For a team that prides itself on its power, bills itself as the Bronx Bombers and leads Major League Baseball in home runs, this was the smallest variety of small ball: a run scratched out with a walk, an old-school hit-and-run single, and an infield out.
It was not the kind of baseball, we are often told, that brings fans to the ballpark these days or persuades them to sit in front of their television sets. According to popular wisdom, it is the variety that is more likely to drive young fans away from the game.
The exit velocity of the game-deciding groundout was unimpressive, a mere 89.