Saturday, October 05, 2002
Playoffs notebook
Wells happy to be back in playoffs
The Associated Press
ANAHEIM, Calif. — After three years out of the playoffs, David Wells is happy to be back with the New York Yankees.
Wells rejoined New York, which had traded him in 1998 to Toronto for Roger Clemens. He went 19-7 with a 3.75 ERA in 31 starts this season. He had spent parts of the last three seasons with Toronto and the Chicago White Sox before having season-ending back surgery last year.
“I'm not a guy that likes to watch baseball from TV. I want to be right in the mix of it and enjoy it that way,” Wells said Friday.
He will start Game 4 Saturday at Edison Field against the Anaheim Angels.
“It's like a whole new life for me and I'm fired up,” Wells said. “I'm not afraid to fail. This is a situation I want to be in, win or lose. No matter what happens, I'm still going to be happy.”
Wells will be pitching during the day Saturday. The forecast calls for sunny skies and highs in the 80s. He was 1-3 with a 7.15 ERA in eight day starts during the regular season.
“I have to think of it as a night game with bright lights,” he said.
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SEVEN GAMES, PLEASE: If Atlanta closer John Smoltz were in charge of the sport, he would shorten the season by a week and make every playoff series a best-of-seven games.
The best-of-five first round is just too short for Smoltz.
“Sometimes the best team doesn't win,” he said.
Yet it probably wouldn't make a big difference in the way he feels when preparing to pitch in big games.
“I get tremendous anxiety,” he said. “Once I get out there I relax. I've never really been nervous, just anxious. I'm not afraid to fail.”
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GAME 4 STARTERS: Both the Braves and Giants announced their starters for Sunday's Game 4. The Braves will go with left-hander Tom Glavine on three days' rest against Giants' righty Livan Hernandez.
There had been some question whether the Giants would stick with a three-man rotation or whether Hernandez would pitch, but manager Dusty Baker said he would use Hernandez regardless of the result of Saturday's Game 3.
Glavine will get another shot after losing Game 1 to become baseball's all-time losingest pitcher in the playoffs.
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THE SPARK: St. Louis Cardinals leadoff hitter Fernando Vