[新聞] A Meltdown in the Heat of a Playoff Race

[yadayada (小羊羹)]

By TYLER KEPNER
Published: September 28, 2005

BALTIMORE, Sept. 27 - Three and a half hours before Tuesday's game, the
televisions in the Yankees' clubhouse showed the Boston Red Sox beating
Toronto in the first game of a doubleheader. The division race was tied,
again.

"I told our players - I met a couple of times over the last few days - we
can't expect anybody to give us anything," Yankee Manager Joe Torre said a
couple of hours later. "We have to do it ourselves."

Maybe, but maybe not. A gruesome game was about to unfold for the Yankees,
with Mike Mussina making his shortest start in 10 years and the bullpen
imploding in a 17-9 loss to the Baltimore Orioles. The Yankees needed help to
maintain a share of the American League East lead, and they got it.

The saving grace was written in lights on the big board in right field in the
eighth inning. The Blue Jays had beaten the Red Sox in their night game,
meaning that the Yankees and Boston would stay tied atop the division with
five games to play.

The loss wasted a standout performance by Gary Sheffield, who hit a two-run
homer in the third inning and a grand slam in the fourth to put the Yankees
ahead by 7-5. Al Leiter (4-5) lost the lead in the bottom of the inning, and
the Orioles pounced on three relievers in a five-run fifth. They finished the
scoring with four runs off Tanyon Sturtze in the eighth.

The Orioles won for the first time in 10 games. The Yankees, in losing, were
left with a troubling question: can they trust the season finale to Mussina?
He is scheduled to start Sunday in Boston.

Mussina missed three weeks in September with an inflamed elbow, but he
pitched six sharp innings in his return last Thursday, surprising the Yankees
with his command over 76 pitches. This time, Torre said, Mussina would be
strong enough to throw 100.

As it turned out, Torre had seen enough after only half that projection.
Mussina lasted just 50 pitches and got only five outs. He had gone 333 starts
without one so short - since July 13, 1995, when he pitched for the Orioles.

After Derek Jeter hit a long homer to lead off the game, Mussina gave back
the lead almost immediately. A double and a single put runners at the corners
with one out, and Mussina could not put away Jay Gibbons. With a full count,
Gibbons whacked a slider off the top of the scoreboard in right, tying the
score. A groundout gave Baltimore a 2-1 lead.

It got worse in the second, after Mussina made the mistake of walking the No.
9 hitter, Chris Gomez, with two out and the bases empty. He faced four more
hitters and got no outs. Bernie Castro singled to right. Melvin Mora doubled
down the left field line, scoring two. A single by Miguel Tejada made it 5-1
Baltimore, and another single, by Gibbons, forced Mussina from the game. Al
Leiter came in, and he slapped his hand in his glove after B. J. Surhoff
lined to short to end the inning.

That was a crucial out for Leiter as he tries to earn Torre's trust as a
left-handed reliever who can get left-handers out. It also kept the game
close enough for the Yankees to regain the lead quickly.

Bruce Chen walked Giambi for the second time, leading off the third inning,
and Sheffield followed with a 400-foot homer to left center. That cut the
Orioles' lead to 5-3, and after a scoreless inning from Leiter, Sheffield
struck again in the fourth.

The inning started with a single by Bernie Williams, his 2,215th career hit,
which lifted him past Joe DiMaggio and into fourth place on the Yankees'
career list. Chen then walked Bubba Crosby, a foolish idea with Jeter and
Alex Rodriguez coming up.

Improbably, both hitters struck out looking. For Rodriguez, it was the second
strikeout of the game with two runners on. But then Giambi walked again, and
Sheffield came up with the bases loaded. He tomahawked the first pitch,
ripping it into the left field seats for his second grand slam in eight days.

In the Yankees' dugout, arms shot up on contact. Sheffield held his right arm
in the air, pointing with his index finger in triumph. The Yankees were
ahead, 7-5, and Sheffield's slam seemed destined to be the biggest hit of the
season.

There was one major problem, though: it was only the fourth inning, and the
Yankees' starter was long gone. Entrusting a two-run lead to the shaky middle
relief corps was dangerous, but Torre had no better options.

Gomez opened the fourth with another walk, and with two out, Tejada singled
in Melvin Mora, who had grounded into a forceout and taken second on a wild
pitch. Then Leiter left a 3-2 slider up to Gibbons, who knocked it into the
seats in right center. It was Orioles 8, Yankees 7, and all that momentum had
disappeared.

The Yankees did not know it, but it was about to get much worse. Scott
Proctor. Felix Rodriguez. Wayne Franklin. The Yankees probably never expected
to use any of them in a close game in the final week of the season, but all
of them had roles in a brutal fifth inning.

Javy Lopez, who had no homers in September, greeted Proctor with a blast into
the left field seats. It was 9-7. With one out, Proctor walked David Newhan,
then batting .198. Gomez, the pesky ninth hitter, singled. So did Castro,
loading the bases.

Torre pulled Proctor, without even patting his the back at the mound. The
Orioles' three best hitters were coming up, and all of them would walk.

A passed ball by Posada scored a run. Rodriguez walked the only two hitters
he faced, the second one scoring Gomez to make it 11-7. Franklin, who had not
pitched in 19 days, came in to face Gibbons with the bases loaded. Needing a
triple for the cycle - in just five innings - Gibbons walked to force in a
run. Surhoff followed with a sacrifice fly.

It was 13-7, a full-scale embarrassment for the Yankees, and Torre looked
helpless on the bench. He had changed pitchers four times, and nothing was
working. The only comfort was the out-of-town scoreboard.

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/28/sports/baseball/28yanks.html


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推 goetz:連"可憎的比賽"這樣的字眼都用出來了...><
推 yadayada:Moose 十年來最短的一場比賽.....=_=
推 onepiece01:唉...
→ yadayada:a full-scale embarrassment  ~_~
推 hyuchi0202:還是沒我想知道的事，Moose純粹狀況不好被打暴就算了
→ hyuchi0202:如果是因為傷沒好的關係，那真的就遭了...