I’ve been at every home opener since 2000 except 2009, which got rained out and so I drove back to Boston in tears instead of staying in the city another day to go to the make-up game.

Today made up for it.

My two favorite Opening Days of the past decade were in 2001, seeing the actual raising of the Championship Banner and the “ceremonial golf cart ride” to Monument Park, and in 2003, when after the game was delayed one day by snow, Matsui finally took the field in pinstripes for the first time and hit a grand slam.

Today might top both of those.

First of all, it’s not every day that I cry before we even get to the National Anthem. The ring ceremony began with a tearful Gene Monahan receiving his first off, and the players hanging back to honor him for all he has done. Gene-o, as he is called, has been Yankees trainer for my entire life, and for longer than the Steinbrenners have owned the team (by one year). He has throat and neck cancer, had his tonsils removed in January, missed spring training, and had his 30th radiation treatment today. He also received a standing ovation, much deserved.

Yogi and Whitey handed out the rings, along with Joe Girardi, who has changed his number from 27 to 28 to reflect his next goal for the franchise, their 28th championship. Jerry Hairston, Jr. was there, in a suit, to receive his. And then they worked their way through the Yankees’ roster, from the highest number (91, Alfredo Aceves) to the lowest. Alex Rodriguez received one of the loudest ovations from the fans when things got to him, about the same loudness as Mariano Rivera received. I got a little teary watching how happy Alex looked. And of course #2, the captain, Derek Jeter, came last, to thunderous applause.

Except he wasn’t last. There was one ring box on the table, and it was for the World Series MVP, Hideki Matsui, who was in the third base dugout, wearing the uniform of the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim. Matsui received the loudest cheers of all, including chants of MVP! MVP! and his name. He looked a bit teary eyed, too, as he stood on the top step, waiting to come out.

The Yankees broke ranks as soon as Matsui had shaken hands with Joe Girardi, all gathering around him for a group hug/mass congratulations. They looked excited and happy, and it reminded me of the 1999 All Star Game at Fenway Park where the players gathered all around Ted Williams. I cried. My friend Lori cried. Another friend of ours who had come along to the game but who doesn’t know baseball (isn’t from the USA), was flabbergasted that we got so emotional. Then she looked around and saw that all the guys in our section were crying, too. Once again we proved the Game of Their Own adage wrong. Matsui was one lone red hat in a sea of pinstripes.

Oh, and then there was a game to play. How fitting that Andy Pettitte took the mound today, and that Mariano Rivera got the save, even though it looked for a while like no save situation would be required.

Pettitte was frisky, meaning he was leaving the ball up, but pitching with some extra oomph, so he got a lot of fly balls (harmless) and strike-outs, rather than his usual ground balls, although he escaped a two-men on jam with a ground ball, pop up and strikeout in the fifth, and then in the sixth escaped men on the corners one out with a nice 6-4-3 double play. That was probably the turning point of the game for me–if he gives up a 3-run bomb or walks Howie Kendrick to load the bases, the whole game could have fallen apart, but instead, quite near to his pitch limit, he got the big twin-killing when he needed it.

The Yankees scored early and often. Every Yankee starter reached base at least once, Teixeira twice by the walk, Gardner once, the rest with hits. Nick Johnson homered in the first, Jeter in the third. They threatened in every inning.

They took a 5-0 shut out into the eighth inning, when Chan Ho Park gave up his second homer of the year to Kendry Morales. The batter before him was Matsui, whom the crowd kept expecting to do something great like hit a home run. If he had hit one then, he would have been cheered. Instead, I think he was humbled by the moment. He grounded to second base–another usual Matsui outcome.

The Yankees tacked on two more runs in the 8th, so it was 7-1 going into the ninth inning, and David Robertson came on to finish the job. Kendrick led off with in infield single on a ground ball deep in the hole that Jeter snared but couldn’t get to the bag in time. Then Mathis followed with an infield bunt single, putting two men on. Typical pesky Angels. Brandon Wood, the #9 man, followed with a fly ball to the wall in right, almost caught by Randy Winn (who came in as a supposed defensive replacement?), but ending up a single to load the bases.

Robertson gathered himself to strike out Erick Aybar, but then came Bobby Abreu, and blam, one swing, four runs, and all of a sudden it was a save situation.

Mo didn’t mess around, striking out Torii Hunter to bring that man again, Hideki Matsui, to the plate. Many in the crowd oohed and aahed… would Matsui do it this time? Nope. Mo popped him up and the game was in the bag, 7-5 Yankees.

(Photos to come…)

The 2010 baseball season kicked off on Sunday night with a gala ESPN debut. Steven Tyler of Aerosmith, Neil Diamond, and Pedro Martinez were on hand to lend star power to the evening, which featured the Yankees and Red Sox facing off at Fenway Park on a pleasantly warm April evening.

Unfortunately, the game turned into something more like a dress rehearsal, as both teams had their star turns, but also their lapses, duds, and missed cues.

I had made the mistake of booking a flight from Atlanta to Boston for tonight, which meant I watched the first two innings of the game from a bar in Hartsfield International Airport (augmented by corwin’s texts from Boston, where the game was on NESN), listened to the next six innings on in-flight XM Radio with the WEEI broadcast, and then caught the ninth in the car from the WCBS broadcast (also via XM) after corwin picked me up. I kept score, managing to follow the game with very few drop outs or blanks due to pilot announcements or other interruptions.

My improvised scorecard on the airplane…

The curtain went up on the first inning and both Josh Beckett and CC Sabathia looked as expected, dominant and untouchable. But Beckett was the first of the players to start looking shaky, giving up back to back homers to Jorge Posada and new Yankee Curtis Granderson in the second. Though the Sox got one of those back in their half of the inning, Beckett coughed up three more hairballs in the fourth, on a leadoff double, then a two-out walk, then back to back singles by Brett Gardner and Derek Jeter… setting up another miscue. With Gardner, one of the fastest men in the majors on third, Jeter (who swiped 30 bags last year but was caught only five times) on first, and Joe Girardi in the dugout, I figured the Yankees would be thinking about upstaging Victor Martinez. That’s just the sort of thing you can expect Girardi to do to any catcher with less than a perfect defensive reputation.

And that’s what they did. Jeter ran toward second, stopping short of the bag to draw the throw, which Scutaro then cut off hoping to get Gardner at home, allowing Jeter to get to second. There was no chance to get Gardner even on the delayed double dip. The NESN camera crew was caught napping, too–they didn’t even have a camera on Gardner.

