he will never see (for those who don’t know, Todd Drew was a contribuor at Bronx Banter who tragically died earlier this year; you can find a collection of his writing on the sidebar). It is located high above home plate, an ideal bird’s-eye view of the field. Fitting, I thought, for Todd to be presiding over the season like this. I could imagine Todd’s kind face, big in the sky like a Bill Gallo drawing.

Diane joined me and there was a good crowd around us. In the fourth inning, one of my dear friends, Johnny Red Sox, came up to me. He just happened to be sitting in the row ahead of us–what are the odds? In Todd’s seats, not so great.

Chien-Ming Wang and John Lannan were a contrast in styles. Wang was deliberate, soporific, while Lannan worked so quickly that he reminded me of the old Billy Crystal routine, where he mimicked ballplayers from the 1920s having a catch. Wang was up against it; if he could not handle the worst team in baseball surely he would not get another start. He wasn’t great but was certainly improved. Adam Dunn launched a solo home run against him in the third, and then Wang was done in by some misfortune in the fourth.

Ramiro Pena, playing for Derek Jeter, dropped a throw from Jorge Posada on a steal. Then, the first base umpire blew a call at first base. We could tell that he missed it from where we were sitting. The jumbotron did not show a replay, but moments later we heard waves of outrage from the areas in the park that did have access to a TV replay. As this was happening, a drunk kid caused a ruckus in the row behind us. Security was called and the dude left without an incident–just some disoriented, angry words. Before it was over, Nick Johnson hit a sinking line drive to left. Melky Cabrera raced in, dove, missed the ball and two runs scored.

Lannan threw strikes and got outs and the game zipped along. Robinson Cano hit a Yankee Stadium homer to break up Lannan’s no-hitter in the fifth, and in the ninth, Johnny Damon added a chippy of his own. With out one, Mark Teixeira singled to left. Brett Gardner replaced him as a pinch-runner and Alex Rodriguez, 0-3 to that point, came to the plate.

I hadn’t thought about Todd for most of the game but now he was present. Todd loved rooting for Rodriguez even more than I do, and I clapped more forcefully, hoping that Rodriguez would deliver. Mike MacDougal came in for Lannan and threw to first three times before Gardner stole second and then third. Rodriguez walked when he checked his swing on a full-count pitch.

First and third, Yanks down by a run, one out in the ninth. They were going to win. Robinson Cano fouled off the first two pitches he saw, took two balls, and then fouled off five or six more. He put good swings on the ball. The crowd was loud, only pausing to hold their breath as each pitch was delivered. I looked around our section at the friends we had made–clapping, rocking in their seats, clutching their hats, gasping at each foul ball–and realized that the meaning of Todd, and of the game, isn’t the outcome.

It is being there.

I felt humbled. Todd will never sit in his seats but he is there with us. The Yankees may not know it, but this is Todd’s season. (And there were plenty of moments to appreciate–two strong innings of relief from Phil Hughes and fine fielding plays by Rodriguez and Cano, and the customary brilliance of Teixeira.) I soaked in the last ten minutes of the game–that’s about how long the Rodriguez and Cano at bats took. My hands hurt from clapping and my heart raced. The excitement rattle through me and wished that I could bottle the sensation. I think it was Carlton Fisk who reflected that the 1978 playoff game between the Yankees and Red Sox should have been suspended when Yaz came to bat. It was a perfect moment, both teams were winners–baseball nirvana.

Last night was a June game pitting one of the best teams in baseball against the worst.  Of course I was disappointed when Cano hit into a 6-4-3 double play to end it, but I felt, for those precious moments in the ninth, in touch with why we watch every night, why were are moved, and crazed and driven, and why in the end, baseball matters.

Final Score: ‘Nats 3, Yanks 2.