Nothing to savor from closer's appearance
NEW YORK - By the time the ball ticked off the lip of the grass and Alex Cora's glove, it was too late. Robinson Cano was rounding third base and heading for home. Coco Crisp, picking up the errant ball, had no shot. The Yankees streamed out of the home dugout to greet hero Brett Gardner while Jonathan Papelbon, the loser in all this, walked off the mound.
It had taken some magic for Gardner to even get in position to give the Yankees the 5-4 win in 10 innings. Because, on a 1-and-2 pitch from Papelbon, he thought for sure he had the left fielder. But Gardner took the pitch, the very close pitch, and the count went to 2-and-2.
There was another chance, more life, and then on the eighth pitch of the at-bat, came the ground ball up the middle.
"He was able to hit a ball up the middle that was able to hit the lip of the grass and bounce up and score a guy from second," Papelbon said. "It seems like that's what's going to happen if you're going to get me this year. Broken bat or find your way through the infield somehow.
"Yeah, it's frustrating. You have a guy 0-2, figure you put him away, and that happened," Papelbon said.
Asked then, if he thought he had Gardner on that 1-2 pitch, Papelbon simply said, "Yes, I did."
Although manager Terry Francona hates to bring his closer into a tie game on the road, he did it last night to start the 10th. With the score 4-4.
Up came Cano, the author of a two-run triple in the seventh that had tied the game. Cano singled off Papelbon, on a ball the Sox closer said he wanted to elevate more.
"I have to be able to go out there and get the first guy better than that," Papelbon said.
Still, Papelbon followed that by making the play on a sacrifice by Melky Cabrera, getting him at first base while Cano advanced to second. He got pinch hitter Wilson Betemit on a fastball swinging. Then up came Gardner, the replacement in left for Johnny Damon, and a guy Yankees manager Joe Girardi has compared favorably with Jacoby Ellsbury.
"It's helpless," Dustin Pedroia said of the feeling watching Gardner's grounder tick off Cora. "I thought AC did a great job trying to get there. I took an even deeper angle in case it got by him, to try to dive and keep it in the infield. But it kind of hit the lip after he touched it or something and the ball went sideways. It was placed very well. The guy had a great at-bat."
Or, as Cora said, "You try to do your best. You try to knock it down, that's it. That's what they teach us since Little League. With two outs, runner on second, try to knock it down. If you don't knock it down, the guy scores."
And Papelbon nearly got himself out of it, had he just gotten the call on that 1-and-2 pitch.
Over his last 30 appearances (covering 29 innings), Papelbon has allowed just six earned runs, though he allowed 11 runs overall. He has converted 15 of his last 17 save situations, including six of his last seven. Although last night's was not a save situation, it was a loss, though, Papelbon's third and the 16th for the bullpen, two more than it had in 2007.
As for the decision to go to Papelbon, Francona said, "We had him up, so rather than not pitch him [we put him in]. That was his third time. Once we got him up the inning before, we were going to pitch him. Then if he had a good inning and we scored, we'd have sent him back out. If he didn't, we'd have gone to somebody else."
But, unfortunately for the Sox, it didn't get that far.
Amalie Benjamin can be reached at abenjamin@globe.com.
