Bronx, N.Y., October 5, 2003 — When you hear that the Yankees broke open a scoreless tie with a six run fourth-inning, the tendency is to wonder at what point Minnesota hurler Johan Santana lost it. Last Tuesday the young lefty with the electric stuff quieted the Yankee bats through the first two innings on 25 pitches, allowing only a two-out single to Jeter in the first, and a similar one to Matsui three outs later.
On Sunday the scenario was similar. He struck out Soriano to start the game, and retired Giambi and Williams on infield grounders after Jeter singled yet again, this time with one out. He extinguished the visitors in order on 10 pitches in the second, and closed out the third by whiffing the Yankee second baseman for a second time, managing nine outs at the bargain cost of only 28 pitches. Santana doled out first-pitch strikes to every guy in the Yankee order, and made up for the first pitch ball to 10th batter Soriano by making him swing and miss at three of the next five.
So, knowing that the Yanks would break through in the next frame, the reader would be well within their rights to assume that that was where the game’s turning point came. But I felt pretty good about the Yanks’ chances one inning sooner. Juan Rivera lined hard to center on the first pitch of the third, but that didn’t indicate much, because the Yankee right fielder had three hits Saturday and is seeing the ball well of late. Santana followed by getting a call strike on Nick Johnson, who was moved to the ninth spot in the order for this game due to his ongoing three-week-long struggle at the plate. So the Minnesota lefty then pumped one high and hard to the outside corner, but Johnson jumped on it and drove it about 400 feet from the plate, where Torii Hunter ran it down. I couldn’t help but feel that that drive spoke volumes about how the Yanks would henceforth be reacting to Santana’s pitches.
David Wells, meanwhile, riding a high from having won his 200th regular-season game last Sunday in Yankee Stadium, looked in control against the struggling Twins batters. But Wells made a few adjustments to his finely honed act before bringing it on the road, as was evidenced by the two punch outs in the first frame, and the two more in the game’s next two innings. He seemed to be backing off on his “hit-bats” strategy a bit until the Yankees could get him a lead, though he was continuing to throw a high percentage over the plate, 18 of 21 in the first two innings. Korey Koskie’s pop to short leading off the third was the first Yankee infield put out, and he wouldn’t get a groundout until Mientkiewicz rolled a 1-2 pitch to Soriano to start the home fourth. But by that time he had already become the beneficiary of the big lead.
Santana, meanwhile, had rewarded my theory that the Yanks would hit him based on Nick Johnson’s long drive by striking out the next two Yanks swinging, Jeter as the first out in the fourth. But Giambi took one up in his eyes and out over the plate the other way into the left center field gap, and coasted into second as Torii Hunter ran it down.
If I wasn’t making my claim that the “worm turned,” so to speak, on the high cheese to Nick, the Bernie Williams at bat that followed Jason’s double would be the next likely spot. Batting from the right side, Bernie was quickly in an 0-2 hole after fouling off a pitch and swinging at one diving into the dirt. But Santana tried to bust one in on his hands and Bernie smacked it past Korey Koskie at third and down the line for an rbi double. Much has been made of the aggressive Twins batters and how they always go hard for the possible extra base, but Bernie coasted into second as Shannon Stewart had a mini-adventure trying to control the hard bouncer in the left field corner. Posada took a ball, fouled a pitch and singled just past Koskie’s glove in the shortstop hole and Matsui followed the same pattern (ball, then foul) before lining one so hard to right center that it kangaroo-hopped the baggie for a grounds-rule double.
The Yanks were up, 2-0, but when Boone broke his bat on a soft liner to Guzman with the infield in, an intentional walk to Rivera brought the 0-10 Johnson to the plate with bases loaded and two outs, and Santana had a chance to escape with minimal damage in the lefty/lefty matchup with Nick. Home plate ump Gary Darling called a strike on the first offering and Johnson swung at and missed the 1-1 pitch. But Nick’s previous at bat bespoke a guy who was struggling no more, and he lined the 1-2 slider to the right center field gap, plating two and setting himself and Juan Rivera up in scoring position in a 4-0 game.
Twins Manager Gardenhire came and took the ball from Santana, and handed it to righty reliever Juan Rincon. But paraphrasing a popular movie of some years back, bringing in a reliever is like opening a box of chocolates. You never know what you’re going to get. A sharp Rincon could have stopped the bleeding right there. As it was, Soriano lined one over third and down the line that scored two, and Jeter and Giambi were walked to move him to third on 10 pitches. Ex-Yankee prospect Eric Milton came on and restored order, but the lead had ballooned to 6-0, a bulge David Wells refused to give up.
