Bleacher Creature Feature

#32: LDS Game 2

3 October 2002

Andy Pettitte has his serial killer stare on. This is always a good sign. He just gave up a home run to Tim Salmon on a mistake, but he's throwing first-pitch strikes and is looking good so far.

Now he just gave up a home run to Scott Spiezio. This has now gone from not distressing to mildly annoying.

One of the downsides of the noise of Yankee Stadium is that players can't always hear each other as well. In Game 1, Juan Rivera and Bernie Williams almost collided on a fly ball that was Bernie's. Juan didn't back off until the last minute, and you could see from the way he and Bernie were talking after the play that Juan couldn't hear the soft-spoken Bernie call him off. Tonight, Shawn Wooten hit a ball into right field that Raul Mondesi would've caught, but he came up short in order to avoid colliding with Alfonso Soriano, who probably also couldn't hear Raul calling him off.

Sadly, it was followed by back-to-back Benji hits -- Molina and Gil -- who got them their third run.

Another defensive blunder that bites the Yankees on the ass, again involving Soriano. Troy Glaus hit a deep fly ball to left field with Garret Anderson on first. Anderson tagged up and ran to second. Juan threw a perfect throw back to second that might have nailed Anderson, if Soriano had actually caught it. On the replay you could see that Soriano took his eye off the ball before he caught it. And then Spiezio got a base hit that scored another run that, had Soriano caught the ball cleanly, probably wouldn't have existed.

I'm not big on the whole "October magic" stuff, but Derek Jeter might make a believer out of me. He's played way below his norms all year, but he just hit a home run to put the Yankees on the board in the fourth. This after getting on base all four times last night, including a home run and a big eighth-inning walk to set up Giambi's single and Bernie's homer. And we didn't even see him take his pants down to pull that out of his ass.......

So much for looking good. Pettitte's pitches since the first have been up in the zone, and it's just been getting worse. After giving up four runs on eight hits (no walks, at least) in three innings, his night is done. Orlando Hernandez will be coming in for the fourth. Let's hope we get the El Duque who's lights out in the postseason, not the El Duque who got knocked around by the Devil Fishies in September.

Tim McCarver has made an excellent point on the broadcast. Robin Ventura got a hit and is now on first. He's followed by Jorge Posada -- batting lefty against Kevin Appier -- and Nick Johnson -- a lefty. Why is Spiezio holding Ventura on? He is the antithesis of a base-stealing threat. Once during batting practice, he hit a rope to deep right field, and someone said it was a sure triple, to which Ventura replied, "You've obviously never seen me run." Appier threw a pitch in the dirt, and Ventura didn't even consider the possibility of trying for second. So why hold him on and give Posada and Johnson a nice big hole to pull the ball through? (Posada did pull it, but it was a fly ball to right; Johnson walked. Still, one do wonder....)

And the new guys come through! After Ventura's hit and Johnson's walk, Juan just slapped a single to short center field, scoring two runs. After all the pissing and moaning about whether or not the Yankees could replace the likes of Scott Brosius, Tino Martinez, and Chuck Knoblauch, their replacements come through to bring the Yanks within one run in the bottom of the fourth.

And speaking of slow baserunning, give Ventura and Johnson credit for running hard on Juan's hit. Johnson, in particular, was beating feet from the minute he left first base, enabling him to score. (Watching him I-think-I-can his way home, I flashed on a line from the movie Cobb. Urged to say something nice about his archrival Babe Ruth, Cobb, played by Tommy Lee Jones, gets thoughtful, and finally says, "He runs okay for a fat man.")

More Jeter insanity. He just got a hit, making him 3-3 tonight. He's perfect for the series with two home runs, two walks, and three singles.

Giambi then walked, and they started playing the music they play when the Diamondvision exhorts the crowd to "Make Some Noise" when Bernie comes up. This is like telling the sky to be blue -- nobody's gonna be quiet in Yankee Stadium in the postseason with Bernie up and runners on base.....

Now it's the Angels' turn to have bad defense go bad on them. Juan hit into what should've been an inning-ending double play. But Gil made an awful throw to first, putting Juan on second with Soriano up. Instead of the inning being over, the tying run is on second.

Soriano then finally gets home run #40 -- in truth, home run #1, but whatever, it gave the Yankees the lead. Life is good.

To quote Yogi, "It's déjà vu all over again." Troy Glaus twice almost ruined last night with leadoff home runs. Garret Anderson and Glaus just did it again with back-to-back leadoff home runs to give the Angels a 6-5 lead.

Now the Yankees have to come back again.

Unlike last night, I don't blame Joe Torre for leaving Hernandez in to start the eighth. He'd only pitched four innings and thrown 50 pitches when the inning started, and -- unlike Clemens last night -- had shown no signs of slowing down. I question the wisdom of leaving him in after Anderson's homer, however.

You just can't make this stuff up....

For the second night in a row, Ben Weber came in to relieve for the Angels in the eighth inning.

For the second night in a row, Weber was taken out and replaced, not by Troy Pecival, but by Brendan Donnelly.

For the second night in a row, Donnelly came up with two runners on base, though this time it's Johnson and Mondesi rather than Jeter and Giambi.

McCarver is, naturally, second-guessing the hell out of this, as, I suspect, is everyone else watching the game. I know I am.

However, history doesn't repeat itself. Donnelly strikes out pinch-hitter John VanderWal, and now Scioscia's bringing in Percival to face Soriano.

On the first pitch, Percival hits Soriano, which was unwise, as now the bases are loaded with the guy who's come up to the plate eight times and gotten on base seven of them standing in the batter's box.

Remember what I said earlier about October magic? Never mind. Jeter struck out looking. On a pitch that was borderline at best.

However, this is an object lesson in why Scioscia should damn well have brought Percival into the eighth inning last night.....

Giambi just lead off the ninth with a base hit to left field. Ironically, this was the one time the Angels didn't use the stupid overshift -- not that it mattered one way or the other....

After two games of futility, Posada finally comes through in the ninth, getting a single to left to drive in a run. This brings up Johnson, with Wilson running for Posada at first and Jeter, who got yet another hit, on second.

Sadly, Johnson strikes out on a high fastball -- Percival's money pitch -- bringing Raul up, and he pops up.

Nope. Definitely no magic. At least not tonight.

The tone for this series has definitely been set. No lead is safe. Neither team will give up.

May the best team win.

On to Anaheim.....

NEXT: Tween Games 2 & 3

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