Top of the ninth inning, the Yankees have two runners on in a game they trail by two, and two out.

My brother: Come on Cervelli! Hit a home run!
Me: You’d better hope Cervelli hits a home run here; Ramiro Peña is on deck.
My brother: *facepalm*

(Yes, he did a literal facepalm).

Anyway, that’s basically what you need to know about the game. Here are some pictures, because when you get great seats, you have to take pictures.

Why yes, that is Phil Hughes, taking batting practice

He’s even getting some tips from Cervelli

Pelfrey taking his warm up tosses

Alex at the bat. He got out, like most of the rest of the offense.

Hey look! A Yankee reached base!

Game action.

You got Cerv’d!

“I’m going to stand on this step all alone and stare at the white line painted on the field just because I can. It means I am a Major Leaguer. I am thus better than you.”

Randy Winn made it to third base! Photographic evidence!

Obligatory wide-out shot

“You ate five Double Downs before the game? For real?”
“Pfft. The food here sucks.”

“Swish, man, listen to me. The thing is, see how greasy those dreads get. Do you really want that?”

The boys in the dugout watching the end of the ninth inning.

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Javier Vazquez–yes, that Javier Vazquez–pitched awesome tonight.

There’s no other way around it. Through six innings he had just 70 pitches; he walked two, struck out six and allowed just one it.

The Mets may have been struggling, but Vazquez really was that good tonight.

The problem, however, was that he was kicking rear ends and taking names against the Mets, at Citifield, which means that NL rules apply, which means that he, as the pitcher, had to bat, which, in turn, means that he, as a Yankee pitcher, had to get hurt in doing so.

The diagnosis: bruised right index finger–yeah, that means the pitching hand.

Fortunately, the X-Rays came back negative, so no broken finger, but the last thing the Yankees really needed here was another injury.

It’s not the first time an American League team has lost a pitcher due to injury while batting in the National League, and it probably won’t be the last.

****

Congratulations ought to go to Kevin Russo, who had himself a game: his first major league hit, and then his first major league extra base hit, which also happened to be the only RBI hit of the game for the Yankees.

Let’s not talk about how the Yankees, in other innings, had runners on second and third with less than two out and could not score a run. Such things are depressing.

Happier things: Joba seemed to right himself, and Mariano was (mostly) his old self–though apparently Jason Bay stole his secret sauce.

Anyway, the Red Sox have lost and as this is being written, the Rays and Jays are also losing. The Yankees will send Phil Hughes out on the mound tomorrow, and go for the series win.

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After watching the Yankees play a very nice, very solid game against the Rangers, I turn on the Mets game to do as any good Yankee fan does, and root for the opposition.

That game is still, somehow, almost incompetently, scoreless in the sixteenth inning when someone mentions that Ubaldo Jimenez is pitching a no-hitter for the Rockies.

So I hit the mlb.tv tab on my computer, put that on, watch Jimenez hit 98 mph with his last pitch, and then find that the Mets/Cardinals game is still on.

162 games a season, times 15 for thirty teams, and you never know what might happen.

Baseball is all about routine, they say.

Except when it’s not.

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Is it too early for this? I think not.

Here are my top ten Yankee moments from 2000-2010–feel free to leave a comment with any you think I missed!

10. Subway Series A lot of you might argue that this is too far down on the list, but the 2000 Yankees team was perhaps better lucky than good. If the most remembered moment of that series involves Roger Clemens throwing the barrel of a bat at Mike Piazza, then, well, it’s probably not a very good World Series.

09. Jobamania Not since, perhaps, the coming of Derek Jeter had a Yankee rookie been so heralded. In one year Joba Chamberlain had risen from the lowest levels of the minors to becoming one of the most recognizable names in New York, and perhaps most of all, along with Phil Hughes and Ian Kennedy, signalling the first ripened fruits of a reborn Yankee farm system.

