Sorry, friends, but this wasn't just another case of "It's only the Devil Rays."
Sure the team in their road grays at Yankee Stadium came from Tampa Bay. And yes, the Devil Rays have notoriously been baseball's answer to the Los Angeles Clippers AND the Arizona Cardinals.
But the eighth inning in the Bronx on Tuesday night was all about the Yankees. The big bad bullies of the American League smiting their opponents like Matt Damon in the Mooby offices in "Dogma."
Lying dormant since, well, since April 18 when the Yankees scored 13 runs in one inning (against the D-Rays, no less), the bats came alive. They went "boom boom boom," as Chiropractor friend Eli, aka
Dr. Yer It Is.
Back-to-back-to-back homers from Gary Sheffield, Alex Rodriguez and Hideki Matsui, each traveling seemingly farther than the previous. Oh, hold up, there is the little matter of Jorge Posada's three-run bomb, and Bernie Williams' re-awakening disguised as a bases-clearing triple during a 13-run eighth inning that gave the Yankees a 20-11 win.
A magical inning. Not because of the Devil Rays, the prototypical unworthy adversary, but rather because the Yankees showed life. They trailed big early. They trailed bigger late. They won the game. That hasn't happened more than once this season. An amazing feat, given that the Yankees made coming from behind their livelihood last season.
Randy Johnson took another virtual dump on the Yankee Stadium mound, serving up seven runs in three innings. The Big Unit got pulled after three. Joe Torre had to bring the infield in at one point in the third inning to try and stop the bleeding. Take your pick as to the more embarrassing fact.
It is only one win, so, please, Yankee fans, don't spout off at the water cooler today. Don't overtly taunt the Mets fans in your office (at least not any more than normal).
Should you be so lucky to have Devil Rays fans in your midst, e-mailing them a Travis Harper photo would be funny. More than one would be mean.
Let's not forget the D-Rays are 2-2 at the Stadium, 6-29 total on the road. Let's not forget the Yankees are still just four games over .500. Just quietly revel in your Yankeedom. And then remember, this is what a $200 million team is supposed to do.