LOS ANGELES – Sometimes I wonder if you cannot be surprised and yet be surprised all at the same time.
I watch almost every Yankee game and I can usually get a feel whether they going to win or lose at certain points. Watch enough of these games, and you know after a while.
So as last night played out, count me in among those who was ready to write off this Sunday night nationally televised game to Joe Torre and his Dodgers and head back home on the redeye back to New York and resume play on Tuesday.
It would have been all so easy to do that.
It has long been said, and I have said it myself that the toughest three outs to get in baseball are the outs when you are trying to close out the New York Yankees in the ninth inning.
However, as they once again showed us last night, until you get that final out, that 27th out, the game is never over.
In a city renowned for its glitz, glamour, celebrity, movies and Hollywood, it was the Yankees, four runs down, staging a dramatic film of their own, scripting one of their greatest comebacks in recent memory to beat the Dodgers 8-6 in 10 innings at Dodger Stadium.
With most teams, trailing by four runs in the ninth with two outs remaining is a license to head to the exit.
You are on the road at the end of a long road trip in a game where nothing has gone right.
The offense could not do anything much for the first 25 outs. Andy Pettitte did not pitch his best, and his defensive miscues fielding bunts turned into three runs. Add to that, Joba Chamberlain could pitch a scoreless to keep the game in manageable comeback distance.
With Jonathan Broxton, the Dodgers closer who throws upwards of 100 MPH in the game, it did not look good for the Yankees.
Mark Teixeira struck out looking on the outside edge that was borderline at best, but there was no argument for the first out.
A segment of the crowd at Dodger Stadium had left in a race to beat the horrendous traffic that comes with leaving there and getting on the freeway.
With a sizeable lead in hand, what could possibly go wrong?
Alex Rodriguez smacked a solid innocuous single through the left side that did not seem like much at the time and then took second on defensive indifference. Robinson Cano would then drive him home on a double down the right field line.
Dodgers 6, Yankees 3.
At the time, you were angry because Chamberlain gave up that run in the eighth. With the differential four instead of three, the Yankees would now not be able to bring up to the plate. “The fallacy of the predetermined outcome”, as Michael Kay often calls it.
Now Jorge Posada was up, just trying to keep the line moving and give the team a chance to get the tying run to the plate any way they could. He would fall behind Broxton 0-2 and this season, opponents have hit a paltry .135 when the count has reached that point.
Posada would proceed to foul off four pitches and worked the count from 0-2 to 3-2. On the tenth pitch of the at bat, he would single to right-center to bring the tying run to the plate.
Curtis Granderson, who has had numerous big hits this season to slightly justify his poor batting average and run production this season, was now up at the plate. He too would work Broxton, as his pitch count began to rise after throwing 19 over two innings the previous evening.
The battle waged on and finally Granderson coaxed a walk on the eighth to win the battle and represent the tying run and loading the bases.
We always talk about “championship at-bats.” Posada and Granderson’s ability to battle and not give in against the hard-throwing Broxton was classic Yankees, representative of everything they have been about at the plate over the last 15 years.
Usually during these types of comebacks, I have very little reaction emotionally until I actually think there a possibility of actually pulling it off.
As the line slowly kept moving, stoically I watched. Slowly gaining belief.
Still, I was not there yet.
Because of an injury to Brett Gardner earlier in the game, Chad Huffman was the man at the plate, certainly not a man you typically would want up in this situation. Yet, here he was and it was on him to get the job done.
On a 1-1 pitch, he was able to go the opposite field for a single, driving in two runs as the vocal Yankee fan contingent, loud all weekend, made their presence felt, and now truly believed (along with myself) that a comeback was possible.
Dodgers 6, Yankees 5.
I was “all-in” now. There was no turning back. We had seen the comeback proceed this far. It would have been awful to have it end without a happy conclusion.
Another youngster, Colin Curtis was now up with a very simple job, to get the ball into the outfield or avoid hitting into a double play. Every other outcome would be acceptable.
He also fell behind in the count 0-2, then saw three straight balls to bring it to 3-2, and then, like Posada earlier, fouled off four consecutive pitches. On the tenth pitch of the battle, he would hit a chopper to first baseman James Loney as Granderson broke for the plate. Rather than throwing home to cut off the run or attempting to turn a 3-6-3 double play, he chose to step on the first base bag and threw home slightly to the right of catcher Russell Martin, who was unable to get the tag on Granderson in time to prevent him from scoring.
Tie game.
Improbably this happened. If you were in the parking lot, you missed out. If you turned off the TV and went to sleep, it was a rally for the ages.
When people say that this was “just another game”, they are lying. The intensity, atmosphere and the way the managing showed that it was not. Why else would Torre, with a four run lead in late June, bring in his closer to get the final three outs?
Much like the emotion shown by their dugout, including screaming at the home plate umpire Friday in the ninth inning, a game the Yankees won 2-1.
Torre and his crew wanted this badly.
All Joe Torre could do is look on. He watched in silent horror as his closer Broxton, throwing 48 pitches in the inning and running on fumes, showed him emphatically and completely that he is not, or ever will be in the same stratosphere as Mariano Rivera no matter how good his numbers may read.