The Twins, to their credit, tried to charge right back, bunching three singles with one out in the bottom of the fourth, with Torii Hunter scoring on designated hitter Michael Cuddyer’s bloop to short left. But Pierzynski (whose bouncer down first had actually struck the first base bag) and Cuddyer remained right where they were as Wells closed the frame on two pitches, a Jones foul fly to Matsui and Koskie’s drive to Bernie in center. Then David returned to his ground ball style to shorten the game. A string of four ground outs to the infield followed Guzman’s liner to Boone to start the fifth, and David notched his last strike out on three swings by Cuddyer in as many pitches after Pierzynski’s two-out single in the sixth.
Wells retired the side in order in the seventh with two more infield outs, sparked by Jeter’s outstanding stop of Jones’s bouncer into the shortstop hole and the leap and football pass to Johnson in plenty of time. Wells then started the eighth with back-to-back bouncers flagged down by Boone on nine pitches before allowing a Mientkiewcz single to left on a 1-1 pitch, which brought Joe Torre out to talk the situation over. Boomer won his plea for one more chance, but when Torii Hunter’s hard hopper up the middle just got by Jeter’s dive, Wells was removed in favor of Gabe White, who had to feel like a Stranger in a Strange Land on the mound after not facing live pitching since the Orioles were at the Stadium last weekend.
Eric Milton kept the Yanks from inflicting any more damage aside from a Soriano single in the sixth and Giambi’s pop into no man’s land in short center that fell for a double to start the visitors’ seventh. Boone got his first hit since last Tuesday’s opener leading off against Latrell Hawkins in the eighth, and he scored when the hard-throwing righty threw Juan Rivera’s bunt way past first. But aside from that misstep the Twins vaunted defense was heard from again and again, with Stewart stealing a Jeter home run at the left field wall to close the seventh, and Torii Hunter running under Matsui’s blast to dead center three outs later. Stewart was at it again after Hawkins threw away Rivera’s bunt. He took a step in on Johnson’s drive to the left field corner, but righted himself and managed a lunging catch that had the ESPN TV crew buzzing. He then righted himself and pegged a strike to Guzman, whose fling to second was ruled to have doubled the Yankee right fielder up, although I think Juan clearly beat the relay back.
Closer Eddie Guardado, in to pitch the ninth, had his first pitch driven to left where Stewart coudn’t reach it, as Jeter’s homer closed the scoring at 8-1. Posada managed a two-out single, as did Koskie off White in the ninth’s bottom half, but the game, and Minnesota’s season, was over at 6:55 pm Eastern Time.
I was in agreement with the many who predicted going in that the Yanks would have a tougher time in this Series than the Bombers’ 13-0 record against the Twins in the regular season the last two years would indicate. And the flailing Yankee bats and the stumbling fielders in Pinstripes during Tuesday’s Game One 3-1 loss proved us all right.
But the aspect about which I was most nervous was that almost inaudible murmur I’ve sensed during this season’s stretch run, an elusive undertone that has threatened to sap all the victory songs — to Frank Sinatra accompaniment — of just a bit of their joy and elation. Last year’s disappointing ALDS loss to the Angels befuddled me more than depressed me (unlike the seventh-game, ninth-inning crusher to the D’backs back in ’91). I was aware last October, as I have been this year, that the Yankee offense can be susceptible to great pitching (whose isn’t?), but sometimes even to the pitches of more everyday workman-like hurlers. What I knew last year, however, as I do this year, is that my aging starters are, one to four, the best in the business. But then the Angels and their bats exploded what I thought I knew about baseball and why the Yankees win it when it counts most. The onslaught of hits started against Roger Clemens and didn’t let up until David Wells was driven from the Anaheim mound.
It’s October again. I know we have the best starters, known it for some time. Master of American letters, and fiction, Edgar Allen Poe, passed away 154 years ago, on October 7. The gnawing doubt about how Mike and Andy and Roger and Boomer would perform in this year’s postseason, the “Tell-Tale” concern, has been pounding in my head for a year now. But after restricting the AL Central Champs to six runs and 26 hits over four games, the pounding has subsided. I’ve waited a year to see if and when the Yankee Big Four would wilt in the post yet again. And now I think I have my answer:
Nevermore!
BTW,TYW
YANKEE BASEBALL!!!