Yanks Come Roaring Back On 9/11 Eve

It's difficult to have, and more difficult to generate, good feelings on September 11, especially as close as I am to New York City.

On September 11, 2001, I stood on an overpass over the New Jersey Turnpike, and saw the plume of black smoke rising from where the World Trade Center stood, and saw it trail off into the distance, seemingly forever.

Between the World Trade Center, the Pentagon, and the field in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, a currently official total of 2,977 victims died -- which now includes people who died from lung illnesses from breathing the toxic air at the rescue site.

The New York Tri-State Area's sports teams rallied around their community. Yankee center fielder Bernie Williams saw one woman at a relief station and said he didn't know exactly what was wrong, but she looked like she needed a hug.

A one-week delay was exactly what was needed. After that, we needed something to take our minds off the constant bombardment of images of destruction and death. We needed to be uplifted, and we were. While new games were not a priority, the people in these organizations proved that it is never "only a game."

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That said, the Yankees did have a remarkable win last night, which provides some good feelings.

It didn't look likely. Chris Capuano was tagged for 4 runs by the Tampa Bay Rays, and Joe Girardi lifted him before he could even get a 2nd out. Chase Whitley pitched through the 3rd inning, Preston Claiborne the 4th and the 5th, Adam Warren got through the 6th and the 1st 2 outs of the 7th, Dellin Betances finished the 7th and the 8th, and Esmil Rogers pitched the 9th.

Between them, they allowed 1 run on 7 hits and 3 walks in 8 2/3rds innings. And if we had gotten that from the Yankees' starter, we would have been thrilled.

Of course, if the situation were fully reversed, then our closer would have allowed 4 runs in 1/3rd of an inning.

Down 4-0 before we even came to bat, the situation looked grim. But Brian McCann hit a home run in the bottom of the 1st, his 18th of the season. He then singled home 2 runs in the 3rd, to make it 4-3 Tampa Bay. (This got his batting average up to .242.) Chris Young, whom we picked up last month as a free agent after the Mets dumped him, homered in the 4th, his 1st home run as a Yankee, his 9th overall this season. Tie ballgame.

The Yankees picked up 2 runs in the 5th, and 2 more in the 8th; RBI hits by Mark Teixeira, Chase Headley, Ichiro Suzuki, and... oh to be... Young again. 8-4.

Rogers allowed a home run to Evan Longoria in the 9th, but that was as close as the Rays got. Yankees 8, Rays 5.

WP: Claiborne (3-0), as he was the pitcher when the Yankees took the lead. No save, as Rogers had a 4-run lead when he entered the game as (as it turned out) the final Yankee pitcher. LP: Jake Odorizzi (10-12).

With 19 games left to play, the Yankees are 4 1/2 games behind the Detroit Tigers for the 2nd American League Wild Card berth.

The series concludes tonight, with Michael Pineda starting against Alex Cobb. The Mets will also be at home tonight, playing the Washington Nationals at Citi Field.

There's usually a few days a season when both teams are at home -- not counting Interleague games against each other, of course -- but this is the 1st time since the attack that both teams have been scheduled to play at home on a September 11. Either one or the other has played in The City on every September 11 since 2001, except in 2008. But this is only the 2nd time since the new Yankee Stadium opened in 2009 that the Yankees have been scheduled at home on the day.

Both teams will have special pregame ceremonies tonight.

*

Hours until East Brunswick High School plays football again: 27, tomorrow night, away to Piscataway, a team we haven't beaten in 24 years. No, that's not a typo: Twenty-four years, nearly a quarter of a century. I had previously thought they were playing a week ago, a Thursday night, but that was a scrimmage, a preseason game.

Days until Arsenal play again: 2, this Saturday, 7:45 in the morning our time, home to Manchester City. The Gunners beat the Citizens 3-0 in the preseason Community Shield, the annual season lidlifter between the defending Premier League Champions (City) and the holders of the FA Cup (Arsenal). But neither side was exactly fielding its preferred starting lineup, and Arsenal have serious injury issues, and both teams struggled in their last League game. We'll see.

Days until the Red Bulls play again: 2, Saturday afternoon, at 3:00 PM, away to the Philadelphia Union, at PPL Park in Chester, Pennsylvania. Last night, they beat arch-rival D.C. United 1-0 on a 90th-minute goal by the usually useless Lloyd Sam. The Playoff race is heating up, and Metro really needed that goal to get those 3 points.

