The Damn Yankees kept their unbeaten streak alive with a hard-fought 7-4 victory over the Giants Tuesday night at the A Diamond in a 55s Division battle of unbeatens.
John Weber, best known for getting his teammates out of jams with his Houdini antics on the mound, turned in double duty last night. Trailing 3-2 in the top of the fourth with two outs and the bases loaded, Weber ripped a solid two-run single to right-center against the always-tough Darrell Duncan to give the Yankees a lead they would not relinquish. Bob Noto finished off the two-out rally with a clutch RBI hit as the Yanks put up a five-spot, all coming with two outs.
A light rain that danced in and out during the evening could not dampen the A Diamond turf, or the spirits of either team that had come to play a ball game. Darkness, however, did have the final say, as the game was called after six innings. Standing at second base for a chat with Mark Massaroni, who had just delivered his fourth hit of the night to start a sixth inning rally for the Giants, I mentioned to Maz and shortstop Jack Griffin that I was experiencing a flashback to my childhood sandlot days when we would play ball well into the darkness and then walk home wondering how we ever got the last inning in. Holy cow, even the sensor lights on the utility building at the park had clicked on before the start of the sixth. But the game was too close to not give the Giants one last crack at it after the Yanks were held scoreless in the top of the sixth. The Giants rallied for a run and had men on the corners with two outs, but Yanks third baseman Paul Post snared a hot shot and fired over to first baseman Rich Royka to end the game and snuff the Giants rally.
Craig Miller started for the Yanks and threw four-plus strong innings to pick up the win, before being relieved by Weber in the fifth, who finished it up for the save. Duncan went five and gave way to Ron Massaroni in the sixth. Mike Ferraro was solid behind the plate for the DYs with several key blocks of balls in the ""dirt,"" and also ran down two tough foul ball pop ups.
The loss was the first blemish on the young season for the defending champion Giants, who fall to 3-1. The Yankees climb to 4-0-1 with yet another hard-fought win in a league that might have its best balance and parity since its inception nearly a decade ago. Old men getting a chance to be boys for a night. Gotta love it.
