Todd Zeile has to be wondering what he has to do to hit a ball out of Yankee Stadium. And his Mets have to be wondering what they have to do to win a game from the Bombers in this Subway Series.
For the second straight night, the Met first baseman drove what he thought was a two-run home run. For the second straight night, he found out he was wrong. And for the second straight night, the Amazin’s dropped a one-run decision at The Stadium, this one a 6-5 heartbreaker in front of 56,059.
Through the first eight innings, the Mets were getting two-hit by Yankee Roger Clemens; and Zeile had those two hits – singles in the second and seventh inning. The Rocket left with a 6-0 lead after eight innings, and the Amazin’s promptly mounted a five-run rally in the ninth against Bomber relievers Jeff Nelson and Mariano Rivera. And the rally had started with Zeile’s near-miss.
Robin Ventura had singled and Zeile drove a Rivera pitch to the wall, but Clay Bellinger, in as a defensive sub, made a brilliant catch reaching to the top of the wall to bring the ball back. Little did the Mets know how big that out would be until they’d cut the lead to 6-5 with Jay Payton’s three-run home run later in the inning.
“It was good to see the guys respond in the ninth inning,” Zeile said. “Clemens was out of the game, but we staged a five-run rally against two of the best relievers in baseball. Hopefully that carries over to Shea. Hopefully it sticks in their minds, that we can come back, and we realize they’re not unhittable.”
Clemens was well nearly unhittable last night. He gave up just those two harmless singles to Zeile, who said it was a matter of not chasing his sinking pitches in the dirt, and forcing Clemens to come to him with heat.
“He’s got that sinker, he’s got that splitter and he’s got that good fastball. He throws that forkball down in the zone and makes you chase it,” Zeile said. “I said beforehand the key to beating this guy was to be able to lay off the splitter and make him throw you a fastball.”
In Game 1, with the Mets trailing 2-0 and Timo Perez on in the sixth inning, Zeile had hit a drive to left-center that he thought was a game-tying home run. But it hit off the top of the blue padded wall, and left fielder David Justice played it. Derek Jeter took the relay and gunned down the speedy rookie, who hadn’t been running hard from first.
“If you go back to that one last night, that one was different story. If that one gets out we have a three-run lead going into the ninth instead of a one-run lead. But that’s baseball. What can you say?” Zeile said. “You hit the ball, it’s hard to guide it where you want it to go. Shea’s got three or four fewer feet out there, maybe’ll they’ll get out.”