Yesterday started usually enough. corwin and I packed up rain ponchos and scorecards and headed for the stadium at 5pm from Riverdale (the hoity toity part of the northern Bronx where a good friend and fellow fan has a welcoming fold-out couch). It takes about a half hour to travel down the Grand Concourse from here to the environs of the Stadium. On weekdays, the parking spaces around the courthouse become legal to all comers at 6pm. If you get there by 5:30, you too can sit in your car in one of those spaces until 6pm and then leave. There are even a few local characters who act like “parking attendants” directing people to park in the spaces. I presume once in a while some tourist gives them some money, but they seem to do it just for the fun of it.

On a normal day, we’d lock the doors and walk to the Stadium one hour before the first pitch. However, because this is the postseason, first pitch wouldn’t be until 8:37 pm. That meant we had plenty of time for dinner at El Molino Rojo (The Red Mill), a Dominican joint just two blocks from the Stadium. Look into that dining room on any night before game-time and all you will see is a sea of pinstripes and NY logos. And cops. A lot of the local cops eat there.

After stuffing ourselves well for very little money, we moseyed the rest of the way to the Stadium. Compared to many postseason visits to the Stadium, this was a warm night. We took a lap around the lower deck concourses, just soaking in the atmosphere. corwin remarked at one point on our walk, “Isn’t it remarkable that this never gets boring?”

It never does.

We were in our seats in plenty of time to take in the ceremonies, which included the usual introductions of all the rosters of both teams. Miguel Cabrera was the only Tiger who seemed to be booed much (and later in the game was serenaded with chants of “DUI, DUI” from the bleachers).

Then came the ceremonial first pitch. For those who don’t think the first pitch is a Big Deal, all I can tell you is that I overheard at least two different conversations at the Red Mill speculating on who it would be, and earlier that day I’d remarked to corwin myself that I thought they wouldn’t bring out the “big guns” like Yogi until the World Series. “Tino, maybe?” corwin thought maybe we’d get lucky and it would be Bernie and he’d play the National Anthem, too. I thought that would be more likely in the ALCS, should we get that far. “I bet we might get Pettitte,” I guessed.

I thought for a moment I might be right when they started introducing the person throwing out the first pitch… but it quickly became obvious it wasn’t Andy the announcer was talking about. As it turned out, the ceremonial first pitch was thrown by a hero of similar vintage to Pettitte, but one who is still in uniform. Mariano Rivera took the ball.

And then they introduced his catcher, and Jorge Posada came out in full catching gear, and I admit I got a little choked up. So did a lot of folks. It’s difficult to encapsulate what people feel about Posada. His bad baserunning and slumps drive a lot of folks crazy. But we can’t help it. We love the guy. He’s been here so long, and been a part of this team’s success for so long, it’s staggering to realize how many team leaderboards he’s on. He was never a Superstar like Jeter, but people forget how punishing the catching position is, and just how difficult it is to produce as a catcher year after year. Look at Joe Mauer for an an example of a guy who looked headed for the Hall of Fame when he won the batting title, and now looks human, all too human, when troubled by injuries and of late pneumonia. (Yeah.)

Posada waved his glove at Mo, as if to say “Go from the rubber!” So Mo did, and threw a ball that was just a bit outside. It seemed weird to have current players doing it, and yet it created an emotional moment. And the Yankees are not above doing what they can to enhance the drama of October. Heck. That’s the whole point.

So, we had the pitch, and the anthem with the giant West Point flag, and the introductions, all like usual. The Stadium always looks even more like a giant birthday cake than usual when all done up with bunting.

And then the actual game, the much touted match-up between aces Justin Verlander, the shoe-in for this year’s Cy Young award, and CC Sabathia, one of the two who probably would get runner-up for the award if such a thing were given. Scouting reports on Verlander were to watch his velocity. If he was getting into the upper 90s, it would mean he was too hyped up and was vulnerable. CC, meanwhile, has had some rocky starts of late, but would be going on extra rest.

CC took the mound first, and looked sharp, hitting the corners in two strikeouts, and then giving up a solo homer to Delmon Young that just cleared the wall into the short porch in right. It looked for a second like maybe Swisher had a chance to rob the homer, but no, it went out. CC and the crowd shrugged it off. CC still looked good and that would have been an out in any other park.

Verlander, meanwhile, started the inning throwing 93-94 and got faster as the inning went on. But he also threw ball one a lot, showing his control wasn’ quite there. He also walked two men. But although he didn’t allow a hit, he still let in the tying run. Derek Jeter, leading off the game, did something that happens fairly rarely: he reached on a dropped third strike. (Official scoring: strikeout wild pitch.) And he ended up scoring the Yankees’ first run, moving over on a walk to Granderson, then a Cano groundout, and then A-Rod grounded out to bring him in.

