With 1 out, and nobody on, Angel manager Mike Scoscia replaced Heaney with Jim Johnson. At first, this paid off, as he got Miguel Andujar to line out. Then he faced Gleyber Torres, and The Greatest Prospect In The History Of Baseball hit a blast deep into the right-center field bleachers.
That was all the Yankee bullpen needed to finish the job: Chad Green, David Robertson and Aroldis Chapman. Yankees 2, Angels 1. WP: Green (3-0). SV: Chapman (10). LP Johnson (2-2).
*
The Saturday game was a very different story. As fans of The Godfather might say, Sonny got whacked. Sonny Gray didn't make it out of the 4th inning, and has become the latest target of the Bronx Boo-Birds. Tommy Kahnle and Chasen Shreve also set themselves up as their targets, as the Angels piled on more runs.
Mike Trout, from Millville, Cumberland County, South Jersey, provided much of the damage, raising his career batting average at Yankee Stadium to .389. The Daily News had the back page headline: "GONNA NEED A BIGGER BOAT: Killer Trout devours Yanks on holiday weekend."
This was a nod to the 1975 film Jaws, which took place over a Summer holiday weekend, albeit the 4th of July, not Memorial Day. In New England: Martha's Vineyard was the filming location for the fictional Amity Island. And it was released in a year in which the Boston Red Sox won the American League Pennant.
Brett Gardner, Aaron Judge and Austin Romine each hit home runs, but it wouldn't be nearly enough. Angels 11, Yankees 4. WP: Jamie Barria (4-1). No save. LP: Gray (3-4).
You know, if Brian Cashman had traded some prospects for Justin Verlander... But he didn't.
*
The Sunday game was special to me, because it was the 40th Anniversary of my 1st live Yankee game. Only it wasn't clear that it would be played. It rained on Saturday night, and it was raining Sunday morning as I made my way to the bus station. But I kept checking the weather forecast, and it kept saying that it would be dry in the afternoon. And I kept checking the Yankees' Twitter feed, and they kept saying that they expected the game to start on time at 1:05.
Sure enough, by the time my bus reached Port Authority Bus Terminal in Midtown Manhattan, the rain had stopped. By the time my D Train had gotten to 161st Street & River Avenue in the South Bronx, the streets were dry. It was still overcast, chilly, and very windy, but when I got my first look at the field, there was no tarp on it. Masahiro Tanaka delivered the first pitch at 1:08, and we were ready to go.
Before going in, I walked over to the site of the old Stadium, now "Heritage Field." There's 3 baseball fields on the site, including one whose 2nd base is, according to a chart at the park, where home plate was at the old Stadium. And the bat-shaped smokestack, the traditional meeting place known as The Big Bat, is still there.
But the original Yankee Stadium is not, and that's sad. "You maniacs... " No, they didn't blow it up, but they did demolish it.
So, it was onward and upward, and my seat was upward, in the upper deck, in Section 431a. It wasn't just about saving money (it cost $45). I had wanted to get a seat in the upper deck, but above 1st base, where Section 17 would have been at the old Stadium, the section where I saw my 1st game there, and also where I saw my last game there. Alas, I had to settle for, interestingly enough, the section where I saw my 1st game at the new Stadium -- not 40 years earlier, but 9 years earlier.
This game was a big deal to me, not just because of the anniversary, but because, having barely worked in the last 5 years, this was my 1st live Yankee game in all that time. My only job in the interim didn't last long, and the 1st and only live game I'd been able to go to was a Phillies game. I thought I'd have time (and money) to go to a few Yankee games, but the job went sour, and that was it.
So this was my 1st live look at "The Baby Bombers": Aaron Judge, Gary Sanchez, Didi Gregorius, Aaron Hicks, Greg Bird, Miguel Andujar, and, although he didn't start, but came on late as a pinch-hitter and then defensive replacement for Neil Walker, Gleyber Torres.
And, while they're not exactly kids anymore, it was also my 1st live look at Tanaka, Aroldis Chapman, and, in any uniform as it's turned out, Giancarlo Stanton.
Stanton came up to bat 4 times, with men on base all 4 times, and struck out 4 times, yet another "golden sombrero" for Cashman's latest brilliant acquisition. The 1st 2 times, he didn't even take the bat off his shoulder. In total, he stranded 6 baserunners. His batting average is down to .246, his on-base percentage to .323. He got booed. But he was the only Yankee who got booed.
There wasn't much action. A nasty wind kept at least 5 balls, including the one hit by Torres in the 8th inning, in the ballpark, when they almost certainly would have been home runs on a day with decent weather.
The Yankees got the leadoff man on in each of the 1st 4 innings, but only scored in 1 inning in the entire game, the 3rd. Judge led off with a single to center off Angel starter Garrett Richards. Richards then struck Stanton out looking.
But, aside from when he faced Stanton, Richards had poor control. With Sanchez up, he threw a wild pitch, and then walked him. He did the same thing with Gregorius: Walk, and wild pitch. The bases were loaded. Then he walked Hicks, to force in a run. This guy could not find the plate with a map.
Scioscia had seen enough. He brought Jose Alvarez in to pitch. But even Richards' control wasn't this bad: Alvarez hit Bird with a pitch. Clearly, not intentional: It would have been stupid with the bases loaded. Andujar grounded to short, enabling Angel shortstop Andrelton Simmons to step on 2nd to eliminate Bird. But, with the ground still a little wet, the ball got to him slowly, so he had no chance to turn the double play. Gregorius scored.