Days until the Red Bulls next play a "derby": The previous answer is the last one for this season, barring a Playoff matchup.

Days until Rutgers plays football again: 2, this Saturday at 8:00 PM, in their Big Ten Conference debut, home to old enemy Penn State. BEAT THE SCUM!

Days until Derek Jeter's last regular-season home game (barring injury): 14, on Thursday, September 25, against the Baltimore Orioles. Just 2 weeks, and (in all probability, and not counting Old-Timers' Games) Derek Jeter will never play at Yankee Stadium again.

Days until the next Yankees-Red Sox series begins: 15, on Friday, September 26, at 7:00 PM, at Fenway Park. It is the last series of the regular season, and will be Derek Jeter's last series against the Sox -- and probably his last against anybody.

Days until the next North London Derby between Arsenal and Tottenham: 17, on Sunday, September 28, at the Emirates Stadium.

Days until Derek Jeter's last regular-season game (barring injury): 17, on Sunday, September 28, against the Red Sox at Fenway Park.

Days until the Devils play again: 28. They open on Thursday, October 9, away to the Philadelphia Flyers. Just 4 weeks. They once again get screwed by Commissioner Gary Bettman and his schedulemakers, this time having to play 4 road games before their home opener, on Saturday, October 18, at 7:00 PM, vs. the San Jose Sharks.

Days until the Devils play another local rival: See the previous answer. The first game against The Scum is Tuesday night, October 21, at the Prudential Center. The first game against the Islanders is Saturday night, November 29, at the Nassau Coliseum. The Devils' last trip to Uniondale, before the Isles move to Brooklyn, is Monday night, December 15.

Days until the U.S. national soccer team plays again: 29, on Friday, October 10, at 7:00 PM, a friendly, home to Ecuador, at Rentschler Field in Hartford, Connecticut. Under a month. The following Tuesday, they will play another Latin American team, Honduras, in a friendly at Florida Atlantic University's stadium in Boca Raton, Florida. There will be one more match in the calendar year, another friendly, against the Republic of Ireland at the Aviva Stadium in Dublin (built on the site of their former home, Lansdowne Road), on Tuesday afternoon (evening, local time), November 18.

Days until Game 7 of the 2014 World Series -- the absolute latest you can ever again see Derek Jeter in a competitive game: 48, on Wednesday, October 29. Under 7 weeks, and no more Jeter -- not as an active player, anyway.

Days until the next East Brunswick vs. Old Bridge Thanksgiving game: 77, on Thursday morning, November 27, at 10:00 AM. Only 11 weeks.

Days until New York City FC make their Major League Soccer debut: Unknown, but a new MLS season usually begins on the 2nd Saturday in March, which would be March 14, 2015. That's 184 days. A little over 6 months. Whether it will be a home game, and thus at the new Yankee Stadium, is yet to be determined.

Days until Alex Rodriguez is eligible to play for the Yankees again: 202 -- presuming, that is, that 2015's Opening Day is on April 1, and wouldn't it just work out that way, that A-Rod is again allowed to play a regular-season game for the Yankees on April Fool's Day? Anyway, that's under 7 months.

Days until the New York Islanders' last game at the Nassau Coliseum: 212, on April 11, 2015, at 7:00 PM, against the Columbus Blue Jackets. Exactly 7 months.

Days until the Islanders' first home game at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn: Unknown, but an NHL regular season usually begins on the 1st Friday in October, which would be October 2, 2015. That's 387 days. That's under 13 months. Or, to put it another way, "387 Sleeps Till Brooklyn." Until then, even with their 4 straight long-ago Stanley Cups, they're just a Small Club In Hempstead.

Days until Euro 2016 begins in France: 639, on Friday, June 10. Under 21 months.

Days until the next Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil: 696, on Friday, August 5, 2016. Under 23 months.

Days until the next World Cup begins in Russia: 1,369, on Friday June 8, 2018. Under 4 years.

Two Weird Games at Wrigley

So the Yankees played 22 innings at Wrigley Field this week.

In the 1st 17 innings, against a very weak Chicago Cubs team, they scored exactly 1 run.

That was unacceptable.