Sabathia got shaky himself after that, though, and then both bullpens allowed far too many inherited runners to score, though the worst blows were when first Chan Ho Park served up the game0tying bomb to Dustin Pedroia, and then Damaso Marte allowed the go ahead run to score by virtue of a pair of cross-ups, one scored a wild pitch and one a passed ball, which brought Youkilis in from second base. This after a nice star turn by the Teixeira-Alex Rodriguez tandem in the seventh had put the Yankees up 7-5 after the Sox had evened the score off Sabathia & David Robertson in the sixth.

Jonathan Papelbon, at least, was ready for his close-up, giving up only a harmless two-out single to Posada. Final score, 9-7 Red Sox, in a game that lasted 3:46, and although it featured no errors definitely had other moments of sloppy play, like a bad throw to the infield from gardner, Nick Swisher taking a bizarre route on Youkilis’s RBI triple, and Robinson Cano seeming to get in his own way on a play.

Even venerable radio veteran John Sterling had some head-scratching moments in the postgame, as did his crew, as John fumbled his signoff from the game broadcast to the postgame, and the crew then failed to provide him the turning point of the game and lost their audio on the “sounds of the game” playback.

Everyone gets a day off tomorrow, as other teams will start their seasons, and then the Sox and Yankees get to try it all again on Tuesday night. I think maybe everyone could use one more day of practice.

The Yankees’ road to their 27th World Championship was a little like what I went through today to finally witness their crowning, requiring all the resources of technology and media at my disposal in order to follow the game.

When the first pitch was thrown, I was somewhere above 30,000 feet, probably over the Washington DC area. I was hoping it would be a typical postseason game, with lots of slow pitching, visits to the mound, hitters taking pitches and working the counts, because then maybe by the time I could get a signal there would still be plenty of game left.

We landed early! I flipped my phone out of airplane mode the moment the wheels touched down and as we taxied I saw on the MLB “At Bat” app that there had been no score, and it was only the second inning!! Unbelievable. Matsui was at the plate facing Pedro with a man on and no one out. I quickly swapped to Safari to open MLB.com’s Live pitch-by-pitch for mobile devices. Matsui looked like he was putting up a battle. On pitch-by-pitch it looks a lot like FOX Trax, where the pitches appear as little circles in a box that represents the strike zone. Green circles are balls, red circles are strikes and fouls.

Blue circles are balls hit into play. Every 15 seconds the browser refreshes and one or two new circles appears. The screen went blank as it refreshed, then BLAM, the blue circle appeared right in the middle of the strike zone. 89 mph fastball… I had to scroll down just a little to see the results: “Hideki Matsui homered. Derek Jeter scored.” corwin and I began fist pumping. Then it was time to actually deplane.

I made my way out to the concourse area and turned on my portable XM radio unit. It took a while to get the wires untangled and by the time I did, it was a commercial, but the score was clearly 2-0 Yankees. Then the dulcet tones of John Sterling accompanied me through the airport. I had changed into my lucky Mike Mussina pinstriped jersey while in the airport in Boston and now Yankees fans were giving me the thumbs up as we went through the airport. The host at one of the sports bars in the Charlotte airport even called out the score, and another guy who had heard the score asked me if I knew how they got the two runs.

Then we went down to baggage claim and unfortunately we lost the signal down there. Even the WiFi wasn’t working right and pitch-by-pitch wouldn’t refresh. A few minutes later we were picked up in a car by a friend of ours to drive to the healing arts conference we’re attending in Columbia, SC (I am a part-time massage therapist as well as baseball writer).

Out came our OTHER portable XM radio unit, this one made for automobiles. I hooked it up to the car stereo, but we didn’t get a signal again until we got out from under the arrivals ramp. Only to discover the Phillies had gotten a run. I see-sawed from being convinced at seeing the Matsui homer that surely this was the night and nothing could stop them, to intense worry that the Phillies were going to rise up and ruin it all.

Matsui sent me right back to feeling like there was no stopping the Yankees. After Alex was called out on strikes (and on pitch-by-pitch it didn’t look like a strike at all, by the way…), Matsui didn’t waste much time connecting again for a base hit and bringing in two more runs. I still remember how in 2003 he didn’t get a hit off Pedro all year, and then in that epic game (the “Grady Little” game) Matsui finally doubled off him. That was six years ago but it’s like Matsui’s bat still remembers.

In the fifth the Yankees were at it again. Pedro wasn’t sent back out again, but it didn’t seem to matter who was on the mound. (It was Chad Durbin, though, for the record.) Jeter led off with a ground rule double. Hairston, who was only in the game because Damon had left with a pulled calf muscle, bunted him to third, and Teixeira cashed him in with a base hit. We were passing the giant baseball on Route 77 then. It’s actually a water tower painted to look like a baseball, and we see it every year on the way to this seminar in Columbia.

We were hungry but didn’t want to stop to eat because it would mean missing the game. What’s good when there’s a championship on the line? The rally continued. A-Rod Walked. Another pitcher came in. Matsui didn’t care who it was (although it was J.A. Happ). He doubled off the wall, only a foot or two from being another home run, driving in his fifth and sixth RBIs of the game and tying the World Series record for most RBIs in a game with former Yankee great Bobby Richardson.

We finally arrived at the hotel. I ran in and checked us in during a pitching change. We hurried up to our room and put on FOX. At last! We ordered room service and settled in to watch the last three innings or so, hoping to also catch all the postgame celebrations… hoping there would be celebrations.

The Phils wouldn’t roll over and die, though. Ryan Howard hit a two-run homer off Pettitte in the sixth, ending Pettitte’s night and finally producing something after his bat had been shut down since Game 1, but it would be too little, too late. His next time at the plate, Howard would strike out for the 13th time in the Series, setting a new record for most Ks in a single series, surpassing Willie Wilson of 1980. Joba Chamberlain would get three men out, but when it looked like the Phils were mounting a rally against him, on came Damaso Marte to retire the red-hot Chase Utley, who lived up to his name, chasing a Marte slider to strike out on three pitches. Then to start the 8th there was the K of Howard, aforementioned, and then it was Mariano Time. I had a plate of chicken wings and a cup of the soup of the day, room service had sent up hot rolls and butter, too, and so basically at that point I definitely felt I had it made. I was exchanging texts with my brother and my friend Lori, who were at the game with the tickets I couldn’t use.

And still the Phils didn’t go down easy, not like in Game 3 when Mariano only threw 5 pitches, or Game 4 when he retired the side on 8 pitches. Tonight, it took Mo 9 pitches just to get Raul Ibanez out of the batters box and unfortunately he doubled. But again, each time the Phillies tried to cash in, the rally was stopped short by Yankee pitching. In the ninth, with a man on, Shane Victorino did not want to go home. He battled Mariano in a ten pitch battle, but ultimately, Mo, and the Yankees, prevailed.