The next batter was Mark Teixeira. (I did not see an explanation as to why Cano was batting third and Teixeira fifth instead of the other way around.) Just as Tex worked the count to 3-2, it began to rain. He walked. But then Nick Swisher grounded out.

CC had a one-two-three second inning, but the rain had not let up. What had been a 20% chance of showers turned into a steady, heavy rain. The tarp came out, and I checked the weather radar on my phone. The forecast was not good. A line of showers appeared to be passing not across the Bronx but ALONG it, keeping us in steady rain while some other areas very close by were getting no rain at all.

After more than an hour delay, MLB announced that the game would be postponed until Saturday, and Saturday’s game would be moved to Sunday at 3:07pm.

This was a disappointing turn of events, to say the least. After all that build-up and to have barely gotten anything of the game in!

But what else could we do? We made our way back to the car in the pouring rain, and drove home. We got a good night’s sleep. (corwin slept 11 hours.) Then we got up and went into Manhattan for a late lunch. We went to the Momofuku Noodle Bar, David Chang’s hipster ramen restaurant, and we were not disappointed with that foodie adventure. And then we discovered Veniero’s Bakery, continuously operated as an Italian pastry shop since 1894. There were a bunch of bakeries in that neighborhood but this was the only one with a line out the door. Seemed a good recommendation. So we loaded up with pastry to eat later during the game. Then we trundled up to the Stadium, arriving at the courthouse at almost exactly the same time as the day before. Unfortunately, it now being Saturday, the prime parking was not available, but we found a space on the street just two more blocks down.

It wasn’t quite six o’clock when we approached the Stadium this time, and so the gates were not open yet. People were lined up outside. We went to buy some bottled water (Tip: buy it for $1 outside and keep it sealed and they will let you bring it in. The same water is $5 inside.) and ended up watching some of the Phillies/Cardinals game on the big screen TVs at the McDonald’s. We had been listening to the game on the drive, and things had looked good for the Cards then, leading off the game with a three-run homer from Lance Berkman. The Cards’ Kyle Lohse escaped a jam and worked around an error in what we watched, but we’d later see that for naught as the out of town scoreboard would reveal Howard and Victorino going back to back. But that was later.

Water acquired, on to the Stadium we went. The place felt deserted. There were more FanFoto photographers in the Great Hall than fans. We were stopped by several and let them take our pictures.

Then corwin had a brilliant idea. “Let’s go to Monument Park!” We discovered no line at all to get in, and the place only sparsely filled.

I saw something there I’d never seen at the Stadium: a goldfinch. The FanFoto guy assigned to the MP logo pointed it out. It was a tiny, cute yellow bird, hanging on the netting and looking at us all suspiciously. Then it flew off and tried to get through the windows of the batter’s eye bar, but failed.

“I hope his cousin the Bluebird of Happiness is around, too,” I said as the bird flew off.

We had a leisurely stroll through the Monuments. I’ve never had such a relaxing time in Monument Park since the new Stadium was built. It’s always been crammed with people when I’ve gone. But while we were talking to Babe Ruth (I know I’m not the only one who talks to the Babe, am I?) it started to rain again. The wind was biting, and I began to wonder if we were even going to get this game in. But it was only 6:30. More than two hours to go.

Up at our seats it was deserted. And cold. Very cold. Yesterday’s balmy temperatures were gone. And it was raining again. We tried drinking hot chocolate, but we were still cold.

“Do you think I should buy a blanket?” I asked corwin.

“Just think how cute the photos will be of our kittens sleeping on it,” he said. That decided it. I went in search of a souvenir blanket prepared to pay whatever exorbitant price they offered.

The first two souvenir stands I visited, though, did not have blankets. Both advised me to try the big store. I took the elevator back to the Great Hall and went into the really large team store there, asking a uniformed employee where the blankets were. “There might be some downstairs,” he said. “Someone’s trying to bring some up, but I don’t know how long it’ll take.”

“Wait, you mean you don’t have them in stock, but you might have them in storage?” I asked.

“Basically.” He shrugged. Two more people came up and asked him the same question.

Just then a guy pushing a cart full of inventory boxes came into the store and several other store employees pounced on him. “Is that the blankets?” “Are the blankets in that box?”

He shook his head. “This is hoodies. Just hoodies. Lots and lots of hoodies.”

“What about blankets?” several people asked him.

“I don’t know about blankets,” he said. “We sent someone around to all the stores to see if they have any.”

Well, that didn’t sound too promising, but I tried the large store at the top of the escalator, too. No dice. No blankets. And for once there were none of those “get a free gift for signing up for a credit card” offer stands, either! Many times in the past they’ve offered a blanket, but I’ve never been that tempted. Tonight I would have happily gotten a credit card with a ridiculous APR if it would have gotten me a blanket.

