October 27, 2004: The Curse of the Bambino Is Broken

October 27, 2004, 20 years ago: The Curse of the Bambino is finally broken. Well, sort of. The Boston Red Sox win their 1st World Series in 86 years with a 3-0 victory over the St. Louis Cardinals, in Game 4 at Busch Memorial Stadium.

Derek Lowe ends up as the winning pitcher in all 3 postseason series-clinchers for the Sox, the 1st pitcher of any team to do so. (Andy Pettitte became the 2nd in 2009.) Johnny Damon hits a home run for Boston. Manny Ramirez is voted the Series' Most Valuable Player‚ as he leads Boston to the 4-game sweep with a .412 batting average and 4 RBI. The last out was Cardinal shortstop Edgar Renteria grounding back to pitcher Keith Foulke, who threw to 1st baseman Doug Mientkiewicz.

With the New England Patriots having won Super Bowl XXXVIII 9 months earlier, this win also gave Boston its 1st MLB-NFL double. They would achieve it again in 2018-19.

Some people had joked that the Red Sox winning the World Series would be a sign of the Apocalypse. Well, according to the Bible, one such sign is the Moon turning blood red -- and, in fact, there was a full lunar eclipse during the game. (Although this was hardly a surprise, as newspapers and news networks had mentioned it before nightfall.)

A sign held aloft at the victory parade in Boston sums it all up: "Our (late) parents and g'parents thank you." So many people said, "We wanted them to win it in our lifetime, just once." Well, as Dan Shaughnessy of The Boston Globe, who has written more and better about the franchise than anyone, said in the following weeks, "There was no spike in the obits. We checked. All those people who said they couldn't die until the Red Sox won a World Series decided to live a little longer."

Of course, they didn't win it just once in those people’s lifetimes – except for those who died between October '04 and October '07.

And now that we know that the Red Sox are a bunch of lying, cheating, dirty, low-down, no-good bastards, we can tell the truth: They still haven't really won a World Series since 1918*. The Curse lives.

So all those Sox fans who weren't old enough to suffer through Harry Frazee, Johnny Pesky, Harry Agganis, Tony Conigliaro, Larry Barnett, Bobby Sprowl, Bucky Dent, John McNamara and Bill Buckner – though most of them did get through what Nomar, Pedro and Grady put them through – and showed more bastardry in victory than their forebears ever showed in defeat can kiss my 27 rings (well, 7 in my lifetime – for the moment), and then they can kiss my Pinstriped ass.

Raul Is Cool, Yanks Can Clinch 1st Seed Tonight

The Baltimore Orioles won last night, meaning the Yankees could not clinch the American League Eastern Division in this, their next-to-last game of the regular season. So a win was necessary to avoid falling back into a tie.

Last night's game against the Red Sox -- The Scum, even in a horrible season, the 91 losses with which they entered the game being their worst since they lost 100 in 1965, 47 years ago -- had all the hallmarks of a game the Yankees were destined to lose even though they shouldn't have.

David Phelps was the starter, in place of the inconsistent Ivan Nova. And he pitched decently, if not especially well: 5 1/3 innings, 2 runs, 3 hits, 2 walks, 4 strikeouts. Boone Logan, Joba Chamberlain and David Robertson, between them, pitched 2 2/3 scoreless innings. Allowing only 2 runs over the 1st 8 innings, you'd think the Yankees would win.

But the Yankees stranded men on 1st and 3rd in the 1st inning, man on 1st in the 2nd, 1st and 3rd with 1 out in the 3rd, a leadoff single in the 4th, 1st and 2nd with 1 out in the 5th, and 2nd and 3rd in the 6th.  How many games have the 2010, '11 and '12 Yankees lost that looked like this?

The Yankees entered the top of the 9th trailing 2-1. And manager Joe Girardi's binder apparently told him to bring in his closer, Rafael Soriano, even though the Yankees were losing. And the 1st batter he faced was James Loney, who hit a home run to make it 3-1 Sox. And then Soriano allowed a single to Jarrod Saltalamacchia.

It was the kind of situation that once again had me remembering that Girardi wouldn't return Robertson to the closer's role that he had earned when Mariano Rivera went down with his season-ending injury, after being hurt himself: Girardi gave the job to Soriano and relegated Robertson back to 8th-inning duty.

That decision has come back to bite the Yankees many times, and I am still not convinced that Soriano in the 8th and Robertson in the 9th wouldn't have been a better choice than the other way around has been: Each man is better suited to the other's current role.

So the Yankees went to the bottom of the 9th needing 2 runs. And Andrew Bailey was pitching for the Sox. As noted baseball fan and crook Richard Nixon would have said, we didn't have Jonathan Papelbon to kick around anymore.