Lori texted me to say she was buying me a 2009 Champions shirt. Ah, how sweet it is, even if I couldn’t be there.

I’m now in bed in my pinstripes, typing this in the dark. corwin’s already asleep. We indulged ourselves switching back and forth between FOX, ESPN, the Yankees radio postgame, and then at 1am our favorite Yankee fan on the radio JT the Brick on FOX Sports Radio. A complete binge of interviews, but hey, you have to enjoy it while you can, right? Now I’m going to post this and then go to sleep, and sleep the sleep of the fulfilled.

If it weren’t for Chase Utley’s ownage of CC Sabathia, the Yankees might have been going for a sweep of the Phils tonight. As it is, they now hold a 3-1 lead in the series, and in all eight previous World Series in which the Bombers took a 3-1 series lead, they won the whole shebang.

The game got started off hot for the Yankees as Jeter singled and Damon doubled, and it looked like all the dire predictions made based on about how bad Blanton’s career numbers were against the Yankees were going to come true. Teixeira grounded out for an RBI for first blood, bringing A-Rod the the plate.

A-Rod took a fastball right in the back, incensing the Yankees bench. It was A-Rod’s third plunking in two days, and he said to the umpire “I think that was pretty obvious.” (Teixeira has now been hit twice, too… more on that later.) The umpires then warned both benches against retaliation, although Sabathia was told he could pitch inside and that the umpires “could tell” if he had intent to hit a batter. I’m not sure I believe that, but in any case, the plunking became a non-issue. Jorge Posada then hit a deep sac fly to bring in a second run, but Blanton had sent his message and settled down.

Blanton would retire the next ten men in a row while hardly seeming to break a sweat. He was helped by an oddly shifting strike zone that MLB.com’s Pitch f/x showed was skewed in his favor. Many of Blanton’s balls just off the strike zone were called strikes, while many of Sabathia’s strikes were called balls.

Sabathia got nicked in the first inning, too. With one out, Shane Victorino laced a double, bringing up Chase Utley, the man who had hit two homers off Sabathia in Game One. Utley once again got a hold of a Sabathia pitch, but it was a foot or two from being a home run, a double off the wall, scoring Victorino. Sabathia then settled down, too, striking out Ryan Howard and Raul Ibanez (on three pitches) around an intentional walk to Jayson Werth. He had a perfect second and third, but then gave up the tying run with two out in the fourth. Ryan Howard, determined not to set a new World Series strikeout record, hit a single, then stole second. Howard is not exactly a speedster. Before this season he had never gotten more than two steals in a whole year, but he’s apparently been working with a coach and this year he had 8 of 9 stolen. So there he was in scoring position. CC got two outs and was working on Pedro Feliz, trying to strand him there. But Feliz was hot and cashed Howard in with a base hit.

Blanton finally blinked again in the fifth. Nick Swisher, who finally broke out of his postseason slump last night with a homer and a double, regained his batting eye tonight and worked a leadoff walk. Walking the leadoff man was like putting raw sirloin into a shark tank. The Yankees began stirring around. Melky Cabrera followed with an infield hit. Sabathia then came to the plate, under orders to bunt, and ended up bunting foul on two strikes for a strikeout. I have to wonder if the weak attempts to bunt were CC secretly saying “Dammit, I’ve hit three career homers! Let me swing!” One unproductive out, but then came Jeter who cashed in Swisher with a hit, followed by Damon, who cashed in Melky. 4-2 Yanks.

But the lead didn’t quite last. Sabathia faced Utley with two outs in the seventh. Utley was definitely going to be his last batter no matter what. And he put Utley down 1-2 on two sharp called strikes and got a foul… but then Utley squared one up and sent a ball deep into the right field seats. That ended Sabathia’s night and cut the lead to a single run.

Marte finished the inning, getting Howard to pop up, and then Joba came on for the eighth. He looked like the Joba of old, striking out Werth on a sucker pitch (high fastball), and then getting Ibanez to swing and miss at the fastball away. He had Pedro Feliz, who was two for three and even the out had been hit hard, down 1-2 then. But he put a 97 mile per hour fastball on the inside half of the plate and Feliz raked it into the seats to tie the game. I don’t think that pitch was where Joba wanted it. He came back to strike out Chooch Ruiz, though, sending the game to the ninth with the score 4-4.

So on came Brad Lidge. Lidge whose struggles this season (11 blown saves) have been well documented and analyzed. But he has been three for three in save situations in the post.

This, however, was not a save situation. If anything, it was even more crucial than a save. Lidge needed to give his team a chance to swing their bats against the Yankees bullpen and not hand a lead to Mariano Rivera.

He faced pinch hitter Hideki Matsui first–Matsui who hit a pinch homer last night. Lidge induced an easy pop-up to short. Then he faced the vaunted Mr. November, Derek Jeter, who had already been on base three out of four times tonight. Jeter guessed fastball and got the slider, looking silly, but he worked the count full before finally fanning. Two outs and it looked like Lidge was going to shut the door when he went 0-2 on Damon, who looked as silly as Jeter on the slider.

But Damon decided to sit on the slider, just fouling off the fastball to stay alive. Lidge kept throwing fastballs, and Damon worked the count full, and then on the ninth pitch of the at bat got another fastball and just managed to line it into left. The sharks began to circle in the Yankees dugout again. Mark Teixeira was up next. Damon wanted to get into scoring position so that he might score on a base hit, and he stole second, only to find when he made his pop-up slide that third base was free for the taking. The Phillies had the infield shift on for Teixeira, and as Jeter did when Jason Giambi was a Yankee, he took the opportunity to grab the extra base. Pedro Feliz took the throw from the catcher behind Damon, and Damon took off. In his postgame press conference, Damon described it as if his 25-year-old legs had suddenly come back. So there he was, perched on third, and a wild pitch or a bloop would make it Mariano Time.

Then Lidge lost Teixeira when he hit him with a pitch. (And was not ejected.)

So it was up to A-Rod. Lidge started him with a fastball on the inside corner, strike one. Then he came back with another fastball, but it was up from the inside corner, just like Joba’s was to Feliz, and Alex didn’t miss it. He ripped the pitch into left for an RBI double, plating Damon and sending Teixiera to third.

Lidge then had Jorge Posada down 0-2 before throwing two that weren’t even close to even the count. The fifth pitch wasn’t a bad one, painting the black on the outside corner, but Posada laced a two-run single, then was out at second trying to stretch it or draw the throw. 7-4 Yankees, and Mariano was coming in.