08. Boston Massacre(s) A rare regular-season five game series in Boston in 2006 that saw the Yankees sweep will always bring smiles to the faces of Yankee fans. As nice as it was, however, the four game sweep in August 2009 may have been even more meaningful–the law of averages coming full bore after an 0-8 start and a sweep that included perhaps the best regular season game all year–a 15 inning scoreless affair ended with an Alex Rodriguez home run.

07. Jeter Flies into the Stands (h/t Matt Lorenzo): This one moment perhaps sums up what Derek Jeter means to the Yankees. During a regular season game in 2004, Derek Jeter attempted to catch a foul ball, and in doing so ended up diving into the stands along the third base line. He emerged bruised and bloody but never the worse for wear; the Yankees went on to win the game in extra innings.

06. Aaron Boone Plays a Pick Up Basketball Game At some point between the 2003 and 2004 seasons, Aaron Boone played a pick up game of basketball and tore his ACL, and the Yankees needed a third baseman. Enter Alex Rodriguez. Fans love him or hate him, but his mark on the team this decade–from playoff goat to playoff hero, from HAH! to Cynthia to Madonna to Kate, from hip surgery to 500 home runs, his mark on the team is indelible.

05. Mariano’s 500th save…and first RBI It might be this moment, much more than the 2000 World Series and even more than the Luis Castillo dropped pop up that best exemplifies the differences between the Yankees and the Mets. More importantly, it exemplifies just how much Rivera has meant for the Yankees–whatever the fault with the save statistic, only one other pitcher in MLB history has that many, and unlike Rivera, he does not have a stellar postseason record. Every year this decade Yankee fans appreciated Mo just a little more and in 2009, he was the only closer not to blow a lead in the postseason. It’s not a coincidence.

04. Babe, Bucky, Boone, any Questions? One swing on an October night in 2003 summed up everything it meant to be a Yankee, and everything that, until 2004, it meant to be a Red Sox. Eighty-four years, summed up in ball that sailed over the left field fence. Never mind the ultimate consequences, that one moment, those few minutes–if one ever asks you why you are a Yankee fan, just find a video of that swing.

03. Nine Innings From Ground Zero. Nevermind the ultimate result of the 2001 World Series–what matters is that in October 2001, the Yankees played. They fell behind Oakland two games to none and then won three straight, partially due to perhaps the greatest play of Derek Jeter’s defensive career; they beat the 116-win Mariners in a five game ALCS (remember the No-game-six chants?), and then, most remarkably of all, they managed to perform the same feat in back-to-back World Series games: Tying each game with a two-out, two-run home run in the bottom of the ninth inning. Even today, so many years later, no one in New York will be surprised at all when you tell them that it was Tino Martinez and Scott Brosius that hit those home runs. The most chilling moment, however, may not have been the home runs, but instead when, in game five, the entirety of the Stadium started chanting Paul O’Neill’s name, a moving send off to one of the Yankees’ most beloved right fielders.

02. Goodbye, Hello I must confess, if you had told me as recently as 2005 or 2006 that the Yankees would ever leave the old Stadium, I would not have believed you. Still, despite the flaws, they pulled it off as well as such things can be pulled off–the farewell ceremonies were done while the Yankees were still in the playoff hunt, they got the glory of one more All Star game in New York City, Mariano Rivera threw the last pitch, and then, when they moved across the street, they won it all in year one. The old Stadium was not baseballl’s cathedral because of its aesthetics; it was baseball’s cathedral because of everything that happened on the field. If 2009 is any portent, the ghosts moved across the street, and the Yankees wasted no time in Christening their new digs.

01. 27 This isn’t much of any debate. The Yankees won two World Series titles in the decade, and they actually won more games when they missed the playoffs in 2008 than they won in the 2000 season. In 2009 the Yankees were the best team in baseball, played like it, and had a postseason to remember. Whether it was Alex Rodriguez carrying the line up on his back through the ALDS and ALCS, Matsui’s rampage in the clincher or Mariano Rivera simply playing G-d, the 2009 World Series may very well be the most satisfying World Series for Yankees fans since the 1996 team upset the defending Atlanta Braves.

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