Fortunately, they did something about it.

*

On Tuesday night, we found out that Masahiro Tanaka is human. He gave up 4 runs in 6 innings, and lost for the 1st time in the North American major leagues. He'd pitched pretty well until the bottom of the 6th, but the 2 runs he allowed then doomed him.

But it wouldn't have made a difference if the Yankees had hit the ball. Derek Jeter and Brett Gardner each got 2 hits, Mark Teixeira and Yangervis Solarte 1 each. That was it. The only Yankee run came in the top of the 6th, when Gardner led off with a double, Jeter grounded out, Jacoby Ellsbury popped up, and Teixeira singled him home.

That made it 2-1, but Tanaka proved mortal in the bottom half of the inning, and the Cubs scored 2 more off the bullpen in the 7th. That made the final score: Cubs 6, Yankees 1.

WP: Jason Hammel (5-2). No save. LP: Tanaka (6-1).

*

So yesterday, it was, as it was in the old days (before 1988), day baseball at the Friendly Confines of Wrigley Field.

Between them, Chase Whitley, Dellin Betances, Adam Warren and even Alfredo Aceves pitched decently for 8 innings. And still, the Yankees didn't hit, making Cub starter Jeff Samardzija look good.

There was "Yankees RISPfail" in the 2nd, 4th and 7th innings, but nobody could be brought around to score. So it was 2-0 Cubs.

Then came the top of the 9th, and the Cubs did what the Cubs so frequently do: They blew it.

Teix led off with a single. Brian McCann drew a walk, with Brendan Ryan pinch-running for him. Due to this being an Interleague game in a National League park, NL rules were in play, and with pitchers having to bat -- or be pinch-hit for -- substitutions were at a premium, and so Joe Girardi, himself a former Cub player who'd grown up in Illinois as a Cub fan, couldn't pinch-run for both of those slowpokes.

Solarte singled to load the bases with nobody out. If the Yankees couldn't get 2 runs out of this, to at least tie the game, they might as well have packed up the season.

The batter was Ichiro Suzuki. He hit a grounder to short, a perfect double-play ball, which would, at least, have gotten a run home. Except when Darwin Barney, the Cub 2nd baseman, threw over to 1st, he made a bad throw, and Ichiro was safe. That also allowed Ryan to score. Tie game, extra innings.

Matt Daley pitched the 9th and into the 10th for the Yankees. Matt Thornton finished the 10th and got into the 11th. Preston Claiborne finished the 11th and the 12th.

The Yankees stranded runners in the 10th and 11th, and when they stranded 2 in the 12th, I figured that was it, we weren't going to win this one.

Then came the top of the 13th, and 13 was an unlucky number for the Cubs -- who've had more than their share of bad luck in the last 100 or so years.

Or maybe it wasn't bad luck. Maybe it was bad management. Jose Veras was a Yankee for 3 seasons and part of a 4th. We got rid of him in 2009, and then won the World Series. He's never been especially useful. What is he still doing in the major leagues, let alone on the Cubs' roster? But Cub manager Rick Renteria brought him in to pitch the top of the 13th.

Ryan led off the inning with a single. Veras walked Solarte. That brought Claiborne to the plate. He had never come to bat in the major leagues before. With Girardi having no idea how much longer this game could go on, putting a pinch-hitter up and thus having to replace the pitcher was a bad idea. But with men on 1st & 2nd and nobody out, it was the perfect situation to lay down a bunt.

Claiborne laid down a beauty, moving both men over. Now it was 2nd & 3rd with 1 out. The potential winning run could score without needing a hit.

And no hit was needed. There are two things that get "uncorked": Bottles of wine, and wild pitches. John Ryan Murphy (I really hope they start calling him "J.R." instead) was batting, and Veras uncorked a wild pitch, scoring Ryan. 3-2 Yankees.

Murphy got the RBI hit anyway, scoring Solarte. 4-2 Yankees.

David Robertson allowed a 1-out single in the bottom of the 13th, but that would be it.

WP: Claiborne (2-0). SV: Robertson (9). LP: Veras (0-1).

