El Bronx, NY - And then the rain came – again. In the course of this season the Yankees have played to 22 rain delays and have had a total of 9 rain-outs. With the score tied at 1-1 after 1 ½ innings around 9:07 PM the umpires called for the tarp to cover the infield. Speaking to a Latino Sports cohort Bobby Ciarfardini, in this instance working for Bronxnet TV, he told this writer that it would cause a problem for the starting pitchers to return if the day is too long. By 9:40 the tarp was removed and the grounds crew began to recondition the field for play. Then around 8 minutes later the rain came – again. The matchup of two of the American League’s top pitchers, Detroit Tiger’s Justin Verlander and the Yankees ace C.C. Sabathia was not to be completed by them.
Sabathia started the first inning striking out the first two batters he faced. But the third, right handed batter Delmon Young, hit an opposite field homerun to give the Tigers the lead. Young came to the Tigers after he had played 84 games as at Minnesota Twins. He finished the season with Detroit, playing 40 games for them. Young had been on the Twins two ALDS against the Yankees in 2009 and 2010 both series swept by the Yankees.
The Yankees got a run off Verlander in the bottom of the first without the benefit of a hit. Jeter got on a swinging strike out on a wild pitch by Verlander. Curtis Granderson walked on a full count. But runners advance to second and third on a groundout by Robinson Cano. Cleanup hitter Alex Rodriguez grounded out to third, but Tiger’s third baseman Brandon Inge did not attempt to throw Jeter out at the plate, instead choosing a sure out at first. Teixeira walked but Nick Swisher made the final out stranding two runners.
C.C. continued where he left off striking out another two batters after the first batter grounded out, and upon completion of the half inning, the rains came never to go away resulting in the game being suspended after a delay of one hour and 17 minutes.
The game will be picked up the in the bottom of the second inning the following evening at the same time of 8:37 PM. Game 2 will be played in the late afternoon on Sunday. Joe Giraldi said “Nova will pitch for us tomorrow and Freddy will go on Sunday. After that I can’t tell you how will do it.”
Well, it was a short game indeed and tomorrow’s starters will be today’s starters, meaning Game 1 pitchers. While it lasted it had the making of a pitcher’s duel, the marquee match-up, a “Heck of game. It was great,” quipped Tiger’s manager Jim Leyland to start his post-game conference. Later C.C. Sabathia would add, “It’s definitely disappointing. Game 1, it looked like it was going to be a good game.”
And as far as coming out no matter what the length of the delay would be, C.C. said, “I was going back out. No matter what. It’s that time of the year.”
Well, it may be that time of the year, but seeing Joe Torre in the post-game conference was somewhat strange. Only this time he is currently serving as Major League Baseball’s Executive Vice President of Baseball Operations. He was asked on the possibility of more rain the following day and the possibility of a split double-header. But later MLB ruled out two games in one day. “I don’t want to think about that tonight,” Torre had said, and definitely no one else will. Well, perhaps not till tomorrow night.
Published at www.lationsports.com
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