Heartbreaker in the Bronx pt. 2

So, this is the situation…(I’m trying to make this as dramatic as possible folks)…the Twins lead 3-1 in the bottom of the ninth with Joe “The Hammer” Nathan coming onto the mound. He’s 47 for 52 in saves to save opportunities in the regular season and has an opponent batting average of .171. If there’s any guy you want on the mound in this situation, it’s Nathan. The Twins, at this point, are 0-8 against the Yankees this year and to go home with the series tied at 1-1 would be a huge confidence boost. It all comes down to 3 outs and Mark Teixeira is the first batter Nathan faces.

On the third pitch of the at-bat, Nathan gives up a lead-off single to right field. It was played well by Denard Span and forced Teixeira to hold up at first base. It’s not that bad of a position against most teams. Nathan gives up a lot of lead-off hits and then calms down and gets out of the inning, but this i the Yankees. And there isn’t just one good hitter in that lineup, it’s good hitter after great hitter after good hitter. So, Alex Rodriguez comes to the plate looking like he wants to hit one out of the park. I’m not sure if any of you were paying attention to his face, but he looked ready and mean.

Sure enough, after working the count to 3-0 and forcing Nathan to throw him two straight fastballs, A-Rod hits one over the fence to tie the game at 3. So, now what do the Twins do? Do they pull Nathan and put someone else in to finish out the 9th, or let him finish it himself and try to win in extra innings?

The Twins decide to keep him in the game, which was the right call. He got the next 3 batters out and the game went into extras. A fun little stat to note at this point: the Twins have led the Yankees at some point in every game they’ve played against them this season, yet they’ve lost in every meeting.

So at this point, you’re a Twins fan and just hoping that they can somehow pull off this miraculous victory and come back to Minnesota with the series tied up at 1-1. Joe Nathan blew a save, but they game is still alive and that’s the important thing. The crucial factor here is history. Can they Twins defy history, at least the history of playing the Yankees thus far in the 2009 season, or will they crumble?

When Jorge Posada singles and the Yankees bring in the speedy Brett Gardner to be a pinch runner, you can feel the momentum is shifting heavily in the Yankees favor. The Twins, however, elect to keep Nathan in the game. At this point he’s exahusted and his slider is getting sloppier by the pitch. I think a big error in judgement was made at this point by Ron Gardenhire to keep Nathan in the game through Derek Jeter’s at-bat. An even bigger error in judgement came after Gardner stole 2nd and was flirting with stealing 3rd. Gardenhire, or possibly Cabrera from the infield, called a pickoff to 2nd to try and get Gardner stuck off the base. Nathan rarely attempts this move, and it showed as he threw it about 6 feet off the base into centerfield and Gardner reached 3rd with just one out in the inning.

A sacrifice fly will now win the game for the Yankees, but if Nathan would not have made that move, a sacrifice fly would only move Gardner over and then have 2 outs. Even if Jeter bloops a single, there is a possibility of holding Gardner to third or having a decent play at the plate. Now, the Twins are forced to walk Jeter in hopes of a double play from Johnny Damon. This is where the game got interesting and if you were watching the game you probably seen what I saw.

Jose Mijares came in the game to pitch to Damon and threw him 6 straight fastballs. If you were paying attention or know baseball, you know that the Twins walked Jeter in hopes of a double play. So that would mean the infield would be playing at double play depth. They were, all the way until the 5th pitch when Damon fouled one off. They showed Gardenhire give some kind of sign on TV and then showed a picture of the infield and the middle infielders had moved up almost onto the grass. I thought this was weird but maybe Gardy had intercepted a sign or had a feeling Damon was going to bunt. I’m not sure what prompted the move, but it worked because the short line drive off of the next pitch was caught by Cabrera and the Twins doubled off Gardner. I’m not sure if Cabrera would have been able to make that play had he been playing on the back fringes of the infield like he was the first 5 pitches.

That inning ending double play made it feel the the momentum had shifted once again but this time in the Twins favor, and the fast start in the 11th inning made that feeling more pronounced. Joe Mauer, Jason Kubel, and Michael Cuddyer all singled to load the bases with nobody out. This felt like the start of a huge rally that would deflate the Yankees and give the Twins a victory. However, Delmon Young and Carlos Gomez got a little too excited and decided to swing at the first pitch each of them saw. Young lined out to Teixeira and Gomez hit a hard grounder to first where Teixeira makes the veteran play and throws home for the force. Brendan Harris then decided to get a little cautious and doesn’t swing at a fastball over the heart of the plate that had absolutely no movement. Go check out the MLB Gameday on the MLB website and check out the virtual at-bat for Harris. The first pitch couldn’t have been more of a perfect hitter’s pitch. How he didn’t swing at a 93 mph fastball that didn’t move is beyond me, but it was only a small error on a list of many that the Twins made in the game.

If you didn’t know the ending at this point, the Yankees didn’t take long to write it. Mark Teixeira saw 3 of Jose Mijares’ pitches before he decided enough was enough and he sent the 4th pitch straight over the left field wall. The Yankees walked-off once again on the Twins, and once again the Twins and Twins fans are Heartbroken in the Bronx.

(Sorry guys, due to technical issues, there are no pictures yet in this article. They will be up as soon as the issues are resolved.)

Tags: alex rodriguez, derek jeter, jason kubel, joe mauer, joe nathan, jose mijares, mark teixeira, michael cuddyer, mlb, Twins, yankees