Two runs seemed big, but, as John Sterling tells us, that's "just a bloop and a blast." Or a walk and a wallop.

Curtis Granderson led off with a single. It was a line drive, not a "bloop," but it was the baserunner we needed.

Girardi sent Raul Ibanez up to pinch-hit for the useless Eduardo Nunez. Ibanez has come through for the Yankees all season long.  We needed him to come through one more time.

He did, hitting a screaming liner into the right-field seats, his 19th homer of the year. Tie ballgame.

In the last off-season, the Phillies signed Papelbon and let Ibanez go. It seemed to make sense: Brad Lidge was no longer an effective closer, and Papelbon had as many World Series-ending strikeouts as Lidge: 1; while Ibanez was about to turn 40 years old and can't field at any position, and the National League still won't wake up to the truth that pitchers can't hit and the designated hitter is needed.

Well, for the 1st time in 6 seasons, the Phillies did not make the Playoffs. Papelbon hasn't had a horrible year, but Ibanez has been a huge pickup for the Yankees -- and Alfredo Aceves, who was a key member of the 2009 World Champion Yankees, was made the Sox closer, and while he's gotten 25 saves for a team that's won only 69 games, he also leads the major leagues with 8 blown saves and is 2-10.

The Yankees could have won the game in the bottom of the 9th. After Ibanez' huge homer (huge in significance, if not in distance), Ichiro Suzuki grounded out, but Derek Jeter doubled. Nick Swisher was intentionally walked to set up the double play, or at least the force, but then Alex Rodriguez was walked unintentionally. Bases loaded, 1 out. But Mark Teixeira flew out, and it was too close for Jeter to score. And Robinson Cano grounded out.

Soriano got through the 10th okay, but the Yanks got nothing in their half. For the 11th, Girardi brought on... oh no... Derek Lowe. Poetic justice on the Sox if he could do the job, but he hasn't been doing the job. And, sure enough, he allowed a leadoff single to Loney. He got Saltalamacchia to ground into a force play, then threw a wild pitch. He struck out Ryan Lavarnway, intentionally walked Pedro Ciriaco, and got Jose Iglesias out on a force.

The Yankees got a 2-out single from Swish in the bottom of the 11th, but A-Rod hit one just not quite far enough to win the game with a homer that would have had his fangirls not needing a date for a week.

The top of the 12th was a little weird. Not because Lowe didn't get the job done -- incredibly, he did -- but because there was a delay when a small bird got on the field. I immediately thought of "Scooter the Squirrel," the squirrel who sat on top of the right-field pole at the old Stadium, within weeks of the death of Phil "the Scooter" Rizzuto, and the Yankees started a hot streak that allowed them to reach the Playoffs. Was this bird a good sign?

It didn't look like it at first: Teix grounded out to lead off the bottom of the 12th. Cano was called out on strikes. I began to wonder how long this game was going to go on. I thought of the August 2009 Yanks-Sox game that A-Rod won with a walkoff homer in the bottom of the 15th. I would happily have taken a repeat performance, even if it meant that the fangirls needed a cigarette afterwards.

The batter was Francisco Cervelli. Last season's backup catcher, kept in Triple-A all season long, called up as the emergency catcher, took the field in the 11th, and was now batting for the 1st time all season.

He drew a walk. So did Granderson. The winning run was now in scoring position -- with 2 outs.

The batter was Raul Ibanez. He went the opposite way, singling to left. Cervelli, who didn't get to the plate at the major league level this season until the 12th inning of the 161st game, scored perhaps the biggest run of the year.

Ballgame over. Yankees win. Theeeeeeeeeeeeeeee Yankees win!

4-3! We beat The Scum, 4-3! We beat The Scum, 4-3! We beat The Scum, 4-3!

John Sterling was right: Raul is cool, and the Yankees are hot.

WP: Lowe (9-11). LP: Andrew Miller (3-2).

(UPDATE: Yes, the same Andrew Miller the Yankees later acquired, then traded to Cleveland in 2016, winning a Pennant for them, when it could have been won for us.)

*

The Orioles beat the Tampa Bay Rays, 1-0, so the Yankees' Magic Number is 1. What's more, the Oakland Athletics beat the Texas Rangers, 3-1. On September 24, the Rangers led the AL West by 5 games with 9 to play. On June 30, the A's were 13 games back. Now that race is tied. The Yankees' blowing of a 10-game lead on July 18 doesn't seem so bad anymore.

So here's the deal: A Yankee win or an Oriole loss means the Yankees win the AL East. A Yankee win means the Yankees finish with the best record in the AL, and get the top seed in the Playoffs.

* 3:35 PM (12:35 local time), Texas at Oakland: Ryan Dempster vs. A.J. Griffin. The Rangers' embarrassment will be magnified if the big free-agent signing Dempster doesn't come through for them.

