Yankees Take Series heading into Bedard tomorrow

From the comforts of his manager's office, with its wide desk and leather couch, Joe Girardi sat on Thursday night and watched about five minutes of baseball. Perhaps still simmering a bit from his ejection only moments earlier, Girardi watched as Robinson Cano laced a walk-off single through the left side of the infield, and as Hideki Matsui motored around from second base to score the winning run. Then Girardi leapt out of his chair and hurled his pen across the room. "I'm not so sure I am decompressed yet," he said just after the game. That might take some time, considering the magnitude of his argument, and the depth of the slump that had been vexing his Yankees. But now with a well-pitched and downright emotional 2-1 win over the Orioles in tow, perhaps Girardi can finally relax. Because goodness knows he didn't on Thursday night. Stuck in a 1-1 game in the bottom of the ninth inning, Girardi lost his cool -- and his seat in the dugout -- when Jason Giambi struck out with one down and Matsui standing on first base. Orioles reliever Jim Johnson had delivered a pitch high and inside to Giambi, who, with two strikes, couldn't yank his bat entirely out of the way. Home-plate umpire Chris Guccione didn't think so, at least, ruling that the ball skimmed the knob of Giambi's bat and deflected into catcher Ramon Hernandez's glove, good for a strikeout. That's when Girardi stormed onto the field and engaged Guccione in a lengthy argument. Within moments, he was ejected, throwing his hat on the ground and kicking it toward the dugout. Then he picked it up, kicked some dirt, and began arguing all over again. "Maybe that was the little spark that we need to get us going," Giambi said. "We've been playing good baseball, but not great baseball." What followed, coincidence or not, was great baseball. Bobby Abreu, batting with two outs, took a five-pitch walk to advance Matsui to second base, and then Cano drilled an inside fastball into left field to win the game. "This means a lot," Cano said. "Every time I get a hit to help the team win, it means a lot to me. Because it's not about just the numbers. It's about winning." And so the Yankees did win, netting their second straight victory on Thursday at Yankee Stadium, after a miserable loss on Tuesday night that Girardi called "rock bottom." Their chance to win came much earlier, when Ian Kennedy, struggling to regain both form and confidence, gave the Yankees precisely the type of outing that they needed. Kennedy lasted six innings, allowing four hits and four walks, but only one run. "Every good outing feels good," Kennedy said. "It's a lot better feeling when you know that you pitched well and you did your job." Kennedy's only real trouble came in the third inning, when he allowed one run to score on Freddie Bynum's triple and then loaded the bases with one out. But a strikeout and a harmless fly ball ended the threat, and the Orioles never seriously threatened again. Neither did the Yankees, really, mustering little off Orioles starter Brian Burres. Only when Shelley Duncan lifted a sacrifice fly to left field in the fourth inning did they score, and only when Matsui singled to lead off the ninth inning did they threaten again. Still, even then, they could have gone down quietly, and both teams could have inhaled, puffed out their chests and prepared for extra innings. Certainly, it seemed that way when Giambi struck out -- fairly or not, replays were inconclusive -- to leave Matsui at first with two outs. But when Girardi huffed onto the field to argue the call, something changed. Perhaps Johnson became rattled by the on-field delay and the jeering crowd. Perhaps the Yankees became fired up by their manager's display of passion. Perhaps it was just plain old, every-day coincidence. Whatever the reason, the Yankees emerged from the delay with emotion on their side, and needing little more time to win the game. Their momentum had begun. "Our guys come to play every day," Girardi said. "My purpose to go out there was not to fire them up, because I think they're fired up every day. But I'm not sure." His players, from Giambi to Cano to captain Derek Jeter, were all a bit more certain. "Girardi wants to win," Jeter said. "That's the bottom line. He cares a lot." And that's certainly part of the reason why he was coiled into a spring late on Thursday night -- ready to argue, ready to kick dirt, ready to throw his pen clear across the room. Regardless of whether that helped the Yankees win, they still won. That hasn't happened too much lately, so the magnitude of this victory was clear. "It's not about being satisfied," Cano said. "It's about winning right now."