If there was any question as to whether "the ghosts" would follow their franchise across the street to the team's new digs, that question was answered resoundingly Friday night for the New York Yankees.
This game had everything.
There was ninth inning drama, a Jeffery Mayer-no call-level mistake by the umpire (ironically it was the anniversary of that incident), and a walk-off, extra inning home run in the 11th inning.
While the Twins have been the team benefiting from bad calls and coming up with dramatic hits, after this game they are looking like another footnote in the story of a New York Yankees club that is without question performing at a championship caliber level.
The attention before the game focused heavily on the catching situation for the Yankees, but the issue proved largely irrelevant.
New York starter AJ Burnett lasted six innings (giving up one run on three hits), and when he made his exit so did Jose' Molina after only one meaningless at bat that resulted in a ground out.
His replacement Jorge Posada did pick up a single in the 10th inning that could have been important (had they pushed him across), but essentially the two players who received the greatest pre-game attention had very little impact on the game itself.
Instead it was Alex Rodriguez who continued his tale of playoff-redemption (he is 4-8 with 1 HR and 5 RBIs). Going 2-for-4 on the day, A-Rod's two hits were crucial to the Yankees' win and set the stage for Mark Teixeira to eventually end the game with one final blow. In the sixth inning — after the Twins' broke the scoreless tie with a Brendan Harris triple that drove in Delmon Young — Alex promptly re-tied the game in the bottom of the inning, smacking a single to left that scored Derek Jeter from second base.
In the top of the eighth Minnesota again broke the tie, this time putting up two runs split between Phil Hughes and Mariano Rivera (both charged to Hughes). But once again it was A-Rod who swooped in and muscled-up to rescue his team. Striding to the plate after a Mark Teixeira single to open the bottom of the 9th inning, Alex had star closer Joe Nathan to contend with as he himself represented the tying run.
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