Last Night's Thrilling Win From My View

I can't believe what I just saw. One of the greatest Yankees-Red Sox games ever occurred last night, and I was there! As the Yankees beat the Red Sox 2-0 in 15 innings, in the best game of the year for the Yanks. And for me to watch it live at Yankee Stadium, it made it even more special.

My uncle bought these tickets back in June off StubHub, and I was really excited. I didn't know the pitching matchups, or the outcome, but a Friday night Yankees-Red Sox game is always something to be excited about, no matter what.

We got to the Stadium at around 4:15 and my Uncle ran into some of his old friends (he was a beer vendor at the old stadium for 30 years) who were selling beer and stuff at the new Stadium. I heard them say it's been tough for them this year, because now you don't need to get beer from a vendor anymore; you can't get it yourself from stands all around the ballpark. So it's been hard for them to make money so far this season.

We went through Gate 8, which was the closest to the right field porch as we wanted to catch some batting practice home runs, although we never did. We saw CC, Hughes, and Andy Pettitte warming up in the outfield shagging some pop-ups and grounders, so we hoped to get a baseball from one of them, but we didn't.

About an hour from first pitch we grabbed some cheeseburgers from Johnny Rockets, and my Uncle again talked to some old friends. We then went to our seats. We were in Section 224, about 7 rows back of the Sponge-Tech sign and a little to the right of the Press Box. We had a great view of the field.

So the game started and I was pumped. A.J. went head-to-head with Beckett, and he got what must have been the loudest ovation in the 8th when he came out. He gave up just 1 hit and struck out and walked 6. Both bullpens then did a great job. Hughes got the final out of the 8th, Mo pitched the 9th, Alfredo Aceves pitched the 10th, 11th, and 12th, Brian Bruney pitched the 3th and 14th, and Phil Coke pitched the top of the 15th. All in all, a long, but great night for the pitching staff.

Back to the game. There was a good amount of Red Sox fans in the section over from us, so they started doing their stupid cheers and stuff, you know, being typical disgusting Boston fans. So we then started our chants and quited them down. I met a couple die-hard Yankee fans and talked to them throughout the game. They were a good 20-30 years older than me, but still respected me and talked to me as if I was one of they're old Yankee buddies.

As the 7th inning stretch approached, I started to think that I may have a chance to see a Yankee walk-off and one of A.J. Burnett's famous pies in the face of the hero. But it wouldn't happen for another 8 innings.

Actually, when it got to the 14th, the Yankees held a 14th inning stretch for the 2nd time this year, the first back on April 22nd when the Yankees beat the A's 9-7 in 14 innings on Melky Cabrera's walk-off 2-run home run. They didn't do God Bless America again, but they did sing "Take Me Out To The Ballgame" for the 2nd time.

On to that fateful bottom of the 15th. After Derek Jeter led off with a single, both Johnny Damon and Mark Teixeira made the first 2 outs. So when Alex Rodriguez stepped up, I honestly started to think the game would never end. But on a 2-1 pitch, A-Rod turned my thoughts around as he crushed a game winning walk-off 2-run home run, to put an end to this instant Yankee classic. A.J. did get A-Rod with a Reddi-Whip pie, but it was sort of a dud as it barely got him.

It was such a great game, and certainly the best one of the season. And for A-Rod to come up big in the clutch against the Red Sox at Yankee Stadium, you couldn't have scripted it any better. I can't believe I was there; I'll definitely remember that for the rest of my life.