*

So the Yankees split their 2 games at Wrigley, and now head down to the South Side of Chicago -- and the way the Cubs and the White Sox are playing these days, that is definitely the baddest part of town (but not the worst, baseball-wise). Here are the projected pitching matchups:

Tonight, 8:10 PM Eastern Time (7:10 Central), about an hour from this writing: David Phelps vs. Chris Sale. (I am not optimistic.)

Tomorrow night, 8:10 PM: Hiroki Kuroda vs. Hector Noesi. (I am much more optimistic about this one.)

Saturday afternoon, 2:10 PM: Vidal Nuno vs. John Danks. (This one could be ugly -- for both sides.)

Sunday afternoon, 2:10 PM: Tanaka vs. Andre Rienzo. (Probably a Yankee win.)

Then it's off to St. Louis for 3, before beginning a 6-game homestand vs. Minnesota and Oakland.

Come on you Bombers!

Eighteen Innings. And What Did We Get?

The longest baseball game I've ever seen live was 15 innings. Well, 18, if you count the Old-Timers' Game before it. It was July 11, 1987, at the old Yankee Stadium. Catfish Hunter, 41 years old, was painting the corners the way he used to. Made sense, he'd had 8 years' rest.

It was the first time players I'd grown up watching played in an Old-Timers' Game, and that creeped me out. Two of "my Yankees" were still playing in the regular game. Willie Randolph didn't do much. Ron Guidry struck out 14 batters, but couldn't finish the 7th inning. The bullpen held off the Chicago White Sox as long as it could, but the Pale Hose scored 3 in the top of the 15th, and that was it: Yankees lose, 5-2.

The longest game I'd ever seen on TV was 19 innings, the Mets-Braves epic in Atlanta on July 4, 1985, the Rick Camp Game. I watched it on Channel 9, then WOR, with Ralph Kiner, Tim McCarver and Steve Zabriskie. Little did I know that, doing the game for the Braves on WTBS, was John Sterling. The Mets finally won it, 16-13.

The longest Yankee game I'd ever seen on TV was 17 innings, in the magical season of 1978. Unfortunately, there was nothing magic about that one: It was at home, against the Boston Red Sox, and after 14 innings, the game was suspended due to the American League's curfew: No inning can start after 1:00 AM. (That rule no longer stands.)

The game was resumed the next night, August 3, and Boston hit 4 singles off Ken Clay in the top of the 17th to win it, 7-5. My man Reggie Jackson went 0-for-7. So did Cliff Johnson, catching that night to give aching Thurman Munson some relief. It didn't work: Thurm was the DH that day, and he went 1-for-7. (He was still better off that day than he was exactly 1 year later.) Then the Sox took the night's regularly-scheduled game, too, 8-1, smacking Jim Beattie and Paul Lindblad and making a winner of Mike Torrez. And seemingly ending that year's AL East race. (Little did we know... )

Just a few days ago, the Mets lost to the Miami Marlins in 20 innings.

*

And then came yesterday's season finale in Oakland, with the Athletics already having taken the 1st 2 games against the Yankees. It was a 12:30 PM Pacific Time start, meaning 3:30 Eastern Time. No help for anyone there, although it looked like it was a beautiful day for a game. (Which isn't all that common in Oakland: They got a lot of the drawbacks of living in the San Francisco Bay Area, including the weird weather, and few of the perks and little of the glamour.)

To paraphrase Tennessee Ernie Ford: Yesterday the Yankees played 18 innings, and what did we get? Another day older and deeper in debt.

As with last year's postseason against Baltimore and Detroit, we certainly can't blame the pitching. Hiroki Kuroda started and allowed just 2 runs, 2 hits and 2 walks over 8 innings. David Robertson was a little shaky in the 9th, but struck out the side. Between them, Boone Logan and Shawn Kelley managed to not screw up the 10th.

Adam Warren had what would usually be considered a "quality start." Except it started in the 11th inning. He threw 85 pitches, and, as Paul Sullivan of Sully Baseball (a pretty keen observer so don't hold it against him that he's a Red Sox fan) pointed out, every single one of those 85 pitches could have ended the game in defeat for his team. None of them did.

Warren pitched the 11th, the 12th, the 13th and the 14th like nobody's business. At which point, YES Network announcer Michael Kay said, "You want free baseball? You got it!"

No, I don't want free baseball! I want winning baseball! If I just wanted the game, I could've rooted for that other team!

