Below The Beltway

It was a long, cold, somewhat rainy night at Yankee Stadium but, in the end, the Yankees pulled out a victory:

As Game 2 of the American League Championship Series stretched past midnight, past the ninth inning and into a steady rain in the Bronx early Sunday, Anthony Flynn, a Yankees video coordinator, sprinkled some October history on Jerry Hairston Jr.

Flynn dropped a magical name on Hairston: Luis Sojo, the utility infielder on the Yankees’ last title team, in 2000. Sojo’s single scored the winning run for the Yankees in that World Series, and Flynn was saying Hairston could be like him.

Soon enough, it was Hairston coming up as a pinch-hitter to lead off the bottom of the 13th inning, the first postseason plate appearance of his 12-year career. He ripped a single to left, took second on a bunt, and scored on an error by the Los Angeles Angels’ Maicer Izturis that lifted the Yankees to a 4-3 victory and a two-games-to-none series lead.

“I came up with the Orioles, and I saw those great Yankee teams,” Hairston said. “They obviously had superstars, but the Scott Brosiuses, the Jim Leyritzes, the Luis Sojos, those are all guys who made positive contributions.”

On a frosty night, in a game that lasted 310 minutes, the Yankees used the same formula. A less-heralded player, Hairston, got a pie in the face from A.J. Burnett as the hero of the Yankees’ 17th walk-off victory this season. But a superstar made it possible.

Alex Rodriguez saved the Yankees again, tying the game with a homer to right field to lead off the bottom of the 11th inning against Brian Fuentes. It was Rodriguez’s third game-tying homer this postseason. He also did it off Minnesota closer Joe Nathan in the ninth inning of the second game of the division series, and off the Twins’ Carl Pavano in the seventh inning of the Game 3 clincher.

Now that the Yankees are two victories from their first World Series since 2003, the year before he arrived, Rodriguez will not change anything.

“I’m going to do what I’ve done all year, try to stay in the moment and really enjoy the moment,” Rodriguez said. “I know I had a blast out there today. That was a great game.”

Yea, it was.

Now, on to Anaheim on Monday — where I’m sure the weather will be more favorable for both teams.