That 3-0 lead held until the top of the 6th, when Simmons hit a solo home run. Tanaka's usual problem is that he gives up a home run in the 1st inning, and then settles down -- or not. This time, he allowed 2 singles to lead off the game, but stranded them, and cruised through the next 5 innings, except for the Simmons homer.
There were a lot of Angels jerseys and caps in The Stadium, including 2 Angels jerseys with JACKSON 44 on them. Reggie also had 3 fans with his name and number on Yankee jerseys and T-shirts. I wonder if he was at the game. Why not, he is a member of the Yankee front office, and he was at my 1st game in 1978, driving in what turned out to be the only Yankee run -- until he got hurt and had to leave.
But the big story was the opposition of Tanaka with Shohei Ohtani, his fellow Japanese, the 1st player since Babe Ruth to reach the North American major leagues with the intention of being a pitcher and, on days when he's not pitching, a hitter. He was supposed to be the opposing pitcher on this day, but Scioscia decided not to pitch him outdoors in iffy weather. So, as he usually is on his non-pitching days, he was the designated hitter.
You know the old stereotype of Japanese tourists always taking pictures? Well, in the age of social media, we all do that. But there were a lot of Japanese fans at the game, there to see both Tanaka and Ohtani. (And this was my 1st look at him as well. And my 1st at fellow New Jerseyan Trout. But Albert Pujols, who I had seen before, didn't play.)
In the 1st, Tanaka struck Ohtani out to end the inning and strand 2 runners. In the 4th, Tanaka walked him, but soon stranded him. In the 6th, Tanaka struck him out. And in the 9th, Ohtani drew a leadoff walk against Aroldis Chapman. So he didn't get a hit, off any pitcher, and, this time, the Daily News' headline reads, "SHO STOPPER."
Yes, after David Robertson pitched a scoreless 7th and Dellin Betances a scoreless 8th, Chapman once again made it interesting in the 9th. You know how it is: He walked Ohtani, thus bringing the tying run to the plate, then struck out Jefry Marte (yes, that's how he spells his name), then threw a wild pitch to get Ohtani to 2nd (I knew his run meant nothing, but I still got worried), then struck Ian Kinsler out (good, every time he faced the Yankees for the Texas Rangers, he was a pain in the ass), then threw yet another wild pitch, getting Ohtani to 3rd, before getting Martin Maldonado to ground to short for the final out of the game.
Whew.
Ballgame over! Yankees win! Theeeeeeee Yankees win!
Yankees 3, Angels 1. WP: Tanaka (6-2). SV: Chapman (11). LP: Richards (4-4).
To make things even better, the Boston Red Sox lost to the Atlanta Braves, bringing the Yankees to within 1 game of the Sox in the American League Eastern Division -- and, with 4 games in hand, actually a game ahead of them in the all-important loss column.
To make things, if not functionally better, then, certainly, more fun, the Mets were away to the Milwaukee Brewers, and blew leads of 4-1 and 6-4, and lost 8-6.
Both Marvel Comics and the 1970s PBS kids' show The Electric Company have established that Peter Parker, a.k.a. Spider-Man, is not only a native of Queens, but a Met fan. As the Tom Holland version of him said in the climactic scene of Avengers: Infinity War, "Mr. Stark, I don't feel so good... "
Did I feel good? Well, sort of. I haven't had that good a time at a baseball game in ages. I was at one of the games in the new Stadium's 1st week in 2009, and it was a rollercoaster that the Yankees eventually won. I went to an Old-Timers' Day, and saw the entire festivities, but hadn't gotten much sleep, and left the regular game early. And most of the games I've seen there, the Yankees have lost.
This time, while I was a little worried at the end, I still had enough confidence that Chapman would finish it off; and, before then, I really enjoyed myself. The team was good, the fans around me were good, the food was really good (chicken fingers and garlic fries with cheese), the weather could have been better but wasn't bad, and I even found a nickel on the ground.
But I've been in a lot of pain lately. Advancing age has made my bad hip spread to a bad back, and it's really been bothering me lately. I started physical therapy last week. I take Aleve for the pain, and made sure I took it before I left the house. I was fine until the 8th inning. Then, it wore off.
And I made the mistake of taking the 1st possible Subway train back to Port Authority. Of course, it was jammed, and I had to stand the entire 120 blocks, holding a support pole. That hurt. A lot. And you have no idea how big Port Authority is until you walk from the ground floor at one end (42nd Street & 8th Avenue) to the top floor at the other end (40th Street & 9th Avenue) with a bad back. And my phone ran out of juice, so I couldn't call for a ride to pick me up at East Brunswick/Tower Center, so I had to walk a mile home. (The local bus was running, but it doesn't go into my neighborhood.)
Needless to say, by the time I got home and could pop another pair of Aleve, I was feeling lousy. If New York City's cleaner streets and heavily reduced crime, and having money and not needing parental authority to go to the game on my own, were good signs of it no longer being 1978, all that joint and muscle pain was a very clear sign that I'm not a kid anymore.
But the Yankees did win for me on the day, which is more than they did for my 1st game, 40 years earlier. And Port Authority was so much cleaner, and the Subway... okay, it's still dirty as hell, but it's a lot safer.
In 1978, the Yankees didn't win for me in person, but they went on to win the World Series.
In 2018, the Yankees have won for me in person... Honestly, that's not a trade I want to make. But maybe I won't have to.
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