The FOX broadcasters has earlier shown Mariano huddling up with a heating pad on his ribs, but perhaps it had been just for warmth. It took him only eight pitches to sit the Phils down one-two-three and send the series up 3-1 in the Yankees favor.

The Yankees are hungry now to win tomorrow against Cliff Lee. Lee dominated them in Game 1, but A.J. Burnett dominated the Phillies in Game 2, so we could have a matchup for the ages as the two pitchers go head to head. Can’t wait. Can’t wait.

More Game Notes:

Ryan Howard has joined the ranks of World Series strikeout leaders. Willie Wilson holds the number one spot with 12 Ks in the 1980 series, and it took him 26 at bats to get there. Howard now has 10, and it took him only 14 ABs to do it. Here’s the rest of the list:

Rank Player            SO   PA   Series/Year
1.   Willie Wilson     12   30   1980 WS
2.   Wayne Garrett     11   36   1973 WS
     Eddie Mathews     11   31   1958 WS
     Luis Gonzalez     11   30   2001 WS
     Damon Berryhill   11   24   1992 WS
     Damian Miller     11   23   2001 WS
7.   Devon White       10   36   1997 WS
     George Kelly      10   33   1921 WS
     Vince Coleman     10   30   1987 WS
     Rich Gedman       10   30   1986 WS
     Del Crandall      10   29   1958 WS

Joba Chamberlain vultures the win after giving up the tying run. After the big rally in the ninth, several players were seen hugging the big kid. They really picked him up.

Mariano has thrown a total of 13 pitches in two days. I would say if the Yankees have a lead in the ninth inning tomorrow, he’s available.

Melky Cabrera strained his left hammy and left the game partway through. Hopefully Gardner and Hairston are ready to step up. Remember, Luis Sojo had the series-winning hit against the Mets in Game 5 in 2000. It isn’t always the big horses (or centaurs) that do it.

Thanks to Ed Price of Fanhouse & the Star-Ledger for this factoid: “Last player to battle for 9 or more pitches and get a hit in 9th inning or later of a tied WS game: Derek Jeter, Game 4 ‘01, HR off B.Kim.” Myself, I was reminded of Paul O’Neill doing something similar, too. Follow Ed on Twitter at http://twitter.com/ed_price.

And this one from Sweeny Murti of WFAN: “From the All-Star break thru Game 4 of the WS, CC Sabathia made 20 starts. The Yankees went 17-3 in those starts.”
Follow him on Twitter at http://twitter.com/YankeesWFAN.

Pete Caldera of the Bergen Record: “Into the Fall Classic lexicon, we nominate ‘Damon’s Dash.’”
Follow him at http://twitter.com/pcaldera.

Well, sometimes predictions in baseball pan out. Citizens Bank Park was advertised as a homer haven, and six balls left the yard tonight, three from each team. Sometimes they don’t, as who could have predicted that Andy Pettitte would have the same number of RBIs in the World Series as Ryan Howard?

For a while it looked like Pettitte might not even last long enough to get an at bat. Through two innings he had thrown 52 pitches and struggled with his control.

When Pettitte has his stuff, he induced a lot of ground ball outs. He ended the night with 7 strikeouts and 8 in the air, only 3 real ground ball outs. In the second inning he labored, and the Phillies scored three starting with a Jayson Werth solo homer to lead off the inning. With two on and one out, Phils pitcher Cole Hamels then laid down a perfect bunt for a base hit to load the bases. Pettitte then walked in a run, and gave up an RBI sac fly to Shane Victorino. Getting out of the inning having given up only three runs seemed like a great escape at the time, and indeed as the game went on Andy’s performance only cemented that impression. Other than another solo homer to Werth in the sixth, he was largely untouchable after that, finishing six innings with 104 pitches, four earned runs. After the second, everyone was predicting we would findlly see Chad Gaudin, while Cole Hamels seemed to have found his control and was shutting the Yankees down. But when Pettitte left after six, Hamels was already gone, replaced by J.A. Happ, and Pettitte left with the lead.

Yes, the lead. The Yankees had their hitting shoes on, as Teixeira walked in the fourth, followed by a dinger off the bat of Alex Rodriguez that at first was ruled a double, but upon umpire replay was ruled a homer. The ball had actually hit the lens of a TV camera that was hanging over the right field wall. As one of the baseball writers whose Twitter feed I was following during the game wrote, “It’s Halloween and Jeffrey Maier came dressed as a camera.” (Thanks, Joel Sherman, @nyp_joelsherman) Thanks to the two-run shot (the only multi-run homer hit so far in the World Series; the other 8 shots have been singletons.) it was then 3-2 Phillies.

But not for long. In the next inning, the fifth, Nick Swisher busted out, as he had confidently predicted he would in a FOX rain delay interview prior to the game. He led off the inning with a double, and then scored the tying run when Andy Pettitte, of all people, drove him in with an RBI hit. Jeter followed with another hit and then Johnny Damon stroked a two-run double, scoring Pettitte and Jeter and putting the Yankees up 5-3. Hamels then walked Teixeira for the second time on the night and his night was done.

The Yankees would keep tacking on runs, one each in the next three innings, with a Swisher solo shot, a pinch solo shot from Hideki Matsui, and after walking in the seventh, Johnny Damon stole a base and scored on a Jorge Posada RBI hit. Every Phillies reliever except for Ryan Madson was nicked for an earned run. What had been a rowdy, loud Philly crowd was quieted enough that the “Let’s Go Yankees” chant was easily audible on the FOX tv broadcast.

Meanwhile, Nick Swisher wasn’t the only struggling Yankee to find a bit of redemption in the game. Joba Chamberlain pitched a perfect inning, and then Damaso Marte followed suit. Phil Hughes then came on to start the ninth with an 8-4 lead, and went right after the first hitter, Pedro Feliz. He induced a ground out and then attacked Chooch Ruiz. Yes, it was good to see Hughes be aggressive, but he got a little too aggressive, giving Ruiz one down the middle and up, which left the ballpark in a hurry.

With the score 8-5, Joe Girardi didn’t hesitate to pull Hughes and put in Mariano Rivera. Five pitches later, Game 3 was in the books, an 8-5 Yankee win.

More Notes:
Pettitte’s performance ensured that every Yankee starter so far this postseason has gone at least 6 innings. It also gives him his 17th postseason win, two better than the next closest man, John Smoltz.

A-Rod now has 6 homers this postseason, tying him with Bernie Williams for the franchise lead.

Alex was the first person in the regular season to hit a contested home run reviewed by instant replay, and he is now the first to hit one in the postseason, too.

From Sweeny Murti of WFAN: “Before tonight Yanks had won 22 World Series games since 1996. Rivera had appeared in all but 4 of them.”

