THE WALK
Rivera’s issued walk to Millar sets up tie; Ortiz’ bomb in 12th wins it for Sox




By: Russ Rose
Special to Yankees Talk Shop
October 18, 2004

Oh, how many times have I said it? How many times have you said it? Lead off walks will kill you. That’s exactly what happened to Mariano Rivera last night in the 9th inning of Game 4 of the ALCS.

Rivera is the greatest closer in post-season history. Nine times out of ten when Rivera enters the game with a lead it’s. “Ball game over! Yankees Win! Theeeeeeeee Yankees Win.” Alas, last night was not one of those nights.

With the Yankees leading 4-3 going into the bottom of the ninth Mariano Rivera entered the game and was three outs from a win and a four-game sweep over their archrivals. Three outs and the Yankees win their 40th American League Championship. Three outs and the Yankees go for their 27th World Series ring.

Rivera looked into face Kevin Millar who has had a good series batting .500. The pro-Red Sox crowd was praying to the baseball gods to let this series go on another day. Unfortunately, for the Yankees the gods must have stayed up late, because before anyone knew it Rivera had thrown three balls before throwing a strike. With the count at 3-1 Rivera threw another ball just outside the zone and Millar was on with a walk. Red Sox manager Terry Francona swapped speedy Dave Roberts for the slow moving Millar to set up the tying run. Roberts quickly stole second while Rivera pitched to Yankee killer Bill Mueller.

Mueller, who has had success against Rivera, promptly did what Yankee killers are supposed to do. He singled to center, scoring Roberts to tie the game 4-4. The Red Sox continued to threaten as the next batter Doug Mientkiewicz sacrificed a bunt to Rivera, moving Mueller over to second base. Things got dicey when first baseman Tony Clark bobbled a ball hit by Johnny Damon putting Red Sox runners at first and third. However, shortstop Orlando Cabrera struck out and after loading the bases Rivera induced designated hitter David Ortiz to pop up to end the inning.

At this point I had a sense of foreboding and the feeling got worse when I heard FOX color commentator Tim McCarver tell us the longer the game went the more it favored the Yankees. This was because of Boston’s shallow bullpen. I knew it was a sure kiss of death statement.

Terry Francona indeed had a thin bullpen. He kept trotting guys out the Yankees, the night before, were hitting all over Fenway. He had no choice. This time Keith Foulke, Alan Embree, Mike Myers and Curt Leskanic held the line and kept Yankees from crossing the plate. They gave their offense a chance to win it. They did just that in the bottom of the 12th.

Yankees manager Joe Torre who’s had his own problems with starting pitching has been forced to use his bullpen to match Francona’s moves. After Rivera exited the game after the ninth inning Torre turned to Tom “Flash” Gordon to keep the Sox in check. Gordon did just that pitching two scoreless innings and after 11 of them it was still knotted at four.

The Yankees failed to score again in the top of the twelfth inning and Torre trotted out Paul Quantrill to face the heart of the Sox order. Quantrill has been a tale of two seasons. He was rock solid in the first half, but has become ineffective in the second half. The speculation is Quantrill has a lot of pitches on that arm of his and overuse has caused his second half vulnerability.

There wasn’t much suspense as Manny Ramirez singled to left, which brought the always dangerous David Ortiz to the plate. With the count at 2-1 Quantrill tried to throw a fastball inside to Ortiz who got his bat around on it and promptly sent it over the right field fence to give the Red Sox a hard earned 6-4 victory. The blow also gave the Sox added life to live and play baseball another day.

The Yankees had their chances to win this thing, but couldn’t pull the trigger on the same bullpen they beat like a red-headed step-child the night before. Mariano Rivera proved he is human by blowing the save, which allowed the Red Sox to stay in this series, which up to this point has clearly been the Yankees’ series for the taking.

Game 5 is today at 2:00 p.m. at Fenway Park. It’ll be Game 1 starter Mike Mussina vs. Game 2 starter Pedro Martinez. The Yankees want to close this series out today, because every game they give the Sox just adds to their confidence. For both teams its win one more game. For the New York Yankees it means another trip to the World Series. For the Boston Red Sox it means another day of survival. It’s Empire vs. Nation. Let’s get it on!

PLAY BALL!



© 2004 Yankees Talk Shop @ ezboard.com

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