2009 Yankees: A Subway Series Blooper That Will Live Forever

Welcome back to the next chapter of 2009 Yankees: The Last Championship - a week-by-week remembrance of the year in which they gave us their most recent World Series title. Today, the 2009 Subway Series got off to an incredible start as the Yankees rallied to win the first game in the bottom of the ninth inning on a gaffe that will live in infamy for the Mets.

NEW YORK (June 12, 2009) - There were some who swore there had to be ghosts inhabiting old Yankee Stadium, spectral forces that tormented opposing teams across eight-plus decades which helped the Yankees become the most successful franchise in North American sports history.

You remember Curt Schilling of the Diamondbacks before the 2001 World Series when he was asked about the “mystique” and “aura” of Yankee Stadium. “When you use the words mystique and aura, those are dancers in a nightclub; those are not things we concern ourselves with on the ball field,” Schilling boldly proclaimed.

And then the Diamondbacks lost three straight games in the House That Ruth Built, the last two in inexplicable and incredible fashion, and Schilling’s batterymate, catcher Damian Miller, said afterward, “I’m starting to believe.”

But now the old place - where the Yankees won 26 championships in 85 years - was vacant and getting ready to meet the wrecking ball and the bulldozers. If there really were ghosts masquerading in pinstripes and wearing caps emblazoned with interlocking NY, surely they didn’t float next door, right?

At least that’s what you might have believed until this night when the crosstown rival Mets paid their first visit to the new joint for the start of the annual Subway Series.

“I still don’t believe it,” Alex Rodriguez said after the Yankees eye-popping 9-8 victory. “I couldn’t believe what I saw. I’ve never seen that before.”

In the bottom of the ninth inning, with the Mets leading 8-7, A-Rod was at the plate with two outs and Derek Jeter at second base and Mark Teixeira at first. Mets star closer Francisco Rodriguez was on the mound, he of the 0.59 ERA, looking to close out his 17th straight save opportunity.

The man they called K-Rod fell behind the man they called A-Rod 3-1 but then made a mistake and left a fastball over the heart of the plate and A-Rod’s eyes lit up because he knew this was a pitch he could destroy. Instead, he got underneath it and popped it into short right field and as he watched the ball ascend, he slammed his bat to the ground as the biggest crowd at the stadium since Opening Day groaned.

“You could see that play a thousand more times and that would never happen,” Jeter said.

What happened is this: Mets second baseman Luis Castillo, a three-time Gold Glove winner, drifted back from his position, settled under the descending ball for the play that would end the game, and … and …. he dropped it. He dropped it! It was a play that was so routine, ordinarily he could have made it with his eyes closed. But for whatever reason - perhaps a ghost pushed the ball just a smidge? - Castillo dropped the ball.

Both Jeter and Teixeira were running on contact and Jeter was nearly home when the ball hit Castillo’s glove. Teixeira was just getting to third base and that’s as far as he should have gone. However, Castillo was so flustered by dropping the ball, he absentmindedly picked it up and tossed it to second, perhaps thinking he needed to prevent A-Rod from getting there.

Apparently he forgot about Teixeira. All Castillo had to do was throw home and that would have prevented Teixeira from scoring, either by stopping him at third or, if he kept going, he most likely would have been tagged out at the plate.

As soon as third base coach Rob Thomson saw the ball going to second he alertly began windmilling his right arm to send Teixeira home. “When he started waving me, I, you know, put it into second gear,” Teixeira said with a laugh. “I don’t have a third, fourth or fifth gear.”

Still, he had enough speed to beat the throw from second and he slid across with the run that gave the Yankees a most improbable victory.

Insanity reigned in the big house. The crowd went berserk and the Yankees poured out of their dugout in celebration while the Mets walked off wondering what the hell had just happened, no one feeling worse than poor Castillo.

“I feel bad. I feel so bad,” Castillo said. “The ball was moving a little bit.”

Ghosts. They indded had made the trip across the street. Had to be. After all, this was now the Yankees’ seventh walk-off win in just 29 games at their new ballpark.

There are some - and I include myself in this - who have grown weary of the Subway Series. It was cool back when interleague play was born, but nearly 30 years later, it’s just another series for the Yankees, especially since MLB went to the balanced schedule and all teams now play each other every year.

My son Holden and I are going to Citi Field in a couple weeks to see the Yankees in a Subway Series game so maybe I’ll have a different opinion after being there in person. But in 2009, it was still a pretty big deal and this game was one of the wildest the teams had ever played against each other.

