I arrived at the Stadium earlier than planned, as the traffic driving from Boston was not nearly as bad as we’d feared. Plenty of leaf peepers were out on the roads, but the backups were few and minimal. At 6pm we pulled into our favorite parking lot (#8) and got a space on the bottom level. With two and a half hours to kill before first pitch, we decided to walk around the neighborhood and see what there was to be seen before committing ourselves to the stadium.

Stan’s was already in full swing along River Avenue, with loud music pumping and large screen TVs showing the Rays/Rangers tied at one apiece, along with some college football. I was somewhat interested to see the matchup in Arlington, Texas, but didn’t really want to stand in a bar to watch.

Outside the McDonalds, we ended up filling out a survey for Chevrolet to get free Chevy/MLB Postseason logo towels. I didn’t mind telling them that I drive a 1997 Saturn hand-me-down and that the only car I’m interested in finding out more about is the Volt, the electric car. Until they invent a flying car, that is. Yay, free stuff. And we ended up telling the canvasser the story of how we almost got into a fistfight at Fenway Park that one time. (I’ll re-post that story one of these days. It was the Bryce Florie game.)

Then we ran into Freddy the Fan outside the Great Hall, on Babe Ruth Plaza or whatever they call that expanse of sidewalk outside, and we banged the pan for luck. (That sounds far kinkier than it should; for those who don’t know about banging the pan, Google Freddy the Fan and I believe you will find his Wikipedia page.) This was the first time I actually had a chance to bang the pan all year; looks like I saved it for a good night.

After that we went into the Stadium. Since we didn’t have to rush anywhere, we took our time wandering around. We’d seen the museum and Monument Park fairly recently, and decided to have a closer look at the Food Court. We were already pretty well aware of the food choices, including the chinese noodle soup and bubble tea (which I got), the Lobel’s steak sandwich, and the fried dough and friend Oreo stand, but it was the first time we had enough time to look at all the photos blown up above all the stands. All of them are food-related vintage photos of Yankees (and Steinbrenner). Many of them are of Joe DiMaggio and Yogi Berra, and I assume this comes from an era when depicting “Italians and Food” was a common publicity cliche. There are also many of Ruth, and Ruth and Food was a love affair followed in the press all of Ruth’s life. There’s also one of Jeter pouring an entire pitcher of milk into a gigantic bowl of cereal, presumably at the press conference when he appeared on the Wheaties box? Another is of Steinbrenner wearing a 1992 Olympic sun hat and biting into a hot dog, his World Series ring quite prominent on his hand.

The crowd was in good voice right from the opening introductions, breaking into Let’s Go Yankees immediately, and even a spontaneous “USA! USA!” after the National Anthem. Yogi Berra threw out the first pitch. It was good to see him at the stadium after he missed Old Timer’s Day due to a fall he took at home. He threw the pitch from about 20 feet away, to his personal catcher… Ramiro Pena? Pena looked quite excited to be doing it and the cameras caught him chattering away to Yogi afterward. I could only imagine Yogi was thinking, who is this young pup? Is he a batboy or something?

Around that point I began thinking it was odd and disappointing that the scoreboard department didn’t seem ot have made any season montages like last year’s to he Black Eyed Peas “Tonight’s the Night.” I took a last trip to the women’s room before first pitch, and just as I returned to my seat they finally hit us with a 2010 montage, to the song “Magic in Me.” The scoreboard guys really went overboard with the sparkle special effect, but it was fun.

Around 8:30 the umpires gathered at home plate, all six of them, and it was somewhat comical to see such a large group of them standing around. (As one of the beat writers joked, they were discussing which one of them would screw up tonight.) They were waiting for the signal from TBS, I suppose, and then at 8:34 the Yankees finally took the field, and Phil Hughes took the hill.

The entire drive from Boston we were listening to XM Radio, and the universal feeling among their guests and interviewees was that the Twins were done. One of the Minnesota beat writers was on, and he said they were acting like a beaten team who were trying to invent ways to motivate themselves on the plane flight to New York.

I figured if Hughes could shut them down, they wouldn’t be able to do anything, but if he faltered, the Twins would smell an opportunity the way sharks smell blood in the water.

Well, Hughes never blinked. He faced down all his weaknesses: lefties, pitching at home, home runs And he didn’t give an inch.

How good was he? He was the first Yankees postseason starter to give his team seven scoreless inings since Mike Mussina in the 2001 “Jeter flip” game in Oakland. I was wearing my lucky Mike Mussina jersey tonight.

