Sunday, October 28, 2001
Yanks' aura vanishes
The Associated Press
PHOENIX — The New York Yankees' mystique disappeared about as quickly as Mike Mussina in the World Series opener.
Mussina couldn't make it past the third inning, and it was the Yankees who played like World Series rookies, losing 9-1 Saturday night to the Arizona Diamondbacks.
“I was just awful,” Mussina said. “Every pitch I threw was over the middle of the plate. It was so bad I don't remember much.”
The three-time defending champions committed two costly errors, failed to generate offense off Curt Schilling and couldn't get any big outs on the mound in one of their sloppiest postseason performances ever under Joe Torre.
The result was their first deficit in the World Series since dropping the opening two games to Atlanta in 1996. Since then, Torre's team has won four titles and 16 of 17 Series games. After coming back from a 2-0 deficit in the first round against Oakland and bouncing back from a 14-3 loss to Seattle to win the ALCS, the Yankees aren't about to panic.
“It's not demoralizing,” outfielder David Justice said. “If we played our best baseball and lost 9-1, that would be bad. But we didn't play our best baseball.”
Mussina, New York's best pitcher in the second half of the season, took the mound with a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the first thanks to Bernie Williams' RBI double.
That figured to be a good start for New York. Mussina had been 8-1 with a 1.32 ERA in his previous 11 starts, including two wins in the postseason, to justify his $88.5 million, six-year contract.
But Arizona's Craig Counsell tied the score with a first-inning homer. “The guys went out and got me a run and I gave it right back,” said Mussina, who allowed five runs — three earned — and six hits in three innings in his Series debut.
After a sacrifice bunt, Luis Gonzalez hit a long drive to right field for Arizona's second homer. Mussina is normally not prone to the long ball, allowing just three in his last 11 starts.
“He left a lot of balls over the middle of the plate,” catcher Jorge Posada said. “He made some mistakes and they made him pay for them.”
After a single by Reggie Sanders, Justice dropped Steve Finley's flyball to the warning track in right field for a two-base error.
“I just missed it,” Justice said. “I knew I was close to the wall and I took my eye off it for just a second.”
Justice got the Game 1 start over Paul O'Neill based on his .357 career average against Schilling. That backfired as Justice struck out all three times against Schilling and committed a two-base error in Arizona's four-run third inning.
“A lot of my moves worked — for the other team,” Torre said.
Matt Williams' sacrifice fly scored another run, and after Mark Grace was intentionally walked, Damian Miller hit an RBI double to make it 5-1. That was more than enough for Schilling.
The Yankees gave Schilling four more runs to work with in the fourth inning, helped by third baseman Scott Brosius' error and reliever Randy Choate's ineffective pitching.
The Yankees allowed five unearned runs — the most in a Series game since Oakland did it in Game 2 in 1973 — in a remarkable turnaround from their usual formula. In Torre's first 71 postseason games with New York, the Yankees allowed only 13 unearned runs and scored 46 of their own.
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Yanks' aura vanishes