There was a party atmosphere in the Bronx prior to ALCS Game 6, as fans psyched themselves up to hopefully see their Yankees punch a ticket to the World Series for the first time in six years. “Tonight’s the night!” “Please let Pettitte have his stuff. Just let him have his stuff.” “The real fans are here tonight! The real Yankee people are here tonight!”

We arrived early to the game, two full days early, actually, given that Saturday night was a washout. We were a few blocks from the Stadium and just starting to look for a place to park when the announcement came over XM that the game had been called. We took a friend out to dinner instead, while torrential rains and lightning dominated the skies, and then this morning dawned clear and dry. There was a beautiful sunset just before we headed into El Molino Rojo, a Dominican Restaurant a few blocks from the Stadium, and by the time we came out, night had fallen and the crowds were thick on the streets heading for the game. There was no wind to speak of on a perfect autumn night.

“The real Yankee people” were chanting and cheering before the game even began. I’d never heard umpire introductions so lustily booed.

I was tickled to see Chuck Mangione play the National Anthem. After all, the last time I saw him play the anthem before a Yankees game, Dave Righetti went and pitched a no-hitter.

Pettitte did not pitch a no-hitter tonight, but he did go to 0-2 on all three batters in the first inning and retired them all. The crowd was in full voice, on its feet every time he went to two strikes, not just in the first but through the whole game. There was a brief moment of deflation when the Angels scored first, but when they settled for one run, and then the crowd was right back into it as soon as the Yankees came to bat. Between the two of us, corwin and I went through nine cough drops, and everyone else in our section of the upper deck were equally hoarse by the time we were chanting at Vladimir Guerrero when he tried to take a walk to first base on Ball Three in the eighth inning. (I’ll give you one guess what we were chanting. I have to wonder what it’s like to have fifty thousand people calling you a dirty name.)

That first Angels run, by the way, was keyed by Mathis again with a leadoff double, that man that they just can’t get out. I think the stat was he’d had seven hits in the ALCS, despite not starting every game, and of those seven, five were doubles. You have to wonder if anything would have gone differently if Mathis had played more.

There were some non-home runs. Damon hit one just a few feet foul in the first. Posada had a shot that was caught right at the wall. Ultimately, the Yankees had to do it the Angels’ way, with each run scratched and clawed onto the board. After stranding five runners in the first three innings, they took the lead in the fourth when Cano led off the inning with a walk. “Oh, that’s good,” said the guy next to me to his 13-year-old son. “Leadoff walks usually score.” But up next was Nick Swisher, who has been struggling.

Swish cut his hair, though, going back to the “Swish-hawk,” to see if changing his hair would change his luck. “My father said the haircut is good for at least one hit,” he told reporters after the game. Well, his dad was right, and he singled, moving Cano to second. Melky Cabrera sacrificed them to second and third on the first pitch he saw, bringing up Derek Jeter. Jeter had a battle of an at bat and ended up working a walk to load the bases, bringing Johnny Damon to the plate.

Damon had looked weak against Joe Saunders to that point, other than the loud foul, with two soft ground outs. But on Saunders’ 74th pitch of the night, Damon lined a base hit and brought in two runs. Teixeira followed with a slow roller to deep short, and busted an infield hit out of it, re-loading the bases.

Which meant Alex Rodriguez was at the plate again. The Angels never got him out tonight. They barely gave him any pitches to hit. After a brief meeting on the mound, Joe Saunders appeared to give A-Rod the intentional unintentional walk, forcing in a third run, but perhaps at that moment, it seemed preferable to the grand slam. The walk ended Saunders’ night, and Darren Oliver came in to face Jorge Posada.

Joe Girardi moved Posada up in the batting order, to the five hole, but he didn’t do much outside of out deep drive that was caught with a leap at the wall. He ended the rally with a double play, but the damage had been done, and the Yankees were up 3-1.

As it would turn out, that would be all the runs they would need, but at the time it felt like nowhere near enough, with the pesky Angels never giving up. Pettitte gave up a few more hits but was always able to shut the door again. In the seventh, Howie Kendrick greeted him with a line drive to right that Nick Swisher slid on one knee to glove it. Juan Rivera followed on the 99th pitch of Pettitte’s night with a base hit, and Pettitte departed to a thunderous ovation. 6.1 innings, six strikeouts.

Enough cannot be said about Nick Swisher’s defense. Although the guy has struggled at the plate, his heads up plays in the outfield have been big. He was the one who threw the ball to Jeter to catch Carlos Gomez off second, for example. The two of them teamed up on a big out in the ALDS clincher in the Metrodome, too. In this game he also had the assist in doubling off Vlad Guerrero in the second inning, keeping the Angels from having any significant uprising.

On came Joba Chamberlain, who induced two ground balls, one for a force at second, one routine grounder to Jeter. Another Posada GIDP in the bottom of the inning, though, snuffed another nascent rally, and so the game moved to the eighth. to Six Outs Away.

Joe Girardi decided not to mess around. In came Mariano Rivera. It was sort of like closer by committee, except it’s a committee of one.

Mo actually gave up a run. I’m in the car driving back to Boston (well, corwin’s driving and I’m typing), and a commentator on sports radio just said it was the very first earned run that Mo has given up at home in postseason play. Is that possible? Another guy earlier said it was his first earned run since 2000, when he earned one in some other park. Amazing.

The run he gave up was on a typical Mariano hit. Chone Figgins blooped one in to left to lead off the inning, and then after a stellar play by Teixeira retired Abreu, and Torii Hunter grounded harmlessly to second, Vlad Guerrero came up. Mariano nearly sank him several times, and the count was at 3-2, but Vlad managed to smack an RBI hit. That made the score 3-2, but Mariano wasn’t rattled, and neither were the fans.

A firefighter named Frank Pizarro sang “God Bless America.” Once again corwin found himself in a men’s room at the time, and once again he reports that as in Old Yankee Stadium, everyone sings along, even while standing shoulder to shoulder at the urinals. When Pizarro hit the final chorus of “Home Sweet Home” we began to think that maybe the new Stadium might soon be considered a home, too. A pennant is a good start on decorating the place, certainly…

We demanded an insurance run. We got two, courtesy of the Angels. Cano again led off the inning with a walk. Swisher followed, trying to bunt, but Scott Kazmir kept throwing him balls. Then he finally laid one down, but the Angels bobbled the ball and he was called safe, while Cano went second. Melky came up looking at the identical situation as the fourth inning, when they’d scored three. He did the same thing again, bunted, and this time Kazmir fielded the ball himself, and then threw it right over Kendry Morales’ head. Cano scored from second on the play, and pinch runner Brett Gardner went to third. This was sweet to see, that the bunt had been so vital to both scoring rallies, while the Angels, who are known for their bunting prowess, were burned by it when Chone Figgins tried to bunt in the sixth to lead off the inning and ended up kicking the batted ball while in fair territory, getting himself out.