It didn’t hurt that for once the Yankees took the lead first. In the second inning Robinson Cano led off with a triple. Thames popped up, but Jorge Posada hit a line drive on the first pitch he saw to cash him in. Te next inning, Swisher doubled, and came in right away on a Mark Teixeira single. And meanwhile Hughes had sat down nine in a row on only 32 pitches. The Twins finally got a baserunner in the fourth, as leadoff man Denard Span greeted Hughes with a single, but a quick tailor-made 6-4-3 double play on the next batter erased that.

Then the Yankees had a long bottom of the fourth, starting with an infield hit by Cano. As Thames came to the plate, I turned to corwin and said “This would be a great time for a two-run shot.” On the next pitch, Thames took Duensing deep, and I had called my first homer of the postseason. In the end they scored three runs and might have had more, sending eight men to the plate and causing Hughes to have a long wait in the dugout. Would the layoff affect the righty? Maybe just a little, as Hughes did give upa one-out hit and then walk a man, but he got Cuddyer swinging (his fifth strikeout victim) and then a popup from Danny Valencia. Very tidy.

The Twins got two men on in the sixth, but again it never felt like the game was about to get out of hand. The crowd was raucous and noisy, jubilant, and full of cheers and songs. In the upper deck, as some frat boys in Twins jerseys got up to leave, they were serenaded with “Na Na Goodbye.” The bleacher creatures apparently got several chants going against Denard Span, who foolishly gestured to them. One chant we could make out was simply “Torii Hunter.” Hughes had a one-two-three seventh inning and left the mound to a standing ovation.

Swisher tacked on solo shot, and we were hardly nervous when Kerry Wood had control problems and loaded the bases in the eighth. Boone Logan and David Roberton each got their man, leaving it all a formality until the next inning, which was Mariano time.

No, it wasn’t a save situation, but why give the Twins any hope? Only two postseason series since Mariano became the closer have been finished by someone else. In 1999 Ramiro Mendoza was on the mound to end the 1999 ALCS, and in 2003′s ALDS is was Gabe White. (I had to look up who Gabe White was–I honestly couldn’t remember. He was a lefty pitcher who came in the Boone trade.)

Anyway, with Mo on the mound, the crowd was on its feet and chanting the entire inning. “Let’s Go Yankees” turned into “We Want Texas!” and “Sweep! Sweep! Sweep!” Some folks even managed to talk security into letting them bring brooms. And then it was over, and then 50,840 people (the largest crowd recorded yet at the new stadium) were singing “New York, New York.”

We stayed through one who round of Sinatra and then headed for the exit. On the giant screen in center field they were showing scenes from the champagne spray in the clubhouse. Once outside we made our way to El Molino Rojo, the Dominican food joint just up the street, where we had a great meal and picked up some tres leches cake to have with champagne back at the house. I write this from a friend’s apartment in the Bronx, where we have had our champagne and cake and now are exhausted. We’re all hoarse from cheering and very glad we don’t have to do it all again tomorrow. Thank you, Phil Hughes.

And now we wait to see who wins, Texas or Tampa Bay.

I don’t for a moment believe that the Yankees actually WANTED to slip to the Wild Card, though many fans in Minnesota do. I’ve seen many blogs and tweets from folks in the Twin cities saying that because the Yankees always dominate the Twins in the postseason, they actually plotted to lose the division so they would get the Minnesota matchup.

I don’t believe the conspiracy theories, but I do think maybe Joe Girardi thought to himself that it wouldn’t be SO bad to face the Twins if it meant he could get everyone to October healthy and decently rested, instead of drained from the AL East chase. If anything, the Rangers have made it look like the Rays are the tired ones, holding them to a single solo homer over the past two nights, winning 5-1 and 6-0.

The Yankees, meanwhile, are sitting pretty, having won both games at the brand new Target Field.

The Yankees have now won nine postseason games in a row against the Twins. How’s this for a crusher? The Twins have had the lead in every single one of those games. Reports today said that after last night’s loss, Ron Gardenhire went home and burned his uniform. Perhaps that’s why he had such a chapped ass over Hunter Wendelstadt’s strike zone. (He was tossed from the game, but failed to light a fire under his team.)

You can read play by play recaps a million other places these days, so I won’t attempt to recreate the games blow by blow. I will note some significant observations… andd some trivial ones, just cuz.

Cashman comes out smelling like a rose once again as Granderson, Berkman, and Kerry Wood have all looked brilliant. Granderson had three more hits tonight and a sacrifice, with an RBI and a run scored. This after the triple and such last night. Berkman had the big solo home run in the fifth to put the Yankees up 2-1, and then the big RBI double to the wall in the seventh to put them ahead again after Pettitte had made one mistake to Orlando Hudson. And Wood has simply been strong strong strong ever since coming from Cleveland. (The joke about building the bridge to Mariano from Wood has already been made, so I’ll skip it. Ha.)