* 7:05 PM, Boston at Yankees: Daisuke Matsuzaka vs. Hiroki Kuroda. This all-Japanese matchup leaves me confident, as Kuroda has been solid in most of his games, even in his losses (bad run support), while Dice-K has never truly recovered from a 2009 injury (after going 15-12 for the 2007 World Champions *, and 18-3 for a team that came within 1 win of a Pennant the next season).

* 7:10 PM, Baltimore at Tampa Bay: Chris Tillman vs. Jeremy Hellickson. Tillman has had an excellent year, but, of course, if the Yankees win, it doesn't matter what he does.

Granted, the 5-minute gap in the Yanks' and Orioles' scheduled first pitches doesn't matter much. All 4 teams involved have a habit of playing long games, even when it doesn't go to extra innings.

To make matters worse, the games should end sometime between 10:00 and 10:30 Eastern Time, toward the end of the 1st Presidential debate. Jets owner Woody Johnson is half-right: Willard Mitt Romney should never, ever be President of the United States, but the country comes before sports, and I'll be watching President Barack Obama smack the smug bastard while keeping my smartphone by my side to check the scores.

Then again, we are talking about the Yankees and the Red Sox. Maybe it'll go to extra innings again, and the Yankees can get a walkoff homer to clinch the Division and the first seed, and beat The Scum, at 10:40 PM.

*

Also worth mentioning: On July 9, 2005, Adam Greenberg came to bat for the Chicago Cubs, against the Florida Marlins, at whatever the Dolphins' stadium was officially called at the time. Making a pinch-hitting appearance against Valerio de los Santos, a journeyman lefthander from the Dominican Republic, he faced one pitch, and it hit him in the head. It was clearly unintentional, but it gave him a concussion that he couldn't quite shake. It seemed as if this would be it for him at the major league level: A nearly-horrific twist on the story of Moonlight Graham.

Last night, now named the Miami Marlins and playing at Marlins Park, the club he faced in his one appearance gave him a second chance, after he'd spent the last few years in the independent leagues. He got a one-day contract, and he agreed to donate his day's salary to charity.

Fred Van Dusen was also on hand. On September 11, 1955, the native of Jackson Heights, Queens, just 18 years old at the time, made a pinch-hitting appearance for the Phillies, and was hit with a pitch. He and Greenberg were the only players ever to make exactly 1 plate appearance in the major leagues, without playing the field, and be hit with a pitch. (In his case, he faced 3 pitches, getting plunked on an 0-2 count.) Van Dusen was not seriously hurt, and continued in the minors until 1961, went into the insurance business, and, at 75 years old, is now retired in Tennessee. He threw out the ceremonial first ball last night.

Adam Greenberg and Fred Van Dusen

In the bottom of the 6th, Greenberg pinch-hit for Bryan Peterson, and the 29,709 fans in attendance -- a great crowd, by the standards of either of the Florida major league teams -- gave him a standing ovation.

The pitcher was R.A. Dickey of the Mets. Since Dickey, the Mets' 1st 20-game winner since 1990, is a knuckleball artist, not known as a mean pitcher, and the game didn't mean much to anyone but Greenberg (not even to Dickey, because, let's face it, 21 wins isn't any more special than 20), the likelihood of Greenberg getting hit with another pitch was minimal.

Dickey threw a knuckler down the middle. Greenberg took it for strike 1. Dickey fooled him on another, swing and a miss, strike 2. Dickey threw one more knuckler, and Greenberg swung and missed for strike 3.

Hey, that's one more official at-bat than I, and nearly everyone reading this, will ever have in the major leagues.

The at-bat lasted 33 seconds. "That's 33 more seconds than I could have asked for," Greenberg told the media after the game.

"This kid brought a lot of smiles, a lot of tears," Marlins manager Ozzie Guillen said. "The team's in last place, and all of a sudden you see a standing ovation in the ballpark. You don't see that often, and that was great."

The Marlins won the game in the 11th, 4-3.  Chalk up another bad loss for the Mets. Face it, Dickey is 2012's answer to Steve Carlton, whose 27 wins in 1972 marked 46 percent of the Phillies' total that season.

*

October 3, 1947: Floyd "Bill" Bevens of the Yankees takes a no-hitter into the bottom of the 9th in Game 4 of the World Series, against the Brooklyn Dodgers. He gets to within 1 out of the 1st World Series (and thus the 1st postseason) no-hitter ever. But 10 walks put him in danger, and Harry "Cookie" Lavagetto pinch-hits a double-off the right-field wall at Ebbets Field, and the Dodgers win, 3-2.