Up came Derek Jeter, who hit a Kazmir pitch up the middle, but Kazmir grabbed it and threw to first for the out. Gardner had to hold at third. Johnny Damon worked a walk, though, to load the bases once again, and then Teixeira smashed a ball deep into center field. It looked like it was going to go, carrying and carrying, and then just dying on the warning track, but the sac fly was plenty deep to score Gardner with the second insurance run.

So then it was three outs to get for Mariano Rivera. A ground out, a can of corn to right, and then pinch hitter Gary Matthews Jr. was the last man standing between the Yankees and the World Series.

The flash bulbs were intense on every pitch of the at bat, as Yankees fans sensed that every one could have been the last. No one sat down for any of the last two innings anyway. Mo went to two strikes on Matthews. We screamed and cheered and willed it to happen.

Matthews swung and missed and the Yankees had their 40th pennant.

Apparently it’s true that everyone raises their game with each successive level of playoffs. The chorus of “New York, New York” was even louder than it had been in the ALDS.

I can’t wait to hear what it sounds like in the World Series.

He has homered in three straight postseason games.

He has now tied the record for consecutive postseason games with an RBI at eight. Sharing that record currently with Ryan Howard and Lou Gehrig.

He has 11 RBIs thus far this postseason and a combined ALDS/ALCS average of .407.

He is having the time of his life.

He is Alex Rodriguez, who has finally learned the Jeter knack of being a world beater, just going up there and relishing the chance to do something big.

Jeter is human. So are all the Yankees. Jeter himself got picked off first after a nice Jeterian hit into right to lead off the game. Oops. Jorge Posada forgot how many outs there were and ran off the field, leaving home plate unprotected with a man on third. Nick Swisher got picked off second, according to replays, although the umpire blew the call. The umpires are human, too. Tim McClelland, the veteran ump who called George Brett out for too much pine tar several decades ago, blew two calls at third base tonight, one for the Yankees (ruling only Posada out when both he and Cano had been tagged out) and one against them (Swisher for leaving the bag too early on a sac fly when he actually left right on time).

But right now Alex feels like Superman and the whole team is enjoying the ride on his cape.

One of the Yankees who was scuffling this October, Melky Cabrera, had a big game, going 3-for-3 with a walk, a run scored, and four RBIs. He got himself going with a bunt base hit in the third, then had a two-RBI single in the third, walked and scored on Damon’s homer in the 8th, and capped off the night with a two-RBI double in the ninth.

It’s nice to see Johnny break out with homers on back to back days, as well. Earlier in the postseason he didn’t seem to have his good swing going, but he stayed in the game by taking some balls the other way into left. Now he seems to be heating up. Now if only Teixeira will follow suit. He had only one hit tonight, after striking out twice against Kazmir, but in the first inning, the second to last pitch of the at bat he pulled deep into the left field seats, just foul.

Right now the only two players I am still worrying about are Swisher, who still doesn’t seem to be seeing the ball that well, despite working a walk in the third, and Posada, who still seems a little preoccupied, although he had a nice night at the plate, including a double and two walks, and a stolen base. Yes, you read that right, a stolen base… which makes me wonder if he missed a sign (or if Matsui did). Matsui was the only Yankee in tonight’s lineup who did not join the party, never reaching base in any fashion and ending up with the hat trick. He saw the ball well off John Lackey in Game 1, though, so hopefully he will again Thursday night.

I have tickets for the games this weekend should it come to that, but honestly I hope they just wrap things up in Anaheim on Thursday. The last trip to the World Series, in 2003, feels like a long time ago. Time to write some new history books, isn’t it, guys?

–

P.S. My full recap of tonight’s game will appear in the morning in the Baseball Early Bird newsletter. But it was an easy one to recap. Sabathia had it (8 IP, 1 solo homer, 5 Ks), and Kazmir didn’t (4+, 4 BB, 4 ER) and neither did anyone else in the La-La-Land bullpen, really, as the Yankees got at least one hit off each pitcher, and only Darren Oliver earned no runs. A-Rod and Damon hit homers, Melky had 4 RBIs, Jeter tallied two more hits, and what started out a tight game became a lopsided beating.

Well, I jinxed myself when in my recap of Game 1 of the ALCS I mentioned that a low-scoring pitchers’ duel is so easy to summarize. So of course Game 2 had to be a crazy extra-innings classic full of missed opportunities and twists of fate.

It began with A. J. Burnett and lefty Joe Saunders. Burnett’s fastball was moving, and Saunders’ power sinker was getting ground balls. They each gave up two runs. Saunders blinked first, when Nick Swisher worked a two-out walk. It’s a good sign for the Yankees when Swisher walks, and perhaps it means he is getting back on track for the postseason. He came around to score immediately when Robinson Cano hit a triple that split Abreu and Hunter perfectly. The next inning Derek Jeter hit another postseason homer, another into the right field porch. Burnett’s armor cracked in the fifth. With the weather radar showing imminent pouring rain on the way, the Yankees wanted to get through the fifth with the lead, but Maicer Izturis led off with a double, then scored on a one-out single by Erick Aybar. Aybar himself came around as a result of Burnett’s struggles, first stealing a bag, then moving up on a walk, and scoring on a wild pitch.

The game would stay 2-2 for a long time. The Yankees would threaten in the 5th, 6th, and 7th, and suffer double plays in all three innings. Both teams also had more than their usual share of defensive miscues, probably thanks to the cold weather, but both managed to keep their mistakes from scoring.

Coke, Joba, and Hughes all had big strikeouts in key spots, and then Mariano finished the 8th with a single pitch, getting Aybar to ground out. Mo then pitched the ninth and the tenth, but try as they might, the Yankees couldn’t push across the winning run. Then in the eleventh, the Angels struck back. With the rain starting to pour down heavily, Alfredo Aceves walked the leadoff man Gary Mathews, Jr. who had come in as a pinch hitter in the 8th. Aybar bunted him to second, bringing Chone Figgins to the plate.

Figgins was 0-for 18 in the postseason coming into the at bat. He finally came through with a big RBI double, scoring Aybar, and pumping his fist when he reached second base. But after intentionally walking Abreu (who was hot in the ALDS but who has been completely neutralized by Yankee pitching so far), Aceves finally got the Angels to ground into a double play, bringing the Yankees to the plate trailing by one run.

