Ivan Nova looked confident and smooth in the first inning today but gave up three runs in the second. Nothing hit too hard and he had to work out of trouble after that but he was strong enough to get into the seventh with the Yanks down, 3-1. Mike Pelfry, on the other hand, gave up an early home run to Curtis Granderson–there’s that man, again–yet looked hittable. In the second inning, Jorge Posada and Brett Gardner narrowly missed homers, but then Pelfry settled into a nice groove, used four different pitches and “really pitched,” as the announcer like to say.

I was watching the game at home with the wife. It moved along without much incident. The crowd at Yankee Stadium, again, was subdued. In the sixth, the Yanks turned a 5-4-3 double play, “around the horn,” said Michael Kay on the YES broadcast.

That’s when the wife, who had been unsuccessful in an attempt to nap, sprung to life.

“Round the horn,” she said. “I hate that. Round the horn, merry go round, I’m a putz. In your wheelhouse. Right in your kitchen. Why not your laundry room or your unfinished basement? Put the bat right in your stupid merry go round.”

I laughed. This is what happens when the wife doesn’t nap.

She said, “I’m just a little cranky.”

Most Yankee fans were irritable too. Then came the seventh inning when luck was on their side in the form of swinging bunts, seeing-eye singles and bloop doubles. Brett Gardner started it off with a base hit that went between Pelfry’s legs. Pelf, a tall dude, mumbled, cursed and walked Chris Dickerson. Then Francisco Cervelli squared around to bunt and took a fastball off his shoulder. At first I thought it beaned him in the head.

DJ was next.

Jeter hit the ball hard up the middle. Sitting at home I thought it was a sure double play. But it found the hole, a Luis Sojo Special!, and darted into centerfield. Two runs scored and the game was tied. Pelfry’s day was over.

Against a left handed reliever, Curtis Granderson sacrificed the runners along and Mark Teixeira was intentionally walked, loading the bases for Alex Rodriguez. Another pitching change and then Alex swung at the first pitch and hit the ball weakly toward third, went maybe 50 feet.

But it was soft enough for a run-scoring infield single. Robbie Cano followed and hit a flat, 2-0 sinker hard into right field, scoring another run. Jorge Posada was called out on strikes but then Gardner hit a bloop double to left and Dickerson followed up with an even luckier bloop double and all of a sudden it was 9-3, Yanks.

That’s how it ended. And now, we kick back, relax and enjoy the rest of the day.