Instead, we just had to huddle for warmth. By the time of the first pitch, the seats had filled in a little. I’d say it ended up about 85% -90% full which was certainly far better than I had feared a few hours before. If anything, the crowd was more raucous than the night before, perhaps because of the cold and perhaps because it was all die-hards there.

Because the “first pitch” of the game at 8:37 pm was actually the 53rd pitch of the game, there was no national anthem. The umpires met at the plate and then the game jumped right into the bottom of the second inning. The lineups were the same, but the starting pitcher’s were not.

Doug Fister was on the mound for the Tigers. They got him from Seattle at the trade deadline, and he had gone 8-1 with an ERA under 2.00. In fact, the Tigers had gone on a tear at the end of the season. Another way to look at it, though, is that in their final 50 games of the season, the Tigers faced a team with a better than .500 record only four times. How much of Fister’s success was facing weak opposition?

Well, the Yankees looked poised to jump on him right away. Jorge Posada led off the night’s festivities with a single that brought roar out of the crowd. That was followed by a Russell Martin double, and with men on 2nd and 3rd and no outs, it really seemed the Yankees had spent all night grinding their teeth waiting to get up to mash the ball.

But. Then Gardner hit a soft grounder to third and for some reason Jorge Posada was caught halfway to home plate with a deer in the headlights look. He was tagged out, and then there were men on first and second and one out. Not nearly as much fun. Fister then balked! So, it was men on second and third again, but Fister wiggled out of it, striking out Jeter and Granderson to escape.

In the top of the third, the Yankees took the field for the first time that day, and the Bleacher Creature roll call seemed even louder than usual. What ensued was a pitchers duel in which Ivan Nova and Fister traded 1-2-3 innings for a while. In the top of the fifth, Nova got into and out of trouble, helped by a some fabulous defense. After striking out Victor Martinez, he walked Alex Avila. Ryan Raburn then had a soft hit, and Avila went to second. Up came Jhonny Peralta, who lined a shot into center field, but Granderson came up throwing, pegged Jeter, who pegged Martin, who pegged the baserunner Avila in a play that wasn’t even that close! The runners moved up to second and third, but then there were two out, and Granderson hauled in a fly ball in left center to end the inning.

Fister also had a modicum of trouble in the fifth, but this time the Yankees looked on the verge of getting to him. First Gardner led off with a shot to right that went to the warning track and on a warmer night or one where the wind wasn’t blowing briskly in (brrrrr, it really was in our faces the whole night) it would have been a home run. Jeter grounded out, but then Granderson singled and it felt like a breakthrough, first baserunner since that first inning of the night (which was actually the second). Cano followed Granderson’s hit with a long drive of his own, which bounced off the top of the wall. This ended up going to video review to prove it was a double and a good call. Cano stayed at second, but Granderson scored to make it 2-1 Yankees, at least. A-Rod followed that with ANOTHER long drive to the warning track, this one to center, this one caught.

It could have come apart for Nova in the top of the sixth, but it didn’t. After a leadoff walk to Austin Jackson, Magglio Ordonez swung the bat in a hit and run… but Cano ran to cover second and the ball was a hopper up the middle. It meant Ordonez hit into an easy double play instead of avoiding it by starting the runner. Cano snagged the ball right at second base and threw easily to first to complete the double play. And then Delmon Young sent a flare into right that Nick Swisher caught in a full body dive to end the inning.

It could have come apart for Doug Fister in the bottom of the sixth or he might have escaped it. But he did not escape this time. Teixeira doubled to lead off the inning, but Swisher stranded him there staring at a called strike three. Then Jorge walked, but Martin grounded out. One more out and Fister would wiggle free. But Gardner hit a seeing eye single through the infield, scoring two, and then Jeter followed that with a hit-and-run single that send Gardner to third. Granderson then walked to load the bases, and with the score still 2-1, manager Jim Leyland went to his bullpen. On came Al Albuquerque, whose last name is so long, the poor clubhouse guys had to sew his name onto the back of his jersey almost in a full circle around his number.

On Albuquerque’s second pitch, Cano hit one almost all the way to Albuquerque. It was a no doubter, grand slam, into the second deck. If a stiff wind hadn’t been blowing in, I think it would have been the third deck. The score was suddenly 8-1 Yankees, and that was pretty much the ballgame.

There was a smattering of action toward the end. The Yankees scratched one more off a reliever names Daniel Schlereth in the eighth, and Nova finally reached 100 pitches in the 9th (but it was like the 7th since it had been the third when he started pitching) and the Tigers finally reached Nova. He’d given up only two hits prior to the inning, but with one out he gave up two hits and a walk, and left the mound to a thunderous ovation. Luis Ayala came in to mop up, but only made more of a mess, giving up two more hits and allowing two men to score, at which point Girardi had had enough and just went straight to Mariano Rivera to get the final out of the game.

