GAME 1: Mariners 2 – Yankees 0
If Joe Torre put his lineup in a boat on the Harlem River last night and tipped it over, there would have been several Yankees who wouldn’t have hit the icy water. In what has become a disturbing ritual, the Yankees turned Yankee Stadium into a venue for the Dead Bat Society’s latest meeting. And in the process, the Yankees wasted a strong outing by Denny Neagle on their way to a 2-0 loss to the Mariners in Game 1 of the ALCS that was witnessed by 54,481 chilled customers.
After hitting a very pedestrian .244 against the A’s in the ALDS, the Yankees went 6-for-32 (.188) against a quartet of Mariner hurlers.
At this rate, today’s Game 2 starter, Orlando “El Duque” Hernandez, will have to throw a shutout to have a chance of winning. John Halama goes for the Mariners hoping to put the Yankees in a 2-love hole.
Leading the Mariners’ arm race was Freddy Garcia, a 24-year-old right-hander who turned into Pedro Martinez for 6 2/3 innings in which he allowed three hits and fanned eight while featuring a nasty splitter and hard sinker.
“It was Pedro style,” center fielder Mike Cameron said of Garcia’s sterling effort. “My hat goes off to Freddy.”
Too many times in the past month the Yankees have talked about having to tip their hats to the opposing pitcher. Last night was no different.
“At times, you get a little overanxious and you don’t swing at strikes,” said Derek Jeter, who went 0-for-3, fanned three times and is hitting .182 (4-for-22). “That’s what I have been doing, but you have to tip your hat.”
Garcia, who was 5-1 in September but didn’t pitch effectively against the White Sox in the ALDS, was in a zone pitchers don’t often find.
“All night long I was fine,” Garcia said. “Everything I got was going good.”
After watching Paul O’Neill fly to center, ground to second and whiff, Joe Torre did something he may never do again and didn’t like doing in the first place: he hit Glenallen Hill for the slumping O’Neill in the eighth against lefty Arthur Rhodes.
With the Yankees trailing 2-0 and Chuck Knoblauch on second and two outs, Torre went for Hill’s ability to eat lefties and called O’Neill back. The move wasn’t what Lou Piniella was expecting but Rhodes made it work by slipping a 1-2 pitch by a looking Hill.
“It’s a situation where Paul has been struggling a bit,” Torre said of his No. 3 hitter, who is batting .182 (4-for-22) in the postseason. “I just felt it was a chance to pop one. It is not something I like doing or may not do again, but I just felt in that situation, I wanted to match up.”
It wasn’t the Yankees’ best chance to score, those two threats died hollow deaths in the third and sixth innings when the Yankees had first and second and no outs against Garcia.
“He sure as hell pitched well,” Torre said of Garcia. “He had to overcome a couple of situations, especially the one with first and second and the 3-4-5 guys coming up. He certainly pitched well when he had to.”
Armed with a 2-0 lead thanks to Rickey Henderson’s two-out RBI single in the fifth and Alex Rodriguez’ towering leadoff homer that hit the left-field foul pole in the sixth, Garcia went after the teeth of the Yankees’ lineup after Chuck Knoblauch opened the sixth with a double and Jeter walked.
Garcia whiffed O’Neill and Bernie Williams before giving the Mariners a scare when David Justice hit a 2-0 pitch to the warning track in center where Cameron made the catch.
“That was a pretty good pitch, a slider away,” Piniella said of the pitch Justice almost hit out. “I wasn’t worried.”
Since Neagle hadn’t pitched since Sept. 27, the Yankees were worried the rust would be too thick for him to give them a chance. But Neagle did his part, going 5 2/3 innings in which he allowed two runs and three hits. It was a far cry from the pitcher who finished 0-3 with a 15.20 ERA the final three outings of the season.
“It’s hard not to compliment Garcia, he was on his game and stuck it up our butts,” Neagle said.
The Yankees mounted a final threat in the ninth against Kazuhiro Sasaki when Williams singled and Tino Martinez did the same with one out.
But Sasaki, a Rookie of the Year candidate, got Jorge Posada to fly to right and ended the game by getting Luis Sojo to hit another 1-2 pitch to Cameron in center.
It was the final time for the Yankees’ No. 2 through No. 6 hitters to taste failure since Jeter, O’Neill, Williams, Justice and Martinez went 2-for-18 (.111).
“It’s frustrating, the players are as frustrated as anybody on our club,” Torre said. “We are prepared when we go up there. When I put their names in the lineup I still have confidence they are going to get the job done. They grind it, they work at it. They worked right down to the last out. When they don’t hit, it surprises you.”