It wasn’t pretty, but David Wells gutted through seven innings of one-run ball, keeping the Red Sox at bay long enough for the Yankees to take a 3-2 lead in the best-of-seven American League Championship Series. The Yanks broke open a scoreless game in the second with a three-run rally on a couple of big two-out hits, and Mariano Rivera survived an uncharacteristic hiccup to hold down a 4-2 win in relief of Wells. The Yanks can clinch their sixth trip to the World Series under Joe Torre on Wednesday afternoon.
Pitching on eight days’ rest, Wells lacked his usual pinpoint command, throwing only about 60% strikes instead of his characteristic 70%, and working from behind in the count much of the time. He surrendered a solo shot to Manny Ramirez in the fourth inning, but he made big pitches when he had to — Ramirez ended two other innings with fielder’s choice groundouts — and the Yankee defense made a few stellar plays behind him.
Facing Derek Lowe, the Yanks rolled up a big inning in the second. Jorge Posada drew a one-out walk, then advanced to second on a Hideki Matsui grounder. Lowe fell behind Nick Johnson 3-0, before intentionally walking the Stick to face Aaron Boone, carrying an 0-for-9 in the ALCS. Boone chopped a grounder to Bill Mueller, but the ball spun out of the third baseman’s grasp for a charitable infield single to load the bases.
Karim Garcia, a late addition to the lineup since he had been nursing a cut on his hand sustained in Saturday’s bullpen bust-up, was up next. With the fans sing-songing “Jail-bird! Jail-bird!” Garica shut them up by stroking a single up the middle that plated two runs, and Alfonso Soriano followed with an RBI single to left — only his second hit of the series.
Staked to a three-run lead, Wells didn’t exactly roll. He got into trouble in the third, when a curveball barely grazed Trot Nixon to lead off the inning. Jason Varitek — the sole member of the Sox who owns Wells, to the tune of a career .985 OPS — followed with a single, and then Johnny Damon moved them both into scoring position on a groundout to first. But Wells got Todd Walker to fly out, then blew a fastball down Broadway by the struggling Nomar Garciaparra for strike three to end the inning.
Things looked to get rocky for Wells in the next two innings. After Manny’s homer, David Ortiz followed with a single, but he was erased when Kevin Millar grounded into a double-play, and the frame ended with no further threat. In the fifth, Nixon led off by smoking a pitch which Soriano couldn’t handle. Varitek struck out and Damon forced Nixon on a great play by Soriano, who dove and backhanded the ball, then glove-flipped to Derek Jeter at second. But Wells yielded a single to Walker to keep the inning alive. He then walked Nomar on five pitches — a tough thing to do given that Boomer walked only 20 batters all year and that the Boston shortstop only walked 39 times. Boomer huffed at ump Joe West over the calls to Garciaparra, prompting a visit from pitching coach Mel Stottlemyre as the tying run came to the plate in the form of Ramirez. Whatever soothing words Stottlemyre uttered must have worked, as Manny could only slap Wells’ second pitch to Boone, who stepped on third base to escape the jam.
From there, Wells cruised, retiring his final six batters — highlighted by a diving stop by Jeter of a Varitek grounder — to set the stage for Rivera. Meanwhile, the Yanks, who’d threatened to add to their lead several times, took advantage of Boston manager Grady Little’s strange faith in Lowe. The Boston starter entered the seventh having topped 100 pitches, and with Jason Giambi leading off, the opportunity for lefty Alan Embree to come on seemed ripe. But Little stuck with Lowe, and Giambi battled him to draw a nine-pitch walk. Lowe erased his pinch-runner on a forceout, but Posada got ahead 3-1 and then stroked a single which sent Bernie Williams to third. Embree finally came on to face Matsui, and on his first pitch, Godzilla lashed a sharp comebacker which deflected off of the pitcher’s leg to Mueller. Williams had gotten a big enough jump that the third baseman had no play but the batter, and the Yanks had their insurance run to make it 4-1.
Had Johnson been able to drive in Posad from second with two outs, Torre would have likely brought in Jose Contreras for an inning, but with a three-run lead, he went to Rivera instead for a two-inning stint. Walker nearly hit the Yankee closer’s second pitch out, with the ball striking the base of the rightfield wall and caroming away from Garcia for a triple — only the second hit Rivera has surrendered this October. Nomar got the run home, grounding out but chalking up his first RBI of the entire postseason, cutting the lead to 4-2.
Rivera then blew away Ramirez, striking out the Boston slugger on six pitches. Strangely enough, shortly afterwards Fox cut to a shot of Manny laughing in the dugout while Garciaparra grimaced uncomfortably, as if to say, “Ix-nay on the aughing-lay while we’re osing-lay, dummy.” Ortiz followed with a single, but escaped the inning having thrown 19 pitches. Things went much more smoothly for him in the ninth, as he retired the side on nine pitches, finishing up with Jeter snagging a Varitek popup in one of his trademark over-the-shoulder grabs in left-center.
So the series returns to the Bronx with the Yanks within sniffing distance of the pennant. Due to the Florida Marlins’ astounding comeback to force Game Seven in the NLCS, the AL game will again take place in the afternoon. Andy Pettitte will throw for the Yanks, while the Sox are apparently set on John Burkett, who as I’ve pointed out, has had little success against the Yanks. ESPN’s Rob Neyer has a quick look at Grady Little’s other options, which include Pedro on three days’ rest, Tim Wakefield on one day’s rest, and Jeff Suppan, who battled the Yanks impressively back in September. With their backs to the wall, expect Little to mix and match with Wakefield and Suppan should Burkett falter early.
Anybody thinking the Sox will just roll over for the Yanks ought to remember that they came from down 2-0 to beat the Oakland A’s in the ALDS. While many of Boston’s big bats have struggled in this series — Nomar is 2-for-19, Ortiz is 3-for-16, Mueller 2-for-17, and Millar 3-for-19 — this is still the most dangerous offense in the AL, and their second time around against Pettitte may prove more fruitful than the first. That said, winning two games in the House That Ruth Built is a tall order when you’re combatting the Curse of the Bambino.
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A few more interesting articles on this series:
• ESPN’s resident Yankee-hater Jim Caple dons the opposing colors before venturing into both teams’ ballparks and reaches a surprising conclusion.
• Old-time Yankees Graig Nettles and Goose Gossage have a few choice words about Saturday’s brawl.
• New York Daily News columnist Bill Madden speculates that the Sox may try to move some of their petulant superstars this offseason. It won’t be easy, since Manny’s still got nearly $100 million remaining on his contract and Pedro’s got 10-and-5 no-trade rights. Pedro and Nomar are free-agents after 2004.
• David Brooks in a New York Times Op-Ed piece: “If a Martian came down and landed in the stands of a Yankees-Red Sox game, he would get the impression that human beings are 90 percent men and 10 percent women in tight T-shirts, and that we reproduce by loathing in groups.”