Tuesday, October 25, 2005
New York forces decisive Game 5
Monday, October 10, 2005
NEW YORK - They finally passed the ball to their best player, Mariano Rivera, the greatest closer of them all. The New York Yankees finally weathered a storm of Angels with a little small balling of their own, unearthing the one winning formula those pesky roadrunners from Los Angeles could not trash.
Give the ball to Mo and stay out of the way.
Even with the agony of his postseason defeats, Rivera remains an October reliever without compare. He is more important to the Yankees than Derek Jeter, Alex Rodriguez and Randy Johnson. Only Joe Torre ranks ahead of Rivera on the old dynasty depth chart.
So at 10:31 ET Sunday night, when the bullpen door swung wide and the ominous sounds of Metallica's "Enter Sandman" filled the black Bronx night, Yankee Stadium was alive with the promise of a new Division Series day.
For a moment, it felt like 1996 or 1998 or 2000, the glory years. Bob Sheppard told the crowd that Bernie Williams had moved from DH into centerfield, that Tino Martinez had moved from the bench into first base, and that Mariano Rivera had moved from the bullpen onto the mound.
Two minutes later, to start the eighth inning, Yankees clinging to a 3-2 lead, Rivera threw some heat under Juan Rivera's chin. The fans roared. Rivera would send a harmless bouncer to second base.
Steve Finley was next. He would strike out looking on a 94-mph fastball. Adam Kennedy would go through the motions and slap a benign grounder to third.
Rivera wasn't getting beaten in the ninth, not after a wild and crazy season that saw the Yankees recover from an 11-19 start, recover from nine games back of the Orioles. The closer closed out Chone Figgins on another 94-mph fastball that Figgins watched. Orlando Cabrera bounced back to Rivera. With the crowd standing and roaring and making the house quake, Rivera convinced Vladimir Guerrero to bounce out to second.
Game over, threat removed, series tied.
Rivera secured the final six outs of another Game 4 with the Angels that saw the Yankees wobbling around the ropes. Three years ago, Rivera never had the chance to save his team. He made good on his chance Sunday night. He sent the Yankees back to Anaheim with the belief that they can go through Mike Mussina to get to Chicago and the ALCS.
This night was a referendum on what the Yankees are and what they have been. Torre won championships in four of his first five seasons, then watched the Arizona Diamondbacks, Angels, Florida Marlins and Boston Red Sox knock out his team in big sudden-death fights.
The Yankees were desperate to avoid another early exit. They were desperate to avoid taking another step down a perilous postseason trail blazed by the Atlanta Braves, the undisputed kings of October flameouts.
Shawn Chacon was the one who started to put them on a more prosperous path. Chacon was a combined 2-16 this year and last for the Colorado Rockies. He was just another bottomed-out arm in the mile-high clouds, always just good enough to lose.
He was pitching on 10 days rest. He was pitching his heart out on 10 days rest, too, giving the Angels nothing but a cheap infield single through the first five innings, when he faced the minimum 15 batters.
But the Yankees offense could do no better against John Lackey. The third inning was a small portrait of big Yankee problems. After Bubba Crosby bunted Jorge Posada over to second, Jeter and A-Rod stood ready to knock Posada in. Jeter went down swinging. A-Rod went down looking in a hopelessly amateurish plate appearance, but not until he ordered the bat boy to return to a fan the lumber he'd accidentally flung into the stands on Strike 2.
The crowd appreciated the gesture enough to chant "M-V-P," although the chant was so low in effort and volume that only a cat could hear it. Deep down, true Yankee fans don't care whether A-Rod wins the award. True Yankee fans only care whether A-Rod helps their team win a championship.
Until Sunday night, the only Yankees who appeared capable of forging memorable postseason moments were former ones. El Duque Hernandez destroyed the same Red Sox machine that steamrolled through the Bronx last year, and Roger Clemens expanded his own mythology by finishing as the last man standing at the close of Sunday's epic 18-inning marathon staged by the Astros and Braves.
The Yankees El Duque and the Rocket left behind weren't up to the Game 3 task. But this was a new night, a new beginning. Mike Scioscia had a sick Game 4 starter on his hands, Jarrod Washburn, so he turned to his Game 2 starter. Lackey was going on three days rest.
He spent much of the night shattering Yankee bats, anyway. But after the Angels handed him a 2-0 lead in the sixth, Lackey surrendered a two-out RBI single to Gary Sheffield, who hadn't done a thing all series.
Scioscia went to his bullpen, as did Torre in the seventh. When he came out to get Chacon, Torre heard the fans begging him to turn around and retreat to the dugout. "Nooooooooooo," they moaned. It didn't work. Chacon surrendered the ball, acknowledged the standing ovation by removing his cap, and watched Al Leiter get Darin Erstad on an inning-ending double play.
Ruben Sierra managed the tying single in the eighth, and Jeter's slow bouncer to Figgins at third scored Posada - barely. Jeter and Posada on another crucial playoff play at the plate. No, it wasn't the option pass that stunned the Oakland A's and the world in 2001, but it might've won this division series all the same.
In the end, the Yankees packed their not-so-secret weapon on the plane pointed toward Game 5. Mariano Rivera has to touch the ball Sunday night. It's the one and only way the Yankees get to stop in Chicago on the way home.