Gardner got going pretty good tonight, and it will be great if he stays hot. Posada, meanwhile, looks cold in the box score but if you watched how hard he has been hitting the ball, you realize he’s mostly suffering that he’s bad luck, hitting a lot of at’em balls. Posada is too much a veteran for me to worry that this will affect him.

Jeter, likewise. He hasn’t looked as Jeterian this season, and yet tonight he had a battle and won it by fisting a bloop into right for an important RBI. And World Champion Alex Rodriguez seems much less anxious overall than the old 1-for-19 A-Rod. He doesn’t hit a home run every time up; newsflash, no one does. He has struck out in a few significant scoring situations over the past two nights. He’s also had two hits in two nights and brought in the Yankees’ first run tonight with a sac fly. He did, for once, strike out after Teixeira was intentionally walked in front of him rather than hitting a grand slam, as he did against these same Twins back in May. I’m not worried about him.

CC Sabathia struggled through last night, but got the job done, while Andy Pettitte cruised through tonight, at one point sitting down 12 in a row. He left having throw only 88 pitches, but given that the last time he threw 100 was back in July, pre-injury, I’d say coming out after 7 stellar innings was the right move. Wood was dominating, and Mariano Rivera has looked better and better with every batter he has faced last night and tonight. Mo was shaky at the end of the season, having some control issues, but Suzyn Waldman mentioned on the broadcast the other night that Dave Eiland made some minute change — something so minute she couldn’t explain the subtlety of it — and that has made all the difference.

So, overall, the Yankees are sitting pretty coming into New York with a 2-0 lead in the series, and their home fans waiting to see them finish off their opponent. If they manage to sweep, it’ll be as if the ALDS was a mere shakedown cruise. They can’t look ahead yet, though. What happens Saturday in the Bronx is going to largely depend on whether Phil Hughes finds that zone where he has everything working or not.

I’ll be there hoping for a win and a leisurely drive back home on Sunday! Sometimes a little luck is all you need.

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.

I drove to New York today from Boston to make it in time for the game. I met up with my friend Lori, leaving my bags at her apartment, and then we headed to the Stadium. Found parking and walked, and just made it to our seats in time to see the first batter, Denard Span.

Who doubled. And even moved to third on a passed ball. But CC struck out the next two men, pesky Orlando Cabrera and the ever-dangerous Joe Mauer, then got Michael Cuddyer to fly out, stranding Span on third.

Sabathia struck out two more in the second, and each time he went to two strikes on any batter, the crowd rose to its feet, rooting for the strikeout and inaugurating the new Stadium to the postseason all at once. The 6pm start to the game and the windy fall weather made for a beautiful pink and purple sky, with clouds scudding across a silver backdrop. The wind was so intense that it blew whole packages of cotton candy from the concession stands out of the upper deck onto the fans below.

Jeter, meanwhile, had led the game off with a single on the first pitch. Do you think maybe someone lies awake at night just running positive visualizations of doing that? Off days drive Jeter crazy because that’s all he does, I think. He just thinks about what he WANTS to do. And he’d rather be doing it than thinking about it.

But Damon, Teixeira, and A-Rod went down easily, leaving Jeter on second. Matsui, Posada, and Cano went down just as easily in the second, but the sheer number of fouls balls each batter was hitting not only drove up the pitch count on lefty Brian Duensing, but gave me the impression that they were feeling him out, getting the feel for his pitches, such that the second time through the lineup they were probably going to resolve him into his component parts.

Which is pretty much what came to pass. But first, Sabathia ran into a little trouble in the third. Nick Punto, who racked up only a .228 average in the regular season but who had a much more impressive OBP, meaning he is the type of player who works the count, had one crucial nine-pitch at bat in the playoff game against the Tigers and another of ten pitches, worked on Sabathia until he ended up with a single. He was erased on a double play, but consecutive hits by Cabrera, Mauer, and Cuddyer meant a run, with another run coming on the second passed ball of the night. 2-0 Twins, and the susurrations in the crowd turned nervous. Could the upstart Twins, with nothing to risk and on a loosey goosey high from yesterday, rise up and poke the Yankees in the eye, like they have in the first game of the last several postseason meetings between these teams?

