I had a blast at Yankee Stadium on Saturday in the company of fellow Baseball Prospectus author and Yankee fan Derek Jacques. The two of us were all smiles as we watched the Yanks spank the Cubs 8-1 for their fifth straight win.

Facing a free-swinging lineup that featured Neifi Perez and Corey Patterson battting 1-2 (thank you, Dusty), Chien Ming Wang had an easy time, allowing only five hits and striking out five over eight innings. Wang barely had to break a sweat; he threw only 88 pitches and looked like a man who’s got no business ever going back to Triple-A. The rookie made only one mistake; the first pitch of the sixth inning to #9 hitter Jason Dubois landed about 400 feet away from home plate. Still, if there’s ever a time to groove one…

That homer cut the Yanks’ lead to 3-1, but the Bombers loaded the bases for Derek Jeter in the bottom of the inning and Jeter, who’d never hit a grand slam during his decade in the majors, finally got the monkey off of his back, depositing a Joe Borowski pitch over the left-centerfield wall as pandemonium broke out. The Yankee captain drew a curtain call after the hit, got a standing O when he went out to shortstop to start the seventh and another one when he came to bat in the eighth, after which he earned yet another curtain call with a homer to right center off of Cliff Bartosh. What a lovefest.

We spent the game sitting next to an endearing boyfriend-girlfriend scoring team; he was keeping track of the Yanks, she the Cubs, but they were clearly rooting for the home team; her derisive taunts of “Jer-O-Meeee” Burnitz made it quite clear where she stood. The duo reminded me of that old joke — variously attributed to Dizzy Dean and Curt Gowdy — about the lovely couple at the ballpark in which he kissed her on the strikes and she kissed him on the… eh, never mind. With Derek and I both armed with scorecards as well, the four of us made quite a sight, diligently keeping track pitch-by-pitch and helping each other fill in the rare missed play.

Derek brought his digital camera with him, and he’s posted a handful of pictures as well as a writeup of the game at The Weblog That Derek Built. Check it out.