Warren got into serious trouble in the 15th, and I thought, "It would be a damn shame if Girardi left him in too long, and he got tired, and he ended up the losing pitcher because of that." The A's had Brandon Moss on 2nd and Josh Reddick on 1st with 1 out. The batter was Coco Crisp, who's hit the Yankees well for a long time. And, sure enough, Crisp got a hit, a single to left.

"Well, that's it, game over," I thought. Except Vernon Wells threw home, catcher Chris Stewart got the ball and blocked the plate, and Moss was out. Then Warren found something deep within his character and struck out Adam Rosales to end the threat.

Then I began to wonder if Joe Girardi's Binders Full of Strategies had any contingencies for games that lasted longer than 15 innings, because he left Warren in for the 16th. Warren got the 1st 2 outs, then allowed a single and a walk, before Nate Freiman hit a liner to right. Ichiro Suzuki slipped, but caught the ball anyway. I yelled out a profanity at Ichiro and added, "We don't need that kind of drama!"

Girardi took Warren off the hook, and sent Preston Claiborne out to pitch the 17th. Flyout, flyout, single, strikeout.

After all this good pitching, you'd think the Yankees would have given their pitchers the gratitude of scoring at least 3 runs. Yeah, well, you would think, but you'd be wrong.

Brett Gardner led off the game with a double. Jayson Nixon hit a line drive that A's shortstop Jed Lowrie caught. Then Robinson Cano hit his 16th home run of the season, to make it 2-0 Yankees.

Over the next 17 2/3 innings, the Yankees sent 67 batters to the plate. They got 8 hits and 7 walks. Zero runs.

Let me spell that out: Sixty-seven batters, no runs.

The worst offenders:

* Travis Hafner, 0-for-8, including 3 strikeouts, and 7 men left on base.

* Vernon Wells, 0-for-8, including 3 strikeouts, and 3 men left on base, although he did make that great throw in the 15th to keep the game alive.

* Kevin Youkilis, 0-for-7, including 3 strikeouts, and 6 LOB.

* Mark Teixeira, 0-for-5, including 3 strikeouts, and 4 LOB, though he did draw 2 walks.

* Chris Stewart, 1-for-6, including a strikeout, and 2 LOB, though he did have that great plate-block in the 15th.

* And the 2nd spot in the order: Between them, Jayson Nix, Lyle Overbay and Reid Brignac were 1-for-8 with a strikeout and 5 LOB.

Essentially, this is the kind of game people were fearing they would repeatedly see, when they saw in Spring Training that we would, through injuries, be missing Alex Rodriguez and Curtis Granderson, and also Teix who could once again, once he came back, go into the traditional Yankee 1st baseman's role (which predates even Don Mattingly) of getting off to a slow start (he's now batting .163).

I began to wonder if I was going to get a text message from the Yankees:

"We're so sorry, Uncle Michael, but we haven't hit a bloody thing all day!"

In the bottom of the 18th, Claiborne got Derek Norris to ground out, but allowed a single to John Jaso. In this case, the right thing to do would have been to give him at least 1 more batter, to see if he could get out of it.

But Girardi consulted his Binders Full of Strategies, and he brought in Mariano Rivera to relieve in the bottom of the 18th inning of a tie game. Andy Pettitte, scheduled to be tonight's starter in the opener of a series in Anaheim against the "Los Angeles" Angels, was sent out to the bullpen, just in case someone was needed to pitch a bottom of the 19th.

I remember saying, "I don't like this... " I saw someone on Twitter invoke the old Star Wars line: "I've got a bad feeling about this!"

Mo allowed a single to Seth Smith. Jaso got to 3rd. 1st & 3rd, 1 out. Girardi told Mo to intentionally walk Lowrie to load the bases and set up a double (or at least a force) play.

No use. Freiman hit a weak liner to left, and Wells had no chance at it. Ballgame.  A's 3, Yankees 2.

WP: Jesse Chavez (1-0). LP: Claiborne (0-1), though he hardly deserved to be assessed the loss. Nor did Mo.

It was a long day's journey into numbness.

Tonight, at 10:05 PM our time, the Yankees send Pettitte out to face the Angels. Their pitcher is C.J. Wilson, whom you'll remember giving us trouble in the 2010 ALCS with the Texas Rangers.