Joba Chamberlain started for the Yankees but he reached 100 pitches in four innings and with the Joba Rules in place, Girardi pulled him, even though he’d allowed only two runs on one hit and five walks. At the time the Yankees were up 3-2 thanks to Robinson Cano’s solo homer and Teixeira’s two-run bomb off Mets starter Livan Hernandez. But reliever Brett Tomko got lit up for four runs in the fifth and the Mets surged ahead 6-3, the big blow a two-run homer by ex-Yankee Gary Sheffield.

Jeter homered in the fifth, and then in the sixth, Hernandez gave up a single to Cano and a walk to Jorge Posada so Mets manager Jerry Manuel went to lefty Jon Switzer to face Hideki Matsui. Three pitches later, the Yankees were ahead 7-6 as Matsui belted a three-run homer.

Undaunted, the Mets tied it in the seventh, then went ahead in the eighth when Mariano Rivera entered with two outs and walked Carlos Beltran and gave up an RBI double to David Wright, stunning the crowd.

In the bottom of the ninth, K-Rod retired Brett Gardner, but Jeter singled up the middle on a 2-2 pitch, and when he stole second while Johnny Damon struck out, Manuel made a key decision. Rather than have K-Rod pitch to Teixeira who would be batting left-handed, he issued an intentional walk so that the righty could face A-Rod who, while obviously dangerous, was hitting just .233 at the time.

“Teixeira’s a guy, with that right-field porch right there, I don’t want to lose a game like that,” K-Rod said. “With A-rod, mentally, I had a plan to challenge him and move him around the zone. That’s what I was trying to do.”

The plan worked, too. At least until Castillo dropped the ball.

“I was just frustrated,” A-Rod said. “I got a good fastball to hit, and I popped it straight up. What stands out is Mark Teixeira’s hustle. That wins the game. He’s my MVP of the American League right now. It was a gift from God. Or from Castillo.”

Teixeira did not know what was happening because he was focused on Thomson, and that’s why he never slowed down and was able to score.

“As soon as I slid in, I hugged Jeter and I said, ‘What just happened?’ because I couldn’t believe it,” Teixeira said. “He’s one of the best closers in the game. He did his job tonight, but baseball is a funny game.”

Well, that’s what the Yankees were thinking, not what the Mets were thinking.

For the Yankees, it was a much-needed victory because in the wee hours of that Friday morning that had flown back to New York having been swept at Fenway Park which dropped them to 0-8 against the Red Sox, the main reason why they were now two games back in the AL East race.

“Of course, we feel like we just stole one,” Jeter said. “We were lucky. That’s just the bottom line. You never assume, but that’s about as close as you can get to the game being over.”

Here’s the video with both calls from the Yankees’ Michael Kay and the Mets’ Gary Cohen.

Here’s how the rest of Week 10 went for the Yankees:

• June 9: The Yankees arrived at Fenway Park for a three-game series leading the Red Sox by a game in the AL East. They left two games back as they got swept and fell to an unfathomable 0-8 for the season against their ancient rival. In the opener, in a battle of ex-Marlins teammates, Josh Beckett threw six innings of one-hit shutout ball in Boston’s 7-0 victory while A.J. Burnett got torched for five runs in the first two innings.

• June 10: The Red Sox jumped on Chien-Ming Wang and Phil Hughes early and led 6-2 after four, then held on for a 6-5 victory. Wang fell to 0-4 with an ERA of 13.92 and his complete collapse was now a truly worrisome issue for the Yankees. “I know he’s going to turn it around, but today was difficult for me,” Jorge Posada said. “It’s tough to see him go like this. We know what he’s capable of. We still trust him and are still behind him.”

• June 11: CC Sabathia got his first look at the rivalry and all was well through seven innings as the Yankees had just taken a 3-1 lead on A-Rod’s tiebreaking two-run double in the seventh. But then in the eighth, the first three Red Sox reached base to make it 3-2, and Girardi pulled Sabathia in favor of Alfredo Aceves and he quickly gave up two singles and a sacrifice fly and just like that, the Yankees lost 4-3. “It definitely stings a lot,” Sabathia said. “We lost a ball game we probably should have won. But the bottom line is we have a lot of games left.”

• June 13: After the miraculous win in the Subway Series opener, the Yankees dropped the middle game 6-2 as the Mets beat up on Andy Pettitte for five runs on 11 hits in five innings.

• June 14: A difficult week ended in glory as the Yankees took the series with a 15-0 cremation as they attacked Mets ace Johan Santana for nine earned runs. Jeter went 4-for-4, Damon drove in three runs, Cano had three hits including a home run and three RBI, and Francisco Cervelli had the first three-hit game of his young career. Not that it mattered, but A.J. Burnett threw seven shutout innings.

NEXT SATURDAY: With the Yankees mired in a troubling slump and sinking in the AL East, Brian Cashman went on the road to Atlanta to read the team the riot act, and they responded with a season-changing victory over the Braves.