In a word, no. What momentum they gained, Derek Jeter took back with one swing of the bat in the bottom of the third. Nick Swisher struck the ball well, but lined out, then Melky Cabrera had an infield hit to bring Jeter to the plate. Instead of hitting the first pitch, which was nearly in the dirt, Jeter let it go by, and then pulled the next pitch, a slider on the inner half of the plate, right in his wheelhouse (you did know that Jeter CAN pull the ball when appropriate, right?), for a game-tying home run to left.

Even though the score was only tied at that point, everyone seemed to relax. Never fear, the Captain’s here. And this is his time of year.

The Twins would not score again; the Yankees would. By the time Joe Girardi gave his postseason bullpen a test run, they were up 6-2. Sabathia departed to a huge ovation after 114 pitches in the seventh inning, having struck out eight. Girardi called on Hughes to strike out the still-pesky Orlando Cabrera and end the inning. In the eighth, Hughes continued, giving up a leadoff single to Joe Mauer, but then striking out Cuddyer. Phil Coke came on to get Jason Kubel, and retired him on one pitch, as Kubel’s line shot toward right was snared in the glove of Mark Teixeira. One fan I saw today was wearing a homemade T-shirt that read “Teix Is Seixy.” Couldn’t agree more. Then, after Coke got his man, on came Joba Chamberlain.

Joba was greeted with raucous cheers. I don’t know how he looked on TV, but from the upper deck he looked like he hadn’t shaved and his hat was crusted with sweat-salt. Rock and roll. It took him two pitches to get Delmon Young to hit into an inning-ending force out.

The Twins pitching staff was taxed after the mad dash to catch the Tigers and then yesterday’s 12-inning extravaganza, so when Ron Gardenhire picked Brian Duensing to pitch game one, it was actually that the rookie lefty was his only viable choice. Duensing spent part of the year at Class AAA Rochester, then was in the big league bullpen, and landed in the rotation only when injuries made it a necessity. The Yankees knocked him out of the game in the fifth, after Jeter’s two-run shot in the third, they tacked on another in the fourth, and then in the fifth Alex Rodriguez came to the plate with Jeter on second and two outs.

I could almost hear the pages flipping in the media notes as everyone double checked the stat. Yes, Virginia, A-Rod really did got 0-for-27 with runners in scoring position if you count from game 4 of the 2004 ALCS before coming into tonight’s game. And he really did fly out with Jeter on second in the first. And he really did strike out in the third with a man on first to end the inning.

And he really did bring Jeter in with two out in the fifth. And later, in the seventh? This time with Jeter on third and two outs, did he cash him in? Yes. So can we now stop talking about A-Rod’s RBI allergy? I hope so.

Besides, now the media has another juicy controversy to chew on–Jorge Posada is miffed. Girardi announced a few days back that when AJ Burnett starts on Friday in game two, Jose Molina will be behind the plate. Jorge is a fiery and proud guy, as well as outspoken. You’ve all read the quotes by now, I’m sure. It would of course all blow over if Burnett wins the game. But the fire was stoked by the two passed balls, one which almost cost the Yankees a run, and one which did allow Mauer to cross the plate. Jorge also looked sluggish on Cabrera’s steal of second in the fifth, although I’m of the opinion that they were happy to let Cabrera vacate first base so they could pitch around Mauer if they wanted to. (As it turns out, Mauer grounded out.) Regardless what the reasons may be, the fact is that the microscope is on Posada as a result of his comments, and the two passed balls are therefore Highly Magnified. To paraphrase Jorge himself, they had better [have won] the game, or he’d really be on the hot seat now.

When Duensing exited, in came Francisco Liriano, another lefty, but the only other fresh arm in the Twins’ bullpen. The first batter he faced was Hideki Matsui. Matsui rarely hits homers to the opposite field, but he did this time, perhaps aided by the wind, but whether it was the weather, circumstance, or Lou Gehrig’s ghost deciding to get into the act, the ball cleared the wall for a two-run shot.

Jeter had a perfect night. Two-for-two with two walks, and before his at bat in the seventh, the clouds shredded to reveal an off-white gibbous moon, like a giant eye trying to get a look at him in the batter’s box. And the fans had a perfect night, not too cold, and with the early start to the game plenty of kids and youngsters enjoying the party at the big ballpark in the Bronx. Mariano Rivera knocked the rust off in the ninth, despite there was no save situation, striking out the first two men, but then walking Nick Punto, who had yet another really long working-the-count at bat, and giving up a single to Denard Span. But Orlando Cabrera grounded out to end the game at 9:45 pm. We were in the car driving down the Grand Concourse, away from the Stadium and the traffic by 10:12.

We’ll do it all again on Friday night.

–

P. S. Read my recap of the epic Tigers/Twins playoff and my preview of the ALDS at the Baseball Early Bird, October 7 issue.