Home Run, but no Atonement

Had the Blue Jays' Greg Zaun taken the night off for Yom Kippur, the Yankees and Blue Jays might still be playing right now. But Zaun's solo home run off of Brian Bruney in the 14th gave the Blue Jays a 5-4 win and dropped the Yankees 2 1/2 games behind Boston in the AL East. The Yankees also saw their Wild Card lead shrink to 4 1/2 games with the Tigers beating Kansas City, 5-4.

It actually looked like the game would be done a lot earlier. Roy Halladay brought a 4-0 lead into the 9th, and if not for some shoddy play by 2nd Baseman Aaron Hill, would have picked up his 16th win.

Johnny Damon lead off the 9th with a double and one batter later moved to 3rd on Bobby Abreu's single to center. Alex Rodriguez lined a single to center to reach a career high 143 RBI and break up the shut out. Hideki Matsui's soft grounder to 2nd moved the runners up a base and left it up to Jorge Posada to keep the Yankees alive.

Posada lined a shot back up the middle that Halladay got a glove on. The ball deflected to Hill who had plenty of time to throw out the slow footed (that's putting it nicely) Posada. But Hill's soft toss to 1st bounced in front of Lyle Overbay, who couldn't come up with it in time to retire Posada. Jays manager John Gibbons then decided to replace Halladay with lefty Scott Downs to face Robinson Cano. A clearly irate Halladay cursed vehemently as he entered the dugout, slamming his glove into the bench. He would get even more irate moments later.

Cano hit a sharp grounder to the right side that stayed down, under Hill's glove for an RBI single. Jason Giambi, who had entered one inning earlier as a pinch-hitter, singled to left field and suddenly the game was tied at 4-4. Melky Cabrera had a chance to be the hero with Cano in scoring position at 2nd, but right-hander Casey Janssen came on to retire the Melkman on a grounder to Overbay.
Halladay and Yankees starter Chien-Ming Wang were locked in a scoreless pitcher's duel when the Blue Jays final got to Wang in the 7th. Hill and Russ Adams started the inning with back-to-back singles to put runners at the corners. With the infield at double play depth, Zaun was robbed of a double by A-Rod, who made a diving stop to his right and threw out the catcher at 1st. Adam Lind's single to right resulted in a bang-bang play at the plate. Abreu finally made an accurate throw, a one-hopper that beat Adams to the plate. But Posada was given an error when he dropped the throw as he went to apply the tag.

Alex Rios belted his 24th home run, a 2-run shot off of Edwar Ramirez, in the 8th to give the Blue Jays, what seemed like at the time, an insurmountable 4-0 lead.

...

Derek Jeter's 2 hits moved him past Joe Torre and into 118th place on the all-time hit list.

Alex Rodriguez's previous career high in RBI was 142 with Texas in 2002. He also hit a career high 57 home runs that year.

Saturday's starter Ian Kennedy was scratched with a tight upper back, so the Yankees moved each starter up 1 day. Then, according to Peter Abraham, Roger Clemens was scratched late last night with a leg issue. Phil Hughes will now make Saturday's start with Sunday a big question mark.

Apparently home plate umpire Rob Drake decided the game shouldn't go more than 14 innings. His strike zone in the bottom of the 14th was erratic, at best. He punched out Wilson Betemit for the final out on a 2-2 pitch that was clearly low and away. Some much for the impact of QuesTec. I'm not saying the Yankees would have rallied, but an umpire should never take the game out of a player's hands.

Share