Two days later, Al Gionfriddo will rob Joe DiMaggio with an amazing catch to preserve the Dodgers' lead in Game 6, but the Yankees win the Series in Game 7. By a weird twist of fate, neither Bevens, nor Lavagetto, nor Gionfriddo will ever play in the major leagues again.

Who is still alive from this Series, 65 years later? For the Yankees, just Yogi Berra and Bobby Brown. For the Dodgers, no one: Duke Snider was the last survivor, and Gene Hermanski was the last survivor of the Dodgers who actually played in this Series.

October 3, 1951: Bobby Thomson hits "The Shot Heard 'Round the World." The following men who played in that game, 61 years ago, are still alive: Giants Willie Mays, Monte Irvin and Alvin Dark; and Dodgers Branca, Don Newcombe (whom Branca relieved) and Andy Pafko (over whose head in left field the ball traveled). Giant pitcher George Spencer did not appear in the game, but was on their roster and is also still alive; so are Dodger reserves Carl Erskine, Rocky Bridges, Tommy Brown and Wayne Terwilliger.

Just in the last 4 years, the following players from that day have died: Giants Thomson, Jansen, Whitey Lockman, Clint Hartung, Davey Williams, Jack Lohrke and Artie Wilson; and Dodgers Duke Snider, Preacher Roe, Gene Hermanski, Don Thompson, Clyde King, Johnny Schmitz, and future legendary manager Dick Williams.

Of course, there are many more October 3 anniversaries in baseball.

Burn the Binder. Now!

The Yankees started a 3-game home series with the Baltimore Orioles on Friday night, and were just 3 games ahead of the O's when it began.

This was a chance for the O's to make a statement, and they sure did on Friday night.

Hiroki Kuroda had pitched wonderfully for the Yankees lately, and he pitched pretty well on Friday, too -- except for a 4-batter stretch in the top of the 2nd. Adam Jones led off with a single, Matt Wieters singled him to 3rd, Chris Davis got Jones home on a sacrifice fly, and Mark Reynolds homered to make it 3-0 Baltimore. Kuroda allowed J.J. Hardy to homer in the 6th, and despite otherwise pitching well, was the losing pitcher (12-10).

Manager Joe Girardi let Kuroda pitch into the 9th, and he got Wieters for the 1st out. Then Girardi removed him. What happened, Joe, did your binder tell you that Kuroda had reached his pitch limit? It was only 4-0, not good but overcomeable.

Girardi brought in Clay Rapada. Rapada got Davis to ground out. Okay, so leave him in to get the last guy in the 9th, right?

Wrong. Girardi consulted the binder again. He brought in Derek Lowe, who is finished. The 1st batter Lowe faced was Reynolds, who hit another homer. Then he allowed a single to Robert Andino, and a single to Manny Machado, and an RBI single to Nick Markakis. It took Lowe 5 batters, and 2 runs, to get 1 out.

What does the binder tell you about Lowe now, Joe?

Curtis Granderson hit his 34th homer of the season in the bottom of the 9th, to mess up the shutout, but Miguel Gonzalez (6-3) and the Oriole bullpen otherwise limited the Yankees to no runs on 3 hits and a walk. Orioles 6, Yankees 1. Yankee lead down to 2 games.

*

So the Yankees had a 10-game lead, and the Orioles had closed it to within 2 games.

Just like 1996.

More precisely, according to Baseball-Reference.com (a website which is your friend, whether you know it or not), in 1996, the Yankees were 12 games ahead of the Orioles on July 28, were down to 2 1/2 ahead on September 10, and ended up winning the Division by 4, before beating the Texas Rangers in the Division Series, the O's in the ALCS, and the Atlanta Braves in the World Series.

This year, we were 10 up on July 18 -- remember, the Boston Red Sox were 9 1/2 ahead of the Milwaukee Brewers and 14 ahead of the Yankees on that date in 1978 -- and at the close of business on Friday, August 31, were up by 2.

So Saturday, September 1, the Yankees needed a win, badly. And in the bottom of the 4th, it wasn't looking good, with the Orioles 3-0 up, as David Phelps -- effectively, Andy Pettitte's replacement in the rotation -- didn't have it.

Then Robinson Cano pulled a run back with his 28th home run of the season. But the key inning -- maybe of the entire season thus far -- was the bottom of the 7th. Until then, Wei-Yin Chen had done a fabulous job on the mound for the Bay City Birds. He got Andruw Jones to pop up for the 1st out.

But then Steve Pearce came up. A "Quadruple-A" player who wasn't good enough to stick with the Pittsburgh Pirates – before they got good again this season – the Yankees got him from the Houston Astros for cash, and he came into yesterday's game as Granderson got hurt, and Girardi moved players around, taking Nick Swisher off 1st base and putting Pearce there. He singled to left.