Three pitches later Rivera had mowed down Wilson Betemit, good morning, good afternoon, and good night. And now it is time to say good night. I’ll be back at the Stadium tomorrow for the 3:07 pm first pitch.

Freddy Garcia made a bid to be just as good as hamstrung Bartolo Colon. after a dismal outing against the Red Sox, he was at his crafty best, throwing 6.2 innings, scattering 7 hits, and giving up only one run. Boone Logan, Luis Ayala, and Kevin Whelan did the rest. Logan was poised under pressure as he came in with two outs and a man on, then promptly walked Grady Sizemore. The next play let a runner on with an error (A-Rod fielded the ball but threw wide to Cano.) With the bases loaded, and what was then only a 6-1 lead, the wheels could have come off. But Logan got Shin Soo Choo to line softly to Jeter to end the threat. Whelan controlled his jitters much better than he did Friday, walking only one in an otherwise uneventful ninth.

The pitching wasn’t the story today though, really. The offense was. The lumber that has slumbered through the cold months of April and May is finally waking up. The lineup banged out 18 hits today, and nine runs. Jeter had two hits, and they were both RBI hits, plus he sent two balls deep to the warning track that on a favorable-wind-day would have likely been out of the park. In five plate appearances, Granderson was 4-for-4 with an RBI sac fly. A-Rod had three hits, including a key double in the 5th inning’s 5-run rally. Cano, Swisher, and Jorge each had two hits, and Brett Gardner had three hits: two doubles and triple. Curiously, there were no home runs in today’s barrage. Just the good old “keep the line moving” approach.

There were no bench-clearing incidents, no moments of high drama or reversal, no nail-biting, and no one leaving the game injured. Which made it the odd game out when one considers all that has happened this past week between getting swept by the Red Sox, all the beanball warring, injuries to Colon and Joba and so on.

Just a nice Sunday afternoon of baseball.

Other notes from today’s stadium excursion:

Jeter’s hits today were #2,992 and #2,993. One of the beat writers tweeted that it’s been one year and a day since Jeter hit a home run out of the park at Yankee Stadium. (He did have an inside-the-park homer between now and then.) He really did come close today. That first one he hit off Josh Tomlin went straight to dead center, and Michael Brantley caught it with his back to the plate, on the warning track in front of the 408 ft. sign, the deepest spot in the park.

corwin and I spent some time walking around the ballpark before the game today. The line for the museum was too long, so we walked around a bit instead. Today in particular I noticed a lot of women wearing Victoria’s Secret brand Yankees stuff. Yes, in case you haven’t heard of this, Victoria’s Secret has a whole line of “casual wear” (the “PINK” line, which isn’t actually colored pink, sweats and pajamas mostly, as opposed to lingerie/bras) that is themed to MLB teams. Some years ago Bud Selig undertook a study of women’s economic impact in baseball and discovered 1) most ticket-buying decisions are made by the female in a couple or family, and 2) a huge untapped market for merchandising aimed at women. The first thing you saw was the pink jerseys and hats appearing in major league team souvenir stores. This is the next logical step. (Amusingly but not surprisingly, the Yankees are the most popular team by a factor more than two over the next most popular team among Victoria’s Secret shoppers. click to see for yourself). I myself don’t wear pink nor do I shop at Victoria’s Secret, but kudos to Selig for recognizing that both sides of the bread are being buttered.

Beware the hot wings from the NYY Steak Express stand. corwin got 8 wings. They’re large, breaded to soak up maximum hot sauce, and were so hot that even a pepperhead like him had to pace himself eating them. Afterward he even had to go buy a soda to try to cool down. And he missed the entire seventh inning later while, um, paying his dues. This made the new scoreboard promo (along the lines of the French’s Mustard Smile Cam and the 24 Hour Fitness Fan Cam), the Frank’s Hot Sauce Cam, extra funny.

Speaking of both concessions and women’s stuff being pink, they now have the ice cream helmet cups in both blue and pink. I might have to get some ice cream just to say I have a complete collection.

We did not get the Mark Teixeira bat today, as we did not bring a youngster with us. In the moment when the “bat day tradition” of everyone holding up their bats was going on, I really missed Bob Sheppard. His voice was so authoritative when he would instruct the children throughout the stadium to SLOWWWLY and CAREFULLLY raise their bats in the air… that you’d see kids looking around and doing it with great deliberation. After all, GOD just told them to do it that way. Today’s announcement lacked that oomph. It was still fun to see all the kids, though.

One more thing I miss about the old Stadium. There doesn’t seem to be anywhere good for fans to stick up “K” signs. The facing of the upper deck is completely covered with electronic ribbon-board, and many of the “guard rail” areas are mesh or Plexiglas. Sticking them to the wall inside the Jim Beam Club just isn’t the same, you know?

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.