Sunday, May 16, 2010

Field of Screams

photo courtesy of Yahoo Sports

Written for Baseballdigest.com

"Field of Screams", the perfect title for a post about the New York Yankees sweeping the Minnesota Twins at Yankee Stadium. The perfect title for the Yankees abusing the AL Central leaders once again.

It in fact turned out to be the perfect title, but not for the original reason I expected. Sometime during the 3 o'clock hour on Sunday, there was a blood curdling scream heard throughout the Metropolitan area. You know, the kind of scream you hear in movies. The kind of scream that scares all of the pigeons from their perches in Central Park.

The kind of scream you hear from Yankees fans when Mariano Rivera gives up the rarest of rares, a game losing grand slam. Rivera may have been screaming inside, but he did his best not to show it. Working for only the third time since April 30, Rivera was asked to protect a 3-1 lead by recording the final four outs of the game.

But after the Twins loaded the bases with two outs against Joba Chamberlain, Rivera walked pinch-hitter Jim Thome to force in the tying run. While fans and the media scrambled to figure out when it was that it had last occured, Jason Kubel then became the first major leaguer since Bill Selby (in 2002) to go deep against the Yankees closer with the bases loaded. A sure fire Yankees win turned into a 6-3 defeat before a stunned Bat Day crowd.

It was the Twins first win in the Bronx since 2007. Oh, for the record, May 6, 2005 was the last time Rivera issued a bases loaded walk. The A's Keith Ginter was the lucky recipient on that day.

By now the pigeons should be back in the park.

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