NEW YORK -- It took barely a second for New York Yankees catcher Brian McCann's eighth-inning line drive to disappear into the sea of fans beyond the right-field wall -- and not much longer for Chris Young to make it re-appear in the top of the ninth.
The home run was McCann's first of the season, and more importantly, the 200th of his major-league career. It was the kind of ball a player likes to retrieve for the trophy case.
That's when Young, who went into right-field as a defensive replacement for Carlos Beltran in the seventh inning, went to work. As he trotted out to the field, he brought a baseball with him, to offer in trade for the officially authenticated game-used souvenir.
"It was an easy negotiation, but tough to find the fan,'' Young said. "You feel like a secret agent, working through multiple people to try and find the source.''
After putting together a coalition of "six or seven'' fans, Young was able to locate the one with the ball, and the swap was made.
"It was just a mad hustle,'' he said. "But McCann is such a great guy and he's done so many great things in this game. To reach a milestone like that is special. I think he deserved the ball and the fans were amazing to him."
Kyle Deja Vu: Kyle Davies, called up Sunday morning from Scranton to bolster the bullpen, last pitched in a big-league game on July 25, 2011 for the Kansas City Royals against the Boston Red Sox. And the last batter he faced was David Ortiz, who he got to ground out to second base. His career was then derailed by shoulder problems.
So when he came into the game in the seventh inning, who do you think was at the plate? David Ortiz. This time, he grounded out to first. Davis wound up pitching 2-2/3 scoreless innings.
"I didn’t think I couldn’t get back to the big leagues, it’s just that getting there is not as easy as it sounds,'' he said. "It’s a long road -- it was a long road.''
A road that led him right back to where he had left off.
More heat from Tanaka: Masahiro Tanaka earned the win but only went five innings, having thrown 97 pitches. He had reached close to his limit of 100 -- and the most he had thrown in a big-league game since he threw 99 at Cleveland last July 8 -- after which he was found to have a small tear in his UCL. Unlike Opening Day, when he threw just a handful of four-seam fastballs, Tanaka threw the pitch 24 times Sunday night, at speeds ranging from 89-92 MPH. But three of his four strikeouts were on sliders, the fourth looking at a fastball. Not once did he get a swing-and-miss on his four-seamer.