Yankees 5, Mariners 4

Melky Mantle!

Okay, I thought the above back-page headline a bit much myself a month ago. But geez . . .

This was shaping up to be a dreary affair--three runs in the first for Seattle, followed eventually by a bucket brigade of relievers Hargrove probably keeps in Han Solo-like carbon freezing, waiting for the rare time Seattle has a lead late in a game.

Beyond that:

Who is Aaron Guiel and where has he been all my life?

Posada was out in the ninth, sure, on what umpire Mile Riley ruled an infield hit that set up Damon's tying sac fly. But, on what is becoming my tour of out-of-town broadcasters (DirecTV and YES apparently get along as well as the Corleones and the Tattaglias) I counted, like, five times the announcers pointed to Damon's fly ball and said, "That would have been the third out."

Yeah, had Damon hit the fly ball with two outs. Duh. With one out, Damon knew his job was, at the very least, to get the ball in the air and tie the game. He was looking for a pitch he could loft. Had Posada been called out--had, in fact, there been two outs--Damon's approach at the plate would have been entirely different. And Damon is one of the best situational hitters alive. So who's to say Damon's at-bat would have ended the game?

I mean, there are only thirty baseball TV announcing teams in Major League Baseball. I'm always reading how cutthroat the job is, how sports broadcasting is essentially ten thousand guys waiting for Vin Scully to die so everyone can move up a notch. And yet I wonder: this is the best we've got?

Baseball has, these past few weeks, kept me away from "Rescue Me," which I like a great deal, in part because it is superbly written, in part because I'd watch Denis Leary read from the (ugh) Boston Globe, and in part because my youngest brother Rob is a fire fighter and I like to imagine how his life must go down at the station, with all the characters in his life. As it happened, tonight's routinely brilliant "Rescue Me" episode ended just as the rain lifted in the Bronx, so I turned from Leary's imagined relapse (never mind if you don't watch the show) to a few thrills and chills in the game to Melky's walk-off.

Every so often, Torre makes the decision that Mo isn't coming in tonight, no matter what, not even to go after one guy who's 0-45 against him lifetime. This is tantamount to almost dumping a close game late, so important is Mo to the Yankee forunes, but is necessary, so important is Mo to the Yankee fortunes. I figured, with three grueling innings worked the last two games, tonight was such a night, and was correct. But not having Mo in a close game late amounts to betting with house money, which made tonight's win so much sweeter.