After a Russell Martin fly out, Jayson Nix drew a walk, and Eduardo Nunez -- remember him? He can hit a little -- singled home Pearce. Buck Showalter, the last Yankee manager who never won a Pennant, replaced Chen (12-8) with Pedro Strop. But it was Ichiro Suzuki who got stroppy, drawing a walk to load the bases. Then Derek Jeter worked another walk, forcing home a run. Then Hardy made an error to allow Swisher on base and force home Nunez.

Boone Logan (6-2), David Robertson and Rafael Soriano (35th save) shut the O's down the rest of the way. Yankees 4, Orioles 3. It wasn't pretty, and there was plenty of help from oppositional incompetence, but the Yanks got their biggest win of the season to this point. And were back up by 3.

*

But yesterday's game is one that may end up living in infamy. The following key personnel were now unavailable: 3rd baseman knd main slugging threat Alex Rodriguez, slugging 1st baseman Mark Teixeira, slugging center fielder Curtis Granderson, speedy right fielder Brett Gardner, starting pitcher Andy Pettitte, starting pitcher Ivan Nova, starting pitcher Michael Pineda, and relief ace Mariano Rivera.

The Yankees got off to a good start, with Chris Dickerson, filling in for Grandy, hitting a 2-run homer in the 2nd. But in the 5th, Reynolds homered again, this time off starter Phil Hughes, who had been much improved lately. A Swisher single in the bottom of the inning made it 3-1 Yankees, and things were looking up.

But if the Yankees fail to win the AL East, or fail to make the Playoffs entirely, the top of the 6th is the one that we'll look back on as to where it all went wrong. This won't be entirely accurate, since we'd already gotten from 10 games up down to 2 up 2 days earlier. But it will have been the surest symbol of a collapse nearly as bad as the Red Sox of last season.

Nate McLouth opened the inning with a walk. Jones singled McLouth over to 2nd. Wieters singled McLouth home. Yankees 3, Orioles 2.

The next batter was Reynolds, who'd already hit 3 homers in the series, including one off Hughes the previous inning.

Hughes threw Reynolds a curveball that didn't curve enough. Steve Politi's column in today's Star-Ledger tells the story:

Reynolds hit that pitch into the left-field seats, too, turning a one-run lead into a two-run deficit, and no matter who Girardi trotted out there next — and he tried everyone — it didn't matter.

Baltimore won 8-3. What could have been a 4½-game lead over the Rays heading into a 10-game trip that starts in Tampa today is just a two-game lead over the Orioles. And Girardi had no one to blame but himself.

Imagine that: Girardi, the binder-toting micromanager who has never met a pitching change that he didn't like, getting burned for not making one.

"That was my decision, okay, to leave him in there," Girardi said, his voice rising, when asked a third time for an explanation. He had to be pressed because his answer made no sense.

He said he stuck with the flat-lining Hughes because there were no outs, and had he gone to righty Cody Eppley, he’d have to use left-handed Boone Logan to face DH Chris Davis before bringing in another righty to face third baseman Manny Machado to finish the inning.

"If it's one out, it’s a different story," Girardi said, "but it's nobody out."

For fuck's sake, as they say in English soccer.

No. You do not bring in a pitcher to face only one batter. Ever. That is blatant stupidity.

I don't give a damn what your binder or "the book" -- as in "he manages by the book" -- says. Use your eyes! If a pitcher is pitching well, you leave him in. If he's not, you get another pitcher ready to come in.

If you know you're going to need a lefty pitcher in the coming inning, bring that pitcher in to start the inning. Don't waste 2 pitchers when 1 will do just fine.

Forget all this left-to-lefty, righty-to-righty stuff. If a lefty pitcher can't get righty hitters out more often than not, he doesn't belong in the major leagues. Same with a righty pitcher who can't get lefty hitters out more often than not. If you can't trust a pitcher to pitch to a batter who's of "the opposite hand," then you can't trust him to pitch to any batter.  Simple as that, baby.

I am a liberal Democrat. I am against burning books, because it is an insult to freedom of expression. But if "Girardi's binder" actually exists, burn the goddamned thing! Burn it on the pitcher's mound at Yankee Stadium! Let the press see it. Let the cameras roll! Let 'em roll, baby, let 'em roll! The whole world should be watching!

If the Yankees do not win the 2012 American League Pennant, the game of September 2 should be Exhibit A for the prosecution in the firing of Joe Girardi.

Get rid of him, and replace him with a manager who knows how to use his eyes.

