CLEVELAND — Buried in the detritus of 16 innings of baseball on Tuesday night, an extraordinary event occurred: Brett Gardner tried to steal a base.
Gardner, who had drawn a walk with one out in the ninth inning of an eventual 5-4 Yankees loss to the Cleveland Indians, broke for second on a 1-0 pitch to Alex Rodriguez. As Gardner dived headfirst into the bag, a slap tag from Indians second baseman Jose Ramirez caught Gardner flush in the face. He was out.
What made the attempted steal so eventful was that it was Gardner’s first in nearly two months.