[YESNetwork.com] Yankees, Sox in gridlock with two to play

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Yankees, Sox in gridlock with two to play
http://www.yesnetworktv.com/yankees/news.asp?news_id=1416

By Jon Lane
YES Network Online
September 30, 2005

BOSTON — Win or lose, Chien-Ming Wang was going to benefit from the
experience of pitching at Fenway Park with the season on the line. Wang’s
performance this season has been surprising, inspirational – he missed two
months with shoulder pain that was widely speculated to be a season-ending
torn rotator cuff – and reassuring, even causing Joe Torre to say that Wang
is comfortable in his own skin and comfortable to watch.

After a shaky beginning, Wang was up to the task of opening the biggest
regular-season series between New York and Boston since 1978. He shook off
David Ortiz’s RBI single and Jason Varitek’s home run to keep the Yankees’
 deficit at a manageable 2-1. David Wells kept the Yankee bats quiet until he
put runners on second and third with one out in the sixth, but New York came
away with nothing.

The wasted opportunity was the beginning of the end. An unsightly sixth
inning led to three runs (two unearned) and a 5-3 loss that left the teams
deadlocked atop the AL East with two games left. The night wasn’t a complete
setback, as the Indians’ 3-2 loss to the White Sox left the dueling rivals
in first place in the wild card standings by one game. But to avoid a
one-game playoff at Yankee Stadium against Boston Monday, the Yankees will
have to win the next two games. And if the Indians take the next two from the
White Sox, it could force a scenario where the loser of Monday’s game plays
the Indians Tuesday for the wild card berth.

Brain-racking possibilities aside, Derek Jeter said there is one solution to
this mess:

“It’s the same thing,” Jeter said. “We control how we finish. We go out,
we play well, we win and we’ll be where we need to be. This game’s over
with.”

When the game began, Wang looked more like a young rookie and not the
precocious saving grace he has been since his initial call-up April 27.
Handed a 1-0 lead by Hideki Matsui’s RBI single, Wang walked Johnny Damon on
five pitches, setting up Ortiz’s game-tying single. Typically unflustered,
Wang responded by whiffing Manny Ramirez with a 93 MPH heater and getting
Trot Nixon looking at a fastball on the inside corner.

In the third inning, Wang left a sinker too far up in the zone, and Varitek
crushed it into the bleachers above the Green Monster. Damon got on base
after a rare error by Alex Rodriguez. Wang erased the error by getting Ortiz
to bounce back to the mound and catching Damon in a rundown trying to advance
from second to third. In the fifth, Wang nullified a leadoff walk by inducing
Bill Mueller into a double play, showing signs he would not be rattled facing
Red Sox Nation.

“I don’t think too much,” said Wang, who claimed he wasn’t nervous during
the rocky first. “I just try to throw the ball.”

But the game got away from Wang and the Yankees, and the offense failed to
reward Wang for his grit. In the sixth, Torre decided to intentionally walk
Ortiz with one out and Damon on second and face Ramirez, conventional
strategy that set up a double play. Unfortunately, Wang allowed a single to
Ramirez to load the bases. Uncharacteristically wild, Wang walked Trot Nixon
and forced home Boston’s fourth run. He got Varitek to bounce back to first,
but Jason Giambi threw low and wide of home plate, allowing Oritz to score.

“Jason was trying to hurry the throw in and it bounced,” said Jorge Posada.
“Other than that, I thought if we would do the things we’re supposed to do
when he gives us a chance to win … Chien-Ming did that for us.”

“If you look at the rest of it, the walk to Nixon, fine,” Torre said. “But
then the ground ball to first and then the fly ball (John Olerud’s sacrifice
fly to center field) … if we make the play at the plate it’s the third out.
”

Wang’s night was over after he walked Edgar Renteria with two out in the
seventh. He finished with a season-high six walks (one intentional) and
allowed five runs (three earned) to absorb his fifth loss of the season.

“Once he got rid of the jitters, which he looked like he had in the first
inning, he was getting ground balls,” Torre said. “That’s his job. I was
very satisfied with the way he pitched.”

Jeter’s two-run homer in the seventh cut Boston’s lead to 5-3 and made Red
Sox Nation sweat, but the failure of New York’s other big hitters –
Rodriguez, Giambi, Gary Sheffield and Posada were a combined 1-for-13 – left
the teams tied with two precious games to play. On the hill Saturday is Randy
Johnson, who’s ogre-like persona is a sharp contrast to Wang’s serene
approach, but an angry, animated and determined Big Unit could be what the
Yankees need to possibly avoid Monday’s one-game showdown.

“We just have to get runs for him and hopefully he can dominate,” Sheffield
said.

“We’re fine. We don’t have anything to hang our heads about. We played a
good game, but we let opportunities get away. We haven’t been doing that of
late. We just have to do better tomorrow. Every game is a must-win.”

Jon Lane is a writer/editor for YES Network Online and can be reached at
[email protected].

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