On came Brian Fuentes, the Angels’ closer and author of a league-leading 48 saves this year. The first man he faced: Alex Rodriguez. A-Rod hadn’t done much at all yet this game, showing 0-for-4, but of course in two of the previous four postseason games he had hit game-tying homers in the late innings.

Well, he did it again. A fly ball that just cleared the wall in the short post in right, blowing the save and setting up another classic in the Bronx. Ultimately it would come down to the thirteenth inning. The only pitcher not used by Girardi was Chad Gaudin, while for the Angels they had former starter Ervin Santana, who had ben demoted to the bullpen earlier in the season, on the hill.

Girardi sent Jerry Hairston, Jr. up to pinch hit for Freddy Guzman, who had pinch run in the ninth, but had struck out in the eleventh looking overmatched. Hairston laced a single into left. Gardner bunted him over. The Angels then intentionally walked Robinson Cano, to face Melky. Loyal fans in the upper deck held up a sign that merely read: “WE WANT PIE.”

Melky hit a ground ball in the first base hole. Izturis slid and grabbed it, but the ball was wet, his fingers were cold, and he threw the ball to second base trying to get the force out there, which would have put runners on the corners with two outs. But he threw the ball away, so that even with a dive Aybar could not get it, and Hairston scampered home, to the delight of almost 50,000 freezing cold fans. (The rain which had begun at the top of the eleventh had not let up.) Hairston was immediately mobbed at home plate, pummeled into the ground by his jubilant teammates, and then treated to the traditional whipped cream pie in the face during his postgame interview.

Other notes on the game:

Jeter was intentionally walked in the tenth with a man in scoring position. That man was Melky who had been called safe on a double play at second when the Angels were not given the “neighborhood play.” On the other side of the umpiring coin, Jeter was called out at first on a double play in the fifth when he had actually beaten the throw. Replays showed that on the “neighborhood play,” Melky’s foot actually did touch the bag before Aybar completed the dance around him, yet 95% of the time, the out would have been awarded. Replays also showed Jeter was safe.

Mark Teixeira’s defense at first base has earned him many stars in my scorecard. Tonight there were two more in the fourth inning, when the Angels would have gotten a rally going if not for the great defense. Torii Hunter led off the inning with a shot that A-Rod made a great play on, then gunned the ball to Teix, who had to make it great at his end as well. Replays showed the umpire got the call right. The very next batter was Vlad Guerrero. During the at bat, Jose Molina took a foul ball off the mask, and after he shook it off somewhat he got back behind the plate. The very next pitch, Vlad swung and missed, but Molina couldn’t squeeze it, and had to search for the ball. Talk about lucky breaks–Guerrero himself kicked the ball into Molina’s line of sight as he ran, and Molina was able to throw to Teixeira just in time to nip him. Another great play by Teix.

Fuentes can join the club of closers who faltered this postseason, along with Papelbon, Joe Nathan, and Huston Street. Mariano Rivera threw 25 pitches in this non-save situation, and will be rested and ready for game three, thanks to an off day tomorrow.

Some numbers: the game took 5:10, used fourteen pitchers, and 432 total pitches to get through.

I was reminded strongly of Reggie Jackson tonight, when thinking about both Jeter and A-Rod. Jeter, because he is now at third on the all-time postseason home run list, passing both Mantle and Reggie, and A-Rod because he has been coming up with clutch home runs at a prodigious rate this October. And like A-Rod, Reggie was a guy who heard the boos, was reviled in the press, was ragged on for being overpaid, too sensitive, too self-centered, etc. etc. Reggie cut through all the bullshit with those big swings of his bat. A-Rod is finally doing the same.

A final note on A-Rod. I rarely quote stats from FOX TV because they are usually meaningless or common knowledge. But I liked this one. Alex Rodriguez in 2009 hit 30 homers and had 100 RBIs, and 15 of the 30 homers, and 50 of the 100 RBIs, either tied a game or gave the Yankees the lead. This is very definitely not the pattern shown in some previous years, but who cares about previous years right now? The magic number is six.

It’s over in Minnesota. The grounds crew is digging up home plate at the Metrodome to carry it over to Target Field, which will be the Twins’ new home come spring. But tonight it was Yankee cleats that crossed it most often.

In the end the only real surprise in the Yankees/Twins division series was that there were so few surprises. The biggest of them all was that the Twins, who are normally known for being such sound, fundamental baseball players, committed some baserunning gaffes. Tonight’s pivotal play involved Nick Punto.

Punto has been a revelation this series. He batted .444 and was a bulldog at taking pitches and working walks. But in this pitchers’ duel, in which Andy Pettitte and Carl Pavano traded zeroes for five full innings, every little thing could be big. In the sixth the Twins scored first, as they did in all three games in the series. This time it was the Twins who benefited from a blatantly bad umpiring call, when Orlando Cabrera stared at strike three right down Broadway, shown both on the WTBS Pitchtrax and MLB.com’s Gameday. But instead of watching the pitch, home plate umpire Mark Wegner was watching Denard Span run to second base. Jorge Posada held the pitch as long as he could without edging into outright protest, then lobbed it back to Pettitte, disgusted. A strikeout would have ended the inning. Instead Cabrera walked on the next pitch, and then Joe Mauer brought Span in on a single, before Michael Cuddyer struck out to end the inning.

But as in the previous two games in the series, as soon as the Twins scored, the Yankees answered. This time two Yankees in particular answered, as Alex Rodriguez and Jorge Posada both hit solo shots off Pavano in the seventh to make it 2-1 New York. In the end, Pavano pitched well, giving up only five hits (including the two homers), walking none and striking out nine in 7 innings. Pettitte went 6.1, striking out seven, giving up three hits and walking one. Pavano threw 95 pitches, 64 for strikes, while Pettitte threw 81 pitches, 58 for strikes.

Going into the eighth down a run, Punto led off the inning with a double in the left-center gap. If the Twins played small ball, their chance of tying the score with a runner in scoring position and no one out was very good. But Punto got greedy. When Denard Span hit a bounced up the middle, Punto rounded third as if he might score, despite his base coach emphatically trying to give him the stop sign. Derek Jeter snared the ball behind second and threw to Posada, and Punto frantically scrambled back to third. But Posada threw a strike to A-Rod who put the tag on the diving Punto to snuff the threat. WTBS captured the hair-pulling reactions in the Twins dugout.

It was the Twins’ last real threat, while New York tacked on two more insurance runs in the top of the ninth as Ron Mahay, Jon Rausch, and Sergio Mijares each walked a batter, and closer Joe Nathan was forced to come in and clean up the mess. He let up two singles, and two runs, before striking out Nick Swisher and Melky Cabrera.

