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.

Everything went according to the Yankees’ script tonight at The Stadium. Derek Jeter added to his postseason resume, CC Sabathia was dominant, the Twins were a plucky but not overly troublesome opponent, the bullpen was a well-oiled machine, and Alex Rodriguez got off the schneid.

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.

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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.