The only thing Posada would change is pitch to Broussard
BY JOHN HARPER
DAILY NEWS SPORTS COLUMNIST
Sunday, May 6th 2007, 4:00 AM
The game had been over for 30 minutes, and as Jorge Posada answered
questions in front of his locker, you could see that he wasn't going
to sleep well last night. Maybe he wasn't blaming himself for the home run
that broke up Chien-Ming Wang's perfect game, but he was most assuredly
second-guessing himself.
After all, Posada hadn't called a changeup the entire game, mostly
because Wang's power sinker had been so dominant, with even more
late movement than usual. But then, five outs away from a perfecto,
Posada called for an 0-1 changeup to Ben Broussard, and watched in
agony as it hung, belt-high, and Broussard launched it over the wall
in right-center.
"You try not to think about it," Posada said quietly. "But you think
about it. You think about it."
Catchers never forget. Never mind that by pitching the Yankees to
an 8-1 victory over the Mariners, Wang provided them with a huge lift,
with his turn falling between Friday night's 15-11 debacle and the
emergency starts that rookies Darrell Rasner and Matt DeSalvo will
make the next two days.
Indeed, Posada knew how important it was that Wang had reestablished
himself as an ace after a couple of shaky starts that followed his
hamstring injury.
As he said afterward, "He's our No. 1. We need him."
It's just that Posada, like all catchers, takes great pride in his
pitchers' accomplishments. He wanted the perfect game for Wang
perhaps more than Wang himself.
"I really thought we were going to get it," Posada said.
He got one once, having caught David Wells' perfect game in 1998,
a day he considers the most memorable of his career. But Posada had
also come close before, catching Mike Mussina on that night in Boston
in September of 2001, when Carl Everett broke up a perfect game
with two outs in the ninth, on a 1-2 count.
You think that one didn't keep him up nights? Out of nowhere
yesterday, Posada brought up the Mussina game, talking about how
he kept calling fastballs up and in that Everett was fouling off.
When Mussina finally threw one that he didn't get up-and-in,
Everett singled to center.
"The pitch wasn't where it was supposed to go," Posada recalled.
"But you second-guess yourself. If you throw a curveball there, he's
done. But then, if you throw the curveball and he hits it, you
second-guess yourself even more."
Posada paused, and someone asked him how long it took him to get
over that one.
"I'm still thinking about it," he said with a chuckle. "It's part
of calling a game."
Posada said he wasn't thinking about the close call with Mussina when
he called the changeup to Broussard, a lefthanded hitter batting in
the No.5 spot for the Mariners. He said it was more a matter of
trying to outthink the hitters at that point.
"After the seventh," said Posada, "when we struck out (Raul) Ibanez,
you start thinking about it in the dugout: 'OK, who's coming up,
what are we going to call?' You try to be a little more ahead of
every hitter, thinking about what you called before.
"You don't want to get into a pattern. So you're thinking three
pitches ahead."
In Broussard's case, Posada started him with an inside fastball
that the hitter took for a strike. Posada said he sensed that
Broussard "was on the fastball" by the way he took the pitch,
but he admitted that he'd already decided to call for a
changeup, perhaps not so much to get an out as to set up
Broussard for another 92-mph sinker.
"I wanted to get him off the fastball," he said.
So he called for the changeup for the first time all day.
Wang had shaken off Posada only once all day, saying no to a
slider to throw his sinker early in the game, and with good
reason. On days such as yesterday, Wang's sinker moves so
hard and late that he needs little else.
But in this case, Wang said he didn't think about shaking off
Posada. So he threw the change, and Posada wanted to reach out
and grab it before Broussard could swing the bat.
"As soon as I saw it," said Posada, "I was just hoping he wouldn't
swing at it. If (Wang) throws a good one there, (Broussard) rolls over
it and grounds out. But he threw a bad one."
As it turned out, maybe Posada outthought himself. His intentions
were good, but at that point, the way Wang was throwing his sinker,
there was far greater risk of making a mistake with a changeup,
especially since he hadn't thrown one all day.
Perhaps Posada was thinking exactly that as the ball sailed out
of the park.
"You never second-guess yourself," he said. "But after it happens,
you do. Obviously, you do."
In the big picture, it didn't matter nearly as much as Wang
stabilizing the Yankees' injury-plagued rotation. But chances
are that thought wasn't going to help Posada sleep any better
last night.
jharper@nydailynews.com
http://tinyurl.com/37v2uj
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