Anyway, as Politi said, the final was Orioles 8, Yankees 3. WP: Randy Wolf (4-10), the former Philadelphia Phillies ace lefty. I didn't realize he was still in the major leagues. No save. LP: Hughes (13-12)

*

So, going into the action of today, Labor Day, Monday, September 3, 2012, with 29 games to go, the Yankees are 2 games ahead of the Orioles, 3 1/2 (4 in the loss column) ahead of the Tampa Bay Rays, who've also surged and must be stopped, 15 (16 in the loss column) ahead of the Red Sox, and 16 ahead of the Toronto Blue Jays.

Elimination Numbers: 17 for the Jays, 20 for the Sox, 29 for the Rays and 31 for the O's.

Jeter has said that every other team in the Division would trade places with the Yankees. Which is true: It's better to be in 1st place than not to be. If you don't mind the oblique reference to William Shakespeare. Which is better than an oblique strain.

The good news is, A-Rod is back in the lineup as the designated hitter, as the Yanks begin a roadtrip with a series in Tampa Bay. And CC Sabathia, the ace, is starting. Grandy should be back tomorrow. Teixeira should be back in time for the weekend series in Baltimore -- where the Maryland native, who snubbed his ome-area team to sign with the Yankees for 2009, will once again be lustily booed. Pettitte and Nova look like they will be back in a couple of weeks.

I just hope Girardi, whom Politi calls "the ultimate micromanager," doesn't find a way to fuck this up.

Find the binder. Burn it. Stop Girardi, before he consults again! And if he says, "The only way you're going to get my binder is to pry it from my cold, dead hands," well...

As Girardi's fellow Chicagoan, Jack Benny, would have said, "I'm thinking it over!"

But at least I'm not letter a binder do my thinking for me!

CC Takes the Blame -- But Doesn't Fully Deserve It

"We haven't been playing well, and today was a day when we had the lead and I gave it up a couple times. What can you say? Everything is my fault."

So said CC Sabathia this afternoon.

CC is a man. Not a machine. Not a horse. Not a superman. A man.

A man who is, usually, a damn good pitcher.

This afternoon, he was not. But neither was he the biggest reason for the Yankees' 8-5 loss to those pesky Toronto Blue Jays at Yankee Stadium II.

The Yankees got right to it in the bottom of the 1st: Derek Jeter singled, Nick Swisher worked J.A. Happ for a walk, Andruw Jones singled Jeter home and Swish over to 3rd, and Curtis Granderson got Swish home on a groundout. 2-0 Yankees.

It started to go wrong in the top of the 3rd. Jeff Mathis led off the inning with a liner back to CC, which he couldn't handle, only deflect. Adeiny Hechavarria grounded to Jayson Nix, playing 3rd base in place of Alex Rodriguez. Nix bobbled the ball, and then Rajai Davis singled to right, to load the bases.

Mike McCoy grounded to Nix, who stepped on 3rd to eliminate Hechavarria, and fired home to eliminate Mathis. Men on 1st and 2nd, 2 out. But Edwin Encarnacion -- one of those Jays who always seems to be rather pesky toward the Yankees -- singled home Davis. Then Adam Lind, another player who always seems to play well against the Yankees, singled home McCoy. And Yunel Escobar doubled to left, scoring Encarnacion. 3-2 Jays.

The Yankees took the lead right back. With one out, Swish walked again. After another out, Jones walked. Happ threw a wild pitch, which ended up not mattering when Granderson doubled home both runners. 4-3 Yankees.

CC cruised for a while. But Lind led off the top of the 6th with a single, and Escobar hit one out. 5-4 Jays.

Joe Girardi took CC out for the 8th, and put in Derek Lowe. This would prove to be a rancid mistake. Lowe is done. As in stick a fork in him. The 1st 2 batters he faced were Escobar, double, and Kelly Johnson, bunt single. Girardi tried to correct this mistake by making them the only batters Lowe faced.

Of course, he brought in Boone Logan, which could well have compounded the mistake. Instead, Logan struck out Colby Rasmus. So he brought in Cody Eppley -- more Binder Ball. Mathis did the suicide squeeze, and that made it 6-4 Jays.

Raul Ibanez and Russell Martin hit back-to-back doubles in the bottom of the 8th to make it 6-5, but that was as close as the Yankees would get, and then in the 9th, Girardi played Binder Ball again. He replaced Nix with Eric Chavez, presumably for defensive purposes. But Chavez threw a grounder away, allowing McCoy to get to 2nd. Girardi ordered Encarnacion intentionally walked, to set up the double play (or at least a force). Then he pulled Eppley for Clay Rapada. Who promptly walked Lind. Then he pulled Rapada for Joba Chamberlain.

Hasn't it been sufficiently demonstrated that Joba came back too soon? And now Girardi has brought Joba in again?

Goose Gossage demands an explanation for this bullshit!

Joba gives up a double to Escobar. 8-5 Jays. And the Yanks go down meekly in the 9th.

