ARLINGTON – There are times in a baseball season where there is a point in the game when you know it is just not your day.
Sometimes, it can come early. Other times it can come late.
They say the game is 27 outs long, but other times, the game can be over long before that.
Not with the Yankees.
Yes, they have the most talent. That is not in debate. However, with most talented teams, it usually takes something extra. A tangible trait has no measure.
Call it belief or just plain old confidence. Several times this season, the Yankees have shown an innate ability to stage incredible rallies to win games.
Last Wednesday in Texas was just another example and it proved to be their best win of the season, gutting out 7-6 comeback win over the Rangers.
Consider the fact that the Yankees have plenty going against them after losing the previous night with Mariano Rivera and now having Cliff Lee on the mound dominating them through the first five innings, as he always seems to do.
Javier Vazquez, who has not shown an ability to pitch well against a quality lineup, was out of the game after another non-productive 4 1/3 inning, six run, eight hit outing.
Down five runs to Lee with the way he was going would be a definite loss on most nights. However, on this evening in Arlington, where the temperature consistently stayed in the low 100’s, the heat began to take its toll on the ace left-hander.
After scoring a run in the sixth to make it 6-2, the offense began to make Lee work in the seventh. Robinson Cano lead off with a double and with one out, Austin Kearns singled. Up came Lance Berkman, who despite terrible numbers against left-handed pitching was able to hammer a 1-1 pitch into the gap in right center that one-hopped over the wall for a ground rule double to cut the lead in half.
Brett Gardner would work a lengthy at-bat before drilling a single past Lee into center field to bring the Yankees to within 6-4.
Lee’s night was over. His invincibility over the Yankees taking a hit on this night as they finally showed an ability to score off him. No one knows for sure whether the main reason was the heat.
The Yankees would not score another run that inning, but Marcus Thames began the eighth inning with a blast off Frank Francisco to cut it to one.
At that moment, you had a sense that this complete could be complete, but you did not know how it would happen. It was not for Sergio Mitre and Kerry Wood teaming up to pitch 3 2/3 scoreless innings after Vazquez left, none of this would have been possible. But they had at least given the Yankees a chance going into the ninth inning.
With Neftali Feliz in to close the game, Berkman worked a leadoff walk. Gardner on a 2-2 pitch lifted a bloop single into shallow left to put things in motion. Feliz then uncorked a pitch to the backstop that ricocheted back to catcher Bengie Molina as both runners took off.
Pinch runner Curtis Granderson barely beat the throw as both runners moved to second and third with no one out.
Derek Jeter, enduring one of his worst seasons in this situation came up and hit a hard chop that hit off the glove of Feliz and past second baseman Christian Guzman into center for a run-scoring single to tie the game.
Swisher would strike out, but Thames would deliver again with a single through the hole of third and short to give the Yankees an improbable 7-6 lead with Rivera ready to hold it down in the ninth.
But of course, this game had more plot twists left. Elvis Andrus would triple to right center and was there with no one out for the Rangers three best hitters.
Under normal circumstances, a regular closer would not be able to get out of this situation.
Mariano Rivera is not one of those closers.
With veteran Michael Young up, Rivera induced a fly ball to shallow right that Kearns made the shoestring catch on, holding the runner at third.
Josh Hamilton was next, and after he was ahead 2-0, a cutter got in his hands and he grounded the ball back to Rivera, holding the runner again for the second out.
The game was now in the hands of Vladimir Guerrero. Would Rivera really escape this? Back in late June, he worked out of a bases loaded, no out jam in the tenth inning of a Yankees win in Arizona, but these were better hitters at the plate.
With the count 1-0, Guerrero chopped the ball to third. Alex Rodriguez fielded the hop and threw him out at first to end the game and finish off one of the best Yankees wins of the year.
This one goes alongside the ninth inning comeback against the Red Sox in May and the rally against the Dodgers in Los Angeles in June.
With everything not in their favor, they somehow found a way to get it done, coming back when they could have said, “Tomorrow”.
Champions show heart and fight until the end.
This is what they do better than anyone else in the sport.
No comments:
Post a Comment