Francisco Cervelli was unable to give the Yankees lead, but the damage was complete. With the game tied, it was the Yankees closer, Mariano Rivera, summoned to hold the score right where it was.
One, two, three the Dodgers went down to force extra innings.
The scoreboard at Dodger Stadium read that the score was even at six, but it was 6-6 in favor of the Yankees, even without having the final at-bat.
Teixeira started the tenth with a solid single to right and right then that it was only a matter of time before they struck the final blow.
Ramon Troncoso started the inning, and was lucky that Rafael Furcal made a tremendous play in the hole at short to prevent another hit and was able to get the lead run at second. Torre came to the mound to matchup lefty George Sherrill to face Cano, who was 0-for-11 lifetime.
Perhaps Torre had not read the scouting report, but that was a different version of Cano. This 2010 version of Cano has been a monster this season and Torre would soon find that out.
On a 0-1 pitch, Cano showed everyone why he is perhaps the MVP of the American League by turning on a fastball and blasting one to the opposite field, clearing the wall in left-center to give the Yankees the lead. For a left-handed hitter at night to go the other way for a homerun is a hefty feat and Cano made it look effortless.
Rivera was back on the mound in the bottom half, this time with the lead. You knew there was no way he was going to blow this one now.
Dodger Stadium turned into Yankee Stadium West.
Loney reached on an infield single, but then Rivera retired the next three batters in order to give the Yankees their best win of the season.
Unbelievable, yet believable.
They never lay down even when you think they will.
It is having that belief that the game is never over even when you think all is lost. That quality carried them to a championship last year and still exists now.
No team in any sport is as tough and resilient as this team is when it counts. They show it time and again.
Even though it did, what we saw should not have come as a surprise.
It was Hollywood.
Time now for another edition of Yankee Random Thoughts
Last Sunday night in Los Angeles, Andy Pettitte had problems fielding several bunts in the game against the Dodgers that I had me seriously consider the team taking “bunting practice” the next night assuming they lost.
Turns out, they won.
Safe to say, cancel the practice.
Colin Curtis is the newest recipient of my annual “Man Love” award.
Since he has come up, he has shown a good, disciplined eye at the plate, and gotten a few hits and even drove in a couple of runs.
However, he should not get too comfortable. Previous winners of the award include Shelley Duncan, Xavier Nady and David Robertson.
In each year, all of those players saw their performance decline the next season.
Vicente “Head Hunter” Padilla got what was coming to him on last Friday night.
For reasons known only to him in the fourth inning, he drilled Robinson Cano in the backside with a fastball.
Since this was at Dodger Stadium and we were playing back National League rules, Head Hunter was going to have to come to the plate and bat for himself.
The Dodgers right-hander stepped into the box against CC Sabathia, and it took only one pitch for him to dance as a fastball hit him flush on the right knee.
As Head Hunter was in pain, he looked toward the mound and slowly walked toward first. “What was he going to do?” I thought.
Known for consistently plunking Mark Teixeira, perhaps Head Hunter did not want to make it look too obvious and instead chose someone else.
He got what was coming. He had better not try that again.
Joe Girardi on Saturday elected not to remove The Underachiever for a pinch hitter in the fourth inning with runners on first-and-third and one out as the game had seen his pitcher mentally clock out for the evening.
Rather than bring up a pitch hitter, The Underachiever batted for himself and to the surprise of no one, safety squeezed for the second out of the inning. The Yankees would not score in the inning and when he promptly walked the first two Dodgers hitters to begin the bottom half, his night was over.
Girardi said pinch-hitting in that spot depended on “the situation”.
The Dodgers scored two more runs in the inning, extended the lead to three and that effectively was the game.
Putting that into my personal translator, I took that to mean that if he didn’t have bums such as Bad Boone Logan and Chan “No No” Park as long relief options, perhaps he would have made a move. But would the results have been any better with them out there?
Cisco has really come back to Earth over the last seven weeks. What, you didn’t think he was going to hit .785 with runners in scoring position, did you?
After starting the season 11-for-14 (a relatively small sample), Cisco is six for his last 31 (a slightly larger sample). His OPS for the season now stands at .688, which with a few more 0-fers, will reach Jose Molina territory.
Not to nitpick here, but Robinson Cano’s hitting numbers have been in decline over the last two months.
Strange but true, Cano started the season at .400, but hit “only” .336 in May before dropping a few more points in June, hitting .333.
Yea, he is a bum.
The Grandy Man has been able to get some hits off left-handers in the last week. However, what does it say when Girardi sits him for Chad Huffman in the lineup?
While in Arizona, there was much discussion of the season long power outage by Alex Rodriguez. The third baseman responded by saying that he had no concerns.
After his two-run blast in the eighth inning of the Yankees 4-2 win over Seattle, it was his fourth homerun over the last eight games.
With sluggers, homeruns come in bunches. By the All Star break, this will no longer be an issue. Besides, it is great when people say your production is down despite the fact you lead the team in runs batted in.
Patience people. Yes, it does work.
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