Vicissitudes
| Game 16: April 16, 2008 | |||
| Red Sox | 9 | L: Julian Tavarez (0-1) | 9-7, 1 game losing streak |
 Yankees |
15 | W: LaTroy Hawkins (1-0) H: Billy Traber (1) S: Brian Bruney (1) |
9-7, 3 game winning streak |
| Highlights: In the bottom of the sixth, Manny Ramirez made a running, backhanded snag of a slicing fly ball off the bat of Bobby Abreu for the first out. Although he caught the ball short of the warning track, he kept scampering towards the wall and bounced off it in a sort of half-Lambeau Leap. That’s why I never understood the extreme enmity towards Ramirez, as he loves the game and plays it with manifest joy. | |||
It’s those glimpses of joy that Red Sox fans had to focus on in this maddening, back-and-forth brouhaha. With neither Clay Buchholz or Chien-Ming Wang pitching well, it became a war of attrition. Boston’s bullpen has had recent success, but with no starting pitcher being able to go seven strong and two games against Cleveland that stretched them thin, asking the relief corps to fend off the Yankees was too much to ask.
Another mirthful moment was Sean Casey’s contribution to the blooper reel in the top of the fourth. After floating a single into shallow center to plate Jason Varitek, Casey displayed excellent baserunning knowledge and took second on the throw. Effectiveness does not equate to elegance in first baseman. A panicked Casey thought he might get picked off the keystone sack and fell down when he tried to change course. Instead of saving his dignity he crawled his way back to the bag and then peered out from under a skewed helmet to see that there was no throw from home. Indeed, there was no one to even catch the ball if there had been a throw from the backup backstop Chad Moeller. Accordingly, Casey called himself safe.
When the Red Sox reassumed their positions, Kevin Youkilis made a show of dusting off Casey’s uniform.
I would love to attempt to detail each fluctuation in score in detail, but as I peruse my games notes I see jots of excitement almost immediately squelched by scrawl of distress. No need to relive that nor share it.
Not only am I disappointed in the outcome of last night’s game but also saddened that it was a Yankees fan, Garrett E. Reisman, who threw the first pitch from the International Space Station. For all their boasting about this being a Yankee Universe, this wasn’t even the first pitch from space; that honor belongs to Commander Ken Bowersox for Game 5 of the 1995 World Series between the Braves and Indians. Bowersox was on the space shuttle Columbia when he made history, as it was both the first time a ceremonial pitch had occurred off-site as well as from space.
Even when doing something cool the Yankees are derivative.
