Let us begin with the weather, which was balmy and humid for October in the Bronx. With possible rain showers forecast, the fans had jackets, but most were carrying them. The intense wind of game one had gone, and if anything the wind was blowing in just a bit, the big American flag beyond left field hanging limp much of the night.
The warmth added to the party atmosphere at the ballpark, where the beer was flowing freely if the people in our section of the upper deck were any indication. No one was feeling tense, except maybe the Twins.
The first seven pitches of the game were all strikes (or hit into play) before A.J. Burnett threw his first ball. He looked sharp and aggressive (except to Joe Mauer, but I get the feeling the Yankees corporate policy on Mauer is to never give him anything good to hit, so walking him sometimes is inevitable) but so did Nick Blackburn when he took the hill for Minnesota, retiring the Yankees quickly in the first. Jeter’s average was no longer a majestic 1.000.
As the innings wore on, though, and the Yankees still couldn’t manage much but pop-ups off Blackburn, Burnett’s focus began to drift. He walked the number nine hitter in the third, Nick Punto, who admittedly is a walking machine, hit back to back batters in the fourth, and walked Orlando Cabrera in the fifth. It was only an incredible heads-up play by Nick Swisher and Derek Jeter (yes, him again) after the back to back HBPs that kept the game scoreless. With two out and the two plunked men on, Michael Tolbert came to the plate and hit a line drive single to Swisher, but before Delmon Young could cross the plate and score, Swisher threw the ball to Jeter who tagged out Carlos Gomez to end the inning. Home plate umpire Chuck Meriweather signaled emphatically no play but many in the crowd were not completely sure of what they had just seen until after the inning break when the scoreboard again showed the big fat zero in the Twins score column.
Unfortunately, the Yankees had the same zero. And then Burnett’s woes continued as he walked Delmon Young with one out in the sixth. Young stole second but he struck out Carlos Gomez to bring Michael Tolbert to the plate, except it wasn’t Tolbert, it was Brendan Harris pinch hitting. Harris connected on a pitch to send it sailing. Would it be a home run? Hit the wall? Johnny Damon and Melky Cabrera were converging, with Johnny slightly closer. He leaped at the wall, and it would have been an incredible circus catch if he made it. But he didn’t. RBI triple for Harris. 1-0 Twins.
The Yankees did let them have the lead for long. With Burnett having thrown over 90 pitches, Joe Girardi took catcher Jose Molina out of the game and inserted Jorge Posada to pinch hit for him to lead off the inning. Posada was ready to mash, and bashed a ball that looked like maybe it would go. But no, it was caught on the warning track in deep center. However, Jeter then did the same, the ball bouncing over the wall for a ground rule double. Johnny Damon worked a walk, and up came Mark Teixeira.
To that point, Teixeira was hitless for the postseason. Only he and Cano didn’t have hits to their credit in game one, but Cano had ripped a single in the previous inning. Teixeira had popped up twice. Could he finally solve Blackburn? No. He popped up for the third time, and I began to wonder if A-Rod just passed his postseason slump to Teix.
Speaking of A-Rod, up he now came to the plate, his back free of the monkey that had dogged him until game one, when he came through not once but twice with two out and men in scoring position. He stroked a single and Jeter scored handily to tie the game. I turned to corwin and said, “Look who finally learned not to try to do to much.”
A-Rod and Teixeira would both be important in the game’s final outcome.
Read more at Why I Like Baseball: http://www.whyilikebaseball.com/2009/10/alds-game-2-twins-at-yankees/