After Mariano Rivera recorded a four out save to nail down the victory, the Yankees headed to their clubhouse for another round of champagne showers, while the Twins filtered out of their dugout one by one. The last man there was Nathan, but instead of heading to the clubhouse, he went to the mound and scooped up a handful of dirt to take home.

There were so many twists and turns in this game that the only reasonable way for me to recap it is to tell it chronologically.

Let us begin with the weather, which was balmy and humid for October. 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.”

That would be all the Yankees would get in that rally, though, as Teixeira’s woes continued. With two men on, he fouled a ball deep but just foul, that was nearly a three-run home run. Instead he popped up for the third time in the game. The Twins then took Blackburn from the game and put in a lefty (Ron Mahay) to face Matsui, who grounded out weakly.

Now it was bullpen versus bullpen. Joba came in to a warm ovation. He got two quick outs and then nibbled around Joe Mauer, who ended up smacking a single. This brought Jason Kubel to the plate. All I can really tell you about Kubel is that he is no Justin Morneau. His ineffectiveness as a cleanup hitter has meant they can pitch around Mauer, and he came to the plate with two strikeouts (and a groundout) to his name in the game already.

Girardi pulled Joba and brought in lefty Phil Coke. Who gave Kubel the hat trick, his third K.

At that point, corwin turned to me and said, “For a close game, I’m remarkably not nervous.”

“That’s because if everyone does their jobs,” I said, “You know we’ll win.”

When Phil Hughes came in to pitch the eighth, he got a wonderful moo out of the crowd. He got two quick outs, then walked Carlos Gomez. Pesky Twins. Then gave up two soft singles, the second one an RBI hit by that pesky pesky Nick Punto. 2-1 Twins.

Girardi went to Mo.

Mo gave up another soft hit, another run, and then struck out Orlando Cabrera to end the inning.

Some people in the row in front of us got up to leave after the Yankees went down one-two-three again in the bottom of the eighth. They had to go past the group of drunk college students in front of us, one of whom said to them, “You can’t leave now! You’ll miss the pie in the face!” Because, of course, if the Yankees were going to win at this point, they would have to win in walk-off fashion. And that means pie.

Mo struck out two more in the ninth,first the dangerous Mauer, and then put the Golden Sombrero on Kubel. He gave up a soft hit, but then Nick Swisher made a great catch to end the inning.

So, bottom of the ninth, down two runs, and the hitless Mark Teixeira led off the inning.

With a hit! To say the crowd went wild would be an understatement. Michael Kay apparently commented a lot on game one about how the new stadium just didn’t seem as loud as the old place. What he wasn’t taking into account was probably that the game just wasn’t as exciting as some of the ones played over there.

The tying run came to the plate in the person of Alex Rodriguez. On the hill at this point was Joe Nathan, the Twins closer, against whom the Yankees had several walk-offs already this year. Alex didn’t waste a lot of time before unloading. The moment he connected, he knew it was gone. I didn’t until I saw it bounce beyond the wall, and then I discovered that the upper deck of the new place shakes and sways just as much as the one in the old place. The rafters were shaking and vibrations were coming through my feet. The screaming didn’t stop, but did have second crescendo. After Alex had been high-fived and greeted up and down the Yankees dugout, including an earnest hug from Jeter, who said something into his ear, perhaps encouraging him to take his curtain call, A-Rod went up the steps to raise his batting helmet. Tie game, a whole new ballgame. Nathan would get the next three men out, but the save was blown in emphatic fashion.

The Twins threatened somewhat in the tenth, getting two on with two out, but then Aceves got out of it with a fly ball to right.

So in the bottom of the inning it was the next try for the Yankees to walk off. Melky grounded out, but then Posada singled, and was pulled for Brett Gardner. Gardner stole second while Jeter was at the plate. Then he went to third when they tried to pick him off second and threw the ball into the outfield. The ball didn’t go far, though, and it looked like he was sure to be out at third when he jumped up and ran. But then he slid in under the tag. Jeter was still at the plate, but now he had a man on third and one out.

At that point, the Twins elected to intentionally walk Mr. Jeter. Did I neglect to mention that Joe Nathan was still in the game at this point? It would take a miracle to get him out of the inning, just like the other day in the one-game playoff against the Tigers…

Which is what he got. Damon lined right to short, or maybe it was third, it happened so fast we didn’t even really see exactly what happened. But someone over there snagged the line drive and then ran across second, doubling off Gardner.* Poof. Rally snuffed.

So we went to the eleventh. Now the only pitchers left in the Yankees bullpen were Damaso Marte, David Robertson, and Chad Gaudin. But tomorrow is an off day, so all hands were on deck. Marte came on and gave up hits to both Mauer and Kubel. (After the game we would find out that Mauer should have had a ground rule double on a ball that was called foul, but given how gimpy he was running, I’m not convinced he would have definitely scored that inning if he had.) Girardi pulled Marte and brought in Robertson, who gave up a line drive hit that loaded the bases, so hard hit that Mauer couldn’t score.

The Yankees elected to play the infield in with bases loaded and no one out. Delmon Young came to the plate and hit a liner–right into the glove of Mark Teixeira, who was on one knee at the edge of the infield grass. One out, and no advance. Carlos Gomez then hit a grounder, and Teixeira scooped it and threw to Cervelli for the force at home. (Remember, Jorge was lifted for the pinch runner.) Two out. The infield backed up. Robertson then got a can of corn to center to end the inning.

The crowd was in full voice through all of this. For several innings we barely sat, and the crowd was so loud that our own cheers and clapping patterns were louder than the rhythms being played by the scoreboard department.

Bottom of the eleventh. And here was Mark Teixeira once again. He had at least gotten off the schnied with the clutch hit to lead off the bottom of the ninth, allowing A-Rod’s homer to tie it, but could he be the man? Or would it be A-Rod? Or Matsui?

It would be Teixeira. Facing lefty Sergio Mijares, so batting from the right side. On the second pitch he saw, he hooked a ball with a ton of topspin toward the left field line. I thought for a moment that it would be like the ball he hit in the seventh that went just foul.

But no. It was over the wall! The stadium erupted! We were already all on our feet but people jumped up and down and hugged each other, the upper deck shook like an earthquake, and we were then treated to the absolute loudest chorus of New York, New York I have ever heard. Louder than in the old place.

Mark Teixeira was treated to a pie in the face. That drunk college kid in front of us had been right.

–

*Correction: Damon lined to Cabrera at short who threw to Harris at third to double Gardner. Thanks, Ram Man, I was writing in the car on the way back to Boston and couldn’t look it up. And then when I posted at 5am when we arrived, I forgot to fix it.