Yanks Socked & Mo'd down
Fall in 11 as Rivera flops in 9th
By SAM BORDEN
DAILY NEWS SPORTS WRITER
CHICAGO - In truth, the Yankees really wanted to be here in colder weather.
When they played Game 5 of their division series in Anaheim last fall,
there were full suitcases in their clubhouse stuffed with warm clothes in
anticipation of a late-night flight that would bring them to an ALCS
showdown with the White Sox.
Instead, they flew home for the winter, wondering how an October visit to
U.S. Cellular Field might have gone. Surely they never imagined it being
anything like this.
On the verge of winning for the 11th time in 13 games last night, the
Bombers watched Mariano Rivera cough up a one-run lead in the ninth before
Jermaine Dye's RBI single off Scott Proctor in the 11th ultimately gave
the Sox a 6-5 victory before a sellout crowd on the South Side.
The late-game collapse ruined a night in which Alex Rodriguez was 3-for-3
with a two-run homer, Jason Giambi drove in what appeared to be the
decisive run in the eighth on a bases-loaded hit-by-pitch and the rest
of the bullpen turned in a stellar performance.
But Paul Konerko's game-tying homer to right-center field off Rivera in the
ninth - just the second homer the Yankee closer has allowed this year - left
the Bombers stunned. Sox closer Bobby Jenks pitched 2-2/3 innings to earn
the victory while Proctor couldn't get through the meat of the Sox lineup
after striking out the side in the 10th.
"Everything fell into place for us," Joe Torre said. "Except we couldn't
get the last three outs."
A-Rod, who entered the night hitless in 12 at-bats and in a 1-for-17 slide,
blasted a two-run homer in third, beat out an infield single in the sixth
and lined a hard single up the middle that loaded the bases in the eighth,
setting the scene for Giambi to get plunked by reliever Neal Cotts.
Rodriguez wasn't able to come up with a foul pop fly that went deep down
the left-field line one pitch before Dye's game-winning hit. The flare
bounced off the dirt between A-Rod and Melky Cabrera, and Dye then lashed
the next pitch up the middle to score Tadahito Iguchi from second.
Torre said he never thought Rodriguez could get to the ball and A-Rod said
he came within "about 10 feet."
"You could hit that ball 100times and I can't catch it 100times," Rodriguez
said. He then added, jokingly, "I have enough trouble with the ones hit at me."
The most maddening part of the night for the Yanks may have been that they
were in position to win despite getting an unusually poor outing from
Chien-Ming Wang. Some aspects of Wang's performance were typical - like
the fact that he recorded only one strikeout (he has 49 in 161 innings
this year) and that 12 of his 15 outs came on ground balls.
In other areas, Wang was hardly vintage, as several of his pitches shot
up high out of strike zone and he needed 95pitches just to make it through
his five frames. He allowed four runs and seven hits, including a two-out
homer to Joe Crede in the fourth that let the Sox even the game at 4.
The Bombers had been in front twice before that, going ahead in the first
on Bobby Abreu's RBI single and padding the lead in the second on Craig
Wilson's first homer as a Yankee in the second. But Wang gave up back-to-back
doubles leading off the bottom of the inning to cut the lead in half,
then walked A.J. Pierzynski and allowed a soft single to right to Crede
to load the bases.
The crowd of 39,872 began to surge, knowing one more hit could knock out
Wang, but he steeled himself and appeared to be on his way to escaping the
jam, snagging Rob Mackowiak's one-hop comebacker and starting a crisp 1-2-3
double play that quickly deflated the crowd.
Alas, Wang couldn't quite finish off the getaway, yielding a two-run single
to left to Alex Cintron that gave the Sox a one-run lead. Torre had a brief
word with plate ump Gerry Davis after the hit, claiming Cintron had stepped
out of the batter's box on his hit, but it was to no avail.
"(Wang) was due for one of these games," Torre said of the righthander,
who was 5-0 in his previous five starts. "He never gave up though."
Ron Villone (four outs), Jose Veras (one) and Mike Myers (one) kept the game
tied before Giambi took one for the team. Kyle Farnsworth handled the eighth
before Rivera came on for the ninth in search of his 29th save.
One misplaced fastball to Konerko quickly quashed those thoughts.
"I tried to go away and it didn't go there," Rivera said. "What can you do?
You come back and hope to get another chance tomorrow."
Originally published on August 9, 2006
http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/baseball/yankees/story/442031p-372301c.html
--
※ 發信站: 批踢踢實業坊(ptt.cc)
◆ From: 140.109.23.211