WP: Happ (10-10). SV: Casey Janssen (17). LP: Sabathia (13-4).

The Yankees have tomorrow off, before starting a home series against the Baltimore Orioles, which is now far more important than anyone would have dared suggest on Opening Day.

Fortunately, the Orioles are losing 4-0 as I type this, so the Magic Number could go down to 30 tonight, anyway. But it's only the 4th inning. If they come from behind to win, they'll be just 2 games back in the loss column -- within the next series' margin of error.  In other words, if they win tonight and they sweep us, they'll be in 1st place.

This is unacceptable.

UPDATE: The Orioles lost to the Chicago White Sox, 8-1.

Pesky Blue Jays Strike Again; Bobby Myrick, 1952-2012

Those pesky Toronto Blue Jays. You expect them to be tough when they're good (1983 to 1993, and 2006). But even when they're bad (1977 to 1982, 1994 to 2005, since 2007), they give the Yankees fits.

Last night, the Jays came into Yankee Stadium II on a pace to lose 90 games, 17 1/2 games out of first place  Even without Alex Rodriguez and Mariano Rivera available, the Yankees should have swept this 3-game series.

At first, things looked good. Robinson Cano hit his 26th home run of the season in the bottom of the 1st. David Phelps gave up a home run to Adam Lind in the top of the 2nd, but Cano led off the bottom of the 4th with his 27th homer (definitely out of his slump). Mark Teixeira drew a walk. After a Curtis Granderson flyout, Eric Chavez singled, and so did Russell Martin, to bring home Teix. Raul Ibanez' groundout got Chavez home. 3-1 Yankees.

The Martin hit was one of several comebackers in the game that provided scary moments for the pitchers, and Jays starter Henderson Alvarez had to leave the game. They don't yet know if he will miss his next start, but it appears he won't go on the Disabled List.

Phelps gave up another homer the next inning, to Yorvit Torrealba. But Nick Swisher followed in the bottom of the 5th with a 2-run homer, his 20th dinger of the season. 6-3 Yankees.

Phelps allowed a run in the 7th, and Joe Girardi panicked yet again, taking out a starter too soon. He brought in Cody Eppley to finish the inning. It worked, so this panic move wasn't yet an issue -- but it would be, since Eppley would not be available later. David Robertson, who became a first-time father earlier in the day, pitched a scoreless 8th.

Rafael Soriano came out for the 9th. He struck out Torrealba, but allowed a single to Moises Sierra, a strange fusion of Moises Alou and Ruben Sierra, perhaps? He got Adeiny Hechavarria to pop up. (What is with these names on the Jays? They're weird even by Hispanic standards.) Then he allowed a single to Rajai Davis. (Not Hispanic, rather a black outfielder with good speed, from New London, Connecticut.) Up came Colby Rasmus, and Soriano got to 2 strikes, and we were a pitch away from "Untuck." Rasmus cranked the ball into the right field seats to give the Jays a 7-6 lead.

There were a lot of "George Carlin words" coming out of Uncle Mike's mouth at that moment, and a few other Yankee Fans' mouths as well.

If you're going to lose, do it in the regulation 9 innings. Don't put us through extra innings only to lose. So, in retrospect, I am not happy that Derek Jeter hit a home run to tie it in the bottom of the 9th. (His 14th homer of the season -- the 3,262nd hit of his career.) But the Yankees couldn't take the lead.

Derek Lowe pitched all right in the 10th, after Girardi went LOOGY by bringing in Clay Rapada to pitch to one batter. Remember, he couldn't use Eppley there, because he'd already taken him out of the game. In the top of the 11th, Lowe allowed a single to Mike McCoy, made a throwing error on a pickoff attempt to let McCoy get to 3rd, and Hechavarria hit a weak grounder that was just enough.

Ichiro Suzuki drew a walk in the bottom of the 11th, to put the tying run on 1st with 1 out, with 2 guys who had already homered coming up. But Jeter grounded into a forceout, and Swish took a called 3rd strike.

Blue Jays 8, Yankees 7. WP: Darren Oliver (3-2) -- seriously, Darren Oliver, whom the Yankees had owned since the 1996 Playoffs with Texas. LP: Lowe (8-11), though the loss really belongs to Girardi and Soriano.

The series continues tonight, with Phil Hughes on the mound for New York. He's pitched well lately, and we need him to pitch well again: While the Tampa Bay Rays lost, keeping them 4 games behind the Yankees, the Baltimore Orioles won, and closed to 3 1/2 back, 3 in the All-Important Loss Column.

*

Bobby Myrick has died.  He pitched 82 games in the major leagues, all with the Mets, from May 1976 to May 1978. By the standards of late 1970s Met pitchers, he wasn't all that bad: His "career" WHIP was 1.411, but his ERA+ was 104.