At this point, I could live with it if the Yankees lost 9-8. Or even 13-7. (Sorry, Andy.) At this point, I could take a 13-7 loss a lot easier than I could take one that was 2-1.

Boone Logan Is a Bum... Again!

Boone Logan is a bum. He proved it again yesterday.

This weekend, the Yankees played a 3-game home series with the Oakland Athletics, a team which always seems to give them trouble, no matter how good either team is.

On Friday night, the Yankees sent out their ace, CC Sabathia, who grew up in California's East Bay section and was thus an A's fan. That didn't seem to stop him from pitching well, and he pitched well enough to win, going 6 innings, allowing only 2 runs. Adam Warren then pitched 3 shutout innings. Given that kind of moundwork, the Yankees should have won.

But this was the kind of performance that people feared the Yankees would put up when so many great hitters got hurt. A.J. Griffin, Sean Doolittle and Grant Balfour combined on a 6-hit shutout. Brett Gardner singled in the 1st and 8th innings, Chris Stewart walked and Robinson Cano hit a ground-rule double in the 3rd, Ichiro Suzuki singled in the 4th, Jayson Nix singled in the 5th and doubled in the 7th,

The Yankee stranded Gardner on 2nd with 1 out in the 1st, Stewart on 3rd and Cano on 2nd in the 3rd, Ichiro with 1 out in the 4th, Nix on 2nd with 1 out in the 5th and Nix again on 2nd in the 7th, while Gardner's leadoff bunt single in the 8th was erased with a double play.

A's 2, Yankees 0. WP: Griffin (3-2). SV: Balfour (4). LP: Sabathia (4-3).

*

On Saturday, it was Phil Hughes against former Yankee Bartolo Colon. Colon didn't pitch all that badly (3-1), but the Yankees didn't need him, because Hughes was fantastic, throwing 8 shutout innings (1-2). Chris Stewart (his 2nd) and Lyle Overbay (his 5th) hit home runs off Colon.

Shawn Kelley almost blew it in the 9th, and Mariano Rivera had to come in and put out the fire (not a save situation). Yankees 4, A's 2.

WP: Hughes (1-2). No save. LP: Colon (3-1).

*

Then yesterday's game, in which Boone Logan once again proved that he is a bum.

Andy Pettitte started for the Yankees, and did not have good stuff. He only went 5 innings, allowing 4 runs. Still, the Yankees kept coming back. They were down 1-0 in the 3rd, and 4-1 in the 6th, and on each occasion tied it up. The Yankees got 2 perfect innings, the 6th and the 7th, from Preston Claiborne, a 25-year-old kid from Dallas making his major league debut, wearing Number 38.

Now, those of us who use our eyes would say, "This kid's doing very well.  Let's leave him in there."

Joe Girardi uses his Binder, which obviously said, "It's the 8th inning, and it's a tie game, so you need to bring in Boone Logan. But don't blame me if it goes wrong. Again."

Logan got Yoenis Cespedes to fly to left. Then he served up a meatball to Josh Donaldson, who hit it out to left field. 5-4 A's. Then he allowed a single to Nate Freiman.

Did Girardi say to himself, "Oh my God, this bum screwed us again. I have to get him out of there"? No, he sent pitching coach Larry Rothschild out to calm Logan down.

Did it work? For the moment: Logan struck out Luke Montz and got Seth Smith to ground out. But Girardi sent Logan back out for the top of the 9th, and Josh Reddick hit a line drive to right field for a double. Only then did Girardi come to his senses and yank the bum. He brought in Kelley, who got the last 3 outs.

But the damage was done. In the bottom of the 9th, Chris Nelson lined to left, Brennan Boesch struck out, Gardner singled to center, a wild pitch sent that tying run to 2nd, Cano was intentionally walked -- always risky, putting the winning run on base -- and Vernon Wells struck out.

WP: Doolittle (2-0). SV: Balfour (5). LP: Logan (2-2).

*

Did I mention that Boone Logan is a bum?

The Yankees head out for a roadtrip, 3 games in Denver against the Colorado Rockies, 3 in Kansas City against the Royals, then on Monday they play a separate-admission doubleheader in Cleveland to make up the 2 snowouts against the Indians last month.

And if Logan pitches in any of those games, expect the Yankees to lose.

Because Boone Logan is a bum.