Source: http://news.enquirer.com/
NEW YORK - They finally passed the ball to their best player, Mariano Rivera, the greatest closer of them all. The New York Yankees finally weathered a storm of Angels with a little small balling of their own, unearthing the one winning formula those pesky roadrunners from Los Angeles could not trash.
Give the ball to Mo and stay out of the way.
Even with the agony of his postseason defeats, Rivera remains an October reliever without compare. He is more important to the Yankees than Derek Jeter, Alex Rodriguez and Randy Johnson. Only Joe Torre ranks ahead of Rivera on the old dynasty depth chart.
So at 10:31 ET Sunday night, when the bullpen door swung wide and the ominous sounds of Metallica's "Enter Sandman" filled the black Bronx night, Yankee Stadium was alive with the promise of a new Division Series day.
For a moment, it felt like 1996 or 1998 or 2000, the glory years. Bob Sheppard told the crowd that Bernie Williams had moved from DH into centerfield, that Tino Martinez had moved from the bench into first base, and that Mariano Rivera had moved from the bullpen onto the mound.
Two minutes later, to start the eighth inning, Yankees clinging to a 3-2 lead, Rivera threw some heat under Juan Rivera's chin. The fans roared. Rivera would send a harmless bouncer to second base.
Steve Finley was next. He would strike out looking on a 94-mph fastball. Adam Kennedy would go through the motions and slap a benign grounder to third.
Rivera wasn't getting beaten in the ninth, not after a wild and crazy season that saw the Yankees recover from an 11-19 start, recover from nine games back of the Orioles. The closer closed out Chone Figgins on another 94-mph fastball that Figgins watched. Orlando Cabrera bounced back to Rivera. With the crowd standing and roaring and making the house quake, Rivera convinced Vladimir Guerrero to bounce out to second.
Game over, threat removed, series tied.
Rivera secured the final six outs of another Game 4 with the Angels that saw the Yankees wobbling around the ropes. Three years ago, Rivera never had the chance to save his team. He made good on his chance Sunday night. He sent the Yankees back to Anaheim with the belief that they can go through Mike Mussina to get to Chicago and the ALCS.
This night was a referendum on what the Yankees are and what they have been. Torre won championships in four of his first five seasons, then watched the Arizona Diamondbacks, Angels, Florida Marlins and Boston Red Sox knock out his team in big sudden-death fights.
The Yankees were desperate to avoid another early exit. They were desperate to avoid taking another step down a perilous postseason trail blazed by the Atlanta Braves, the undisputed kings of October flameouts.
Shawn Chacon was the one who started to put them on a more prosperous path. Chacon was a combined 2-16 this year and last for the Colorado Rockies. He was just another bottomed-out arm in the mile-high clouds, always just good enough to lose.
He was pitching on 10 days rest. He was pitching his heart out on 10 days rest, too, giving the Angels nothing but a cheap infield single through the first five innings, when he faced the minimum 15 batters.
But the Yankees offense could do no better against John Lackey. The third inning was a small portrait of big Yankee problems. After Bubba Crosby bunted Jorge Posada over to second, Jeter and A-Rod stood ready to knock Posada in. Jeter went down swinging. A-Rod went down looking in a hopelessly amateurish plate appearance, but not until he ordered the bat boy to return to a fan the lumber he'd accidentally flung into the stands on Strike 2.
The crowd appreciated the gesture enough to chant "M-V-P," although the chant was so low in effort and volume that only a cat could hear it. Deep down, true Yankee fans don't care whether A-Rod wins the award. True Yankee fans only care whether A-Rod helps their team win a championship.
Until Sunday night, the only Yankees who appeared capable of forging memorable postseason moments were former ones. El Duque Hernandez destroyed the same Red Sox machine that steamrolled through the Bronx last year, and Roger Clemens expanded his own mythology by finishing as the last man standing at the close of Sunday's epic 18-inning marathon staged by the Astros and Braves.
The Yankees El Duque and the Rocket left behind weren't up to the Game 3 task. But this was a new night, a new beginning. Mike Scioscia had a sick Game 4 starter on his hands, Jarrod Washburn, so he turned to his Game 2 starter. Lackey was going on three days rest.
He spent much of the night shattering Yankee bats, anyway. But after the Angels handed him a 2-0 lead in the sixth, Lackey surrendered a two-out RBI single to Gary Sheffield, who hadn't done a thing all series.
Scioscia went to his bullpen, as did Torre in the seventh. When he came out to get Chacon, Torre heard the fans begging him to turn around and retreat to the dugout. "Nooooooooooo," they moaned. It didn't work. Chacon surrendered the ball, acknowledged the standing ovation by removing his cap, and watched Al Leiter get Darin Erstad on an inning-ending double play.
Ruben Sierra managed the tying single in the eighth, and Jeter's slow bouncer to Figgins at third scored Posada - barely. Jeter and Posada on another crucial playoff play at the plate. No, it wasn't the option pass that stunned the Oakland A's and the world in 2001, but it might've won this division series all the same.
In the end, the Yankees packed their not-so-secret weapon on the plane pointed toward Game 5. Mariano Rivera has to touch the ball Sunday night. It's the one and only way the Yankees get to stop in Chicago on the way home.
Source: http://news.enquirer.com/
