NOT even the 1951 Giants won ’em all.
Even in producing a 37-7 record the final seven weeks of the season to force the epochal playoff with the Dodgers after falling 13 games behind Brooklyn on Aug. 11, the Giants did, after all, lose those seven games.
The trick was – no, not the one about stealing signs from the center-field scoreboard – those Giants never let one loss infect their pursuit of the Dodgers or distract them from their mission.
Then again, the trick might also have been those Giants never had Mike Mussina, Kei Igawa and Matt DeSalvo set up one-two-three in the starting rotation to follow any one of those seven defeats.
The Yankees reached their quota about a month ago on games they could afford to let get away, yet another one got away from them at the Stadium yesterday afternoon when, out of nowhere, Toronto scored three in the seventh against Chien-Ming Wang for a 3-2 victory that prevented the home team from sweeping a four-game series.
They can say accurately, as they did in the immediate aftermath of the defeat that was more improbable than Tuesday’s extra-inning victory they achieved after tying the score in the ninth on a balk, that they’re playing good ball and that they’ll take winning three out of every four games.
But there is no doubt that this one caused heartburn even as it is currently impossible to determine whether this will be the one to ultimately cause heartbreak if the Yankees can’t make it all the way back against Boston in the AL East or against Cleveland in the wild-card chase.
This one caused heartburn because the Yankees lost with their ace on the mound and a 2-1 lead with seven outs to go. This one caused heartburn because they scored twice before making an out then got nothing the rest of the way. This one caused heartburn because of the question marks concerning who will take the mound tonight and in tomorrow’s split doubleheader against the Devil Rays.
“This one hurts, no question about it,” Joe Torre said. “Even though we’ve made up ground and have at least gotten ourselves back into it, when you’re in our position, you pretty much need to win every game that you have a chance to win.”
In other sports, teams can win by trying harder, simplistic as that may seem. In physical sports, teams can win by outworking their opponents. It happens all the time in the NFL, NHL and NBA.
In baseball, however, it’s about being sharp, remaining focused. In baseball, it’s not allowing yesterday’s loss to contaminate the following day’s effort, no matter what the standings or calendar connote. In baseball, it’s about getting good pitching.
“You come to the park with the same urgency every day, no matter what,” Derek Jeter said. “If you win or lose by a run, if you win or lose by a blowout, nothing changes the next day.
“It’s not about there being ‘so many games left’ or ‘as many games left.’ You can’t change what already happened. You need to play well every day no matter what.”
If the immediate past is prelude to the future, yesterday’s loss will be just one of those bad things that happens to a good team over the course of a long season. For in going 9-3 in their last 12 to chew off a chunk of what was a 12-game Boston lead on July 5, the Yankees seem to have developed a sense of who they are.
“We all feel good about ourselves after this stretch,” Torre said. “In the first part of the year, for whatever reason, there was a lot of tension on our team.
“Now it’s just normal baseball pressure. As bad as this one was to lose, I don’t think it’s going to have a negative impact on our approach.”
Nobody can win ’em all. The 1951 Giants didn’t and the 2007 Yankees won’t.
The trick is not to lose very many at all. The trick for the Yankees will be to avoid doing that with Mussina, Igawa and DeSalvo next up in the rotation.