National treasure

I went to the Yankee game with Squawker Lisa tonight, and I would have bet anything that the Yankees were going to win. It was the sixth game we have been to together this season, and her team had won every time, culminating in last Friday’s play-that-must-not-be-named.

After that, I figured my team would never win when we were both in attendance. But an unlikely starter, Fernando Nieve, helped the Mets bounce back the next day, and an unlikely team, the Washington Nationals, helped me bounce back in my next game with Lisa.

Going into the bottom of the ninth, I was resigned to seeing my third walkoff in a row at Yankee Stadium (May 15 against the Twins was the first). The combination of the Nationals’ flammable bullpen and Coors Field East would do Washington in.

Then Lannan does not even wait for the bullpen to blow the game by giving up a leadoff Yankee Stadium cheapie to Johnny Damon to make it 3-2. After Mark Teixeira singled with one out, Alex Rodriguez came up and the Nationals went to their dreaded bullpen.

A-Rod should have made the final out on Friday, and I was hoping he would make up for that game by ending this one with a double play. But pinch runner Brett Gardner stole second and then third. By this point, I was hoping the Yankees would just win in regulation and get it over with, and not have it drag into extra innings.

Instead, for the second Yankee Stadium game in a row, I was left dumbfounded by the final play. But this time, instead of two runs scoring, it was a game-ending double play. The Nationals beat the Yankees! The Nationals, a team in hot pursuit of the 1962 Mets’ record of 120 losses, beat the Yankees in Yankee Stadium!

Lisa, to quote your tweet from last Friday night, “and we were there to see it!”

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Before the game, Lisa and I had the pleasure of meeting friend of the Squawkers Jane Heller, who was signing copies of her book, Confessions of a She-Fan: The Course of True Love with the New York Yankees.

We also enjoyed meeting fellow blogger Rebecca of This Purist Bleeds Pinstripes and one of our regular commenters, Squawker reader Peggy.