When he arrived, they gave him the locker next to Tom Seaver. At the trading deadline of 1979, still in the minors, he was one of the players the Mets traded to the Texas Rangers for Dock Ellis, who was at the end of a weird but somewhat successful career.

Being traded for Dock Ellis may have been the most interesting thing about Myrick. In spite of him having pitched for the Mets right at the time I was becoming aware of baseball, and most Met games being on WOR-Channel 9 (now WWOR), I have no memory of him.

He was a 3-sport star in his native Hattiesburg, Mississippi, and after leaving baseball he went back home, into the family's building supply business and became an ordained minister. The cause of death appears to be a heart attack while mowing a neighbor's lawn, no evidence of substance abuse or foul play. He was 59.

Friends In Lowe Places

The Texas Rangers came to town for a 4-game series last night.  Like all teams named Rangers, no matter what the sport, no matter what the country, especially if they wear blue shirts -- baseball in Dallas, hockey in New York, soccer in Glasgow -- these Rangers suck.

The only Ranger who wears a blue shirt and doesn't suck is the Lone Ranger. Except for the one Klinton Spilsbury played in the 1981 abomination The Legend of the Lone Ranger. And the new film version planned for next year has Armie Hammer (who played the Winklevoss Twins in The Social Network) as a Lone Ranger dressed in black, and Johnny Depp as a ghostly-looking Tonto. I have no confidence in this version.

Anyway... The Texas Rangers scored a run in the top of the 1st and another in the top of the 2nd off David Phelps, who was starting in place of the injured CC Sabathia. But in the bottom of the 3rd, the Yanks scored 5 runs, including a grand slam by Nick Swisher -- his 15th home run of the season and the 200th of his career. Eric Chavez added his 13th homer in the 6th, and 2 more runs were scored in the 7th.

They chased Ryan Dempster (6-6), the former Chicago Cub and Florida Marlin ace who was supposed to make the difference for the Rangers this season. So far, he hasn't.

Phelps (3-3) went 5 innings. In came Derek Lowe, of the 1997-2004 Red Sox that revitalized the franchise (with help from steroids), the man who became the 1st man ever to win the clinching games of a Division Series, a League Championship Series, and a World Series in the same season. (Andy Pettitte not only joined him, but became the 1st man to start and win such games.)

Paul Sullivan of the blog Sully Baseball did a piece on Lowe earlier this season, when he was doing well with the Cleveland Indians, comparing how he felt about Lowe to a relationship with an annoying ex-girlfriend: The highs kept him in, but the lows drove him bananas.

It could be worse: With Randy Velarde, Ruben Sierra, Javier Vazquez and Scott Proctor, I've seen the return of exes who never should have had a 1st go-around. (Please, God, never let Brian Cashman bring back Kyle Farnsworth. That was an abusive relationship, and I just may return the abuse if it happens!)

After seeing such ex-Red Sox as Wade Boggs, Roger Clemens, Johnny Damon and -- you forgot he was briefly with the Red Sox, didn't you? -- Jose Canseco not only play, but win World Series, with the Yankees, it shouldn't be too shocking to see Derek Lowe in Pinstripes -- the Number 32 he wore with the Sox has been retired for Elston Howard, so he got the Number 34 last worn by A.J. Burnett.

But Lowe is 39. He was a big reason why the Atlanta Braves, last season, went from serious contenders for the National League East title to missing the Playoffs completely. And while he got off to a good start with Cleveland this season, he had fallen apart, and been released. That's why he was available after the trading deadline in the first place. Surely, he can't have had much left?

Last night, Derek Lowe pitched 4 innings. He allowed no runs, 2 hits, no walks, notching 4 strikeouts. He threw 44 pitches (a very efficient average of 11 an inning) for 33 strikes. It was his 1st save in over a year.

Yankees 8, Rangers 2. With the win, the Yankees remain 5 games ahead of the surging Tampa Bay Rays (who've now won 7 straight) in the American League East, and the Magic Number to clinch the Division drops to 42. Even more important, with the win, the Yankees move a half-game ahead of the Rangers -- even in the loss column -- in the race for best record in the AL, and thus for the top seed and home-field advantage in both rounds of the AL Playoffs. (Unlike Jim Mora Sr., we can talk about Playoffs.)

After the game, Lowe said he heard someone yell, "We love you, Derek!" But he also said he wasn't sure if it was meant for him or for some other guy named Derek. (Jeter doubled and drove in a run last night. His 24th double of the season. He's now hitting .318. Did somebody say he was washed up and not worth big money?)

The series continues tonight, Hiroki Kuroda against Matt Harrison.