Well, that was different. From yesterday anyway. The result, however, was the same: a win.
Today instead of the game taking place on a hot, muggy night, it was a chilly, rainy day. We got to our seats in the upper deck, behind home plate, to discover a driving wind into our faces, meaning that even though we are under the roof, there was no shelter from the non-stop horizontal drizzle. We resorted to plastic ponchos immediately.
Bartolo Colon was on the mound for the Yankees, while Mitch Talbot took the hill for the Indians. Through the first three innings, there wasn’t much to write home about. Each team had one hit and not much else. I could mention that Gardner was caught stealing twice, once on a pitch out, once at third base. But that’s reaching. There was also a Posada baserunning blunder–picked off second. I’ll get back to that.
Colon was vintage, giving up only 2 hits and no runs through 6 innings. Meanwhile the Yankees were up to their old tricks, as A-Rod homered in the 4th on a low line drive. That was the way to get a ball out, since the wind was blowing in so intensely that popups were crazy, every fielder running in and in to get them. And then Granderson homered, too, in the 6th. I tweeted at the time, thinking about the recent kerfuffle last night with Carmona and Teixeira: “Granderson goes boom! 2-0 Yanks. Is Talbot thinking ‘don’t plunk Teixeira, don’t plunk Teixeira?'”
As it turned out, that was probably not what he was thinking. Teixeira then took him deep except the wind held it back and it was caught on the warning track. A homer on any other night. Talbot then drilled A-Rod in the leg on the next pitch and Dan Iassogna, the home plate ump, didn’t even flinch. He tossed Talbot immediately. Talbot whined that he had slipped on the wet mound. Replays showed that if he slipped, it wasn’t visible to the naked eye…
It took a very long time for Rafael Perez to come take the mound. Was he in the can, or something?
The Yankees got another run when Swisher led off with a hit. Jorge followed with another, a single into the corner that Choo kicked around, so he went to second and Swisher all the way home to score. (No RBI.) But Jorge was picked off a few pitches later. It looked like maybe Gardner missed a bunt and Jorge was starting too early toward third. Whoops.
But the drama came with 6 1/3 innings pitched, Colon pulled a hamstring while covering first base. That’d be the last out he made, as he limped to the bag and then was escorted away. David Robertson came in, gave up a hit but got the next out.
But then Robertson returned for the 8th. He gave up a single. Then another one as the heathens in the crowd were doing the f***ing wave. Don’t you idiots realize the tying run is now at the plate? They probably didn’t. I do wonder if they realize that the wave is also what probably caused the balk. Now men on second and third, no one out. The balk did seem to kill the wave, and I hope it stays dead.
Robertson, now without distractions, struck out the next three men in a row. Nice shooting. Mariano got up, but didn’t have to come in, yet. He stood on the bullpen mound watching.
Then the Yankees came to bat again, and Teixeira hit another home run to make it 4-0, and Mariano went and sat down. Boone Logan came in for a 1-2-3 ninth inning and then we could finally get out of the driving drizzle.
Tomorrow we break out the brooms. Freddy Garcia takes the hill. Should be interesting at the very least.
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