September 18, 2006: N.Y. Yankees 7, Toronto 6
A crazy game. If the Yanks didn't have a huge lead, I'd have been biting my fingernails off, but as it was, I could only laugh. Rasner, formerly the Golden Boy, didn't do so well. He was constantly in and out of trouble. Still, the Yankees came from behind, then ran up a four-run lead in the top of the 9th. They seemed to be in catbird seat...until their bullpen folded in bottom the 9th. Villone and Dotel almost gave the game away. (I think Dotel ensured that his name will not be on the post-season roster.) But the Yanks did manage to hold on and win by one run.
Johnny Damon was ejected from the game in the 5th inning, for arguing balls and strikes with the home plate umpire. He wasn't even at bat; he was complaining about a call made on Matsui. The umpire had a rather short fuse, I must say. Though I've never seen Damon so angry. I thought Torre was going to be ejected, too, the way he was yelling at the umpire, but he wasn't.
I expected Joe to put Bernie Williams in CF to take Damon's place, but instead, he put in Aaron Guiel. I'm not sure what to make of that. Did the "Bernie triple" the other day remind Joe that GOB really can't handle CF any more? Or did he just not want Bernie playing on the hard Toronto turf? (I remember him putting Bubba in CF in Toronto earlier this year for that reason.)
In any case, the move paid off. Guiel made a great sliding catch of a bloop to shallow center that likely saved the game. It prevented a couple of runs from scoring, anyway, and the Yanks only won by one run. Will Joe finally trust Guiel to play CF now? I hope so. He's not as good as Bubba, but he's a lot better than Bernie.
One year ago, the Yanks lost to Toronto by one run...thanks to Ruben Sierra's terrible defense in the outfield. That prompted Joe to go with Bubba Crosby instead. (Not that it should have even been a question. Sierra was batting something like .108 for the month, while Bubba was batting .379.) Will Aaron "Ralph Malph" Guiel be this year's Bubba Crosby?
