Jim Mecir made one pitch he wanted to have back. But the Oakland reliever would have had to climb the fence in right-center to retrieve it.
Mecir, a Queens native, gave the Yankees a brief glimmer of hope in last night’s ALDS Game 1. Staked to a 5-1 lead in the bottom of the eighth, he served up a two-run bomb to Tino Martinez.
“I pitched pretty well except for that one bad pitch,” said Mecir.
Mark Mulder stifled the Yankees through 62/3 innings, making them either look remarkably old or foolishly young. A’s manager Art Howe elected to take Mulder out of a 3-1 game with two away in the bottom of the seventh, bringing in Mecir to face Alfonso Soriano with the bases empty.
“Mulder’s outstanding,” Mecir said. “He’s probably the best lefty in the league.”
Mecir got out of that jam easily enough, but the eighth inning quickly turned into trouble. Derek Jeter lined a one-out single, and Bernie Williams beat out a potential DP grounder to second.
Martinez came up and clubbed a 2-2 pitch over the fence in right. Jorge Posada followed with a sharp single to right. But Mecir then calmly retired Paul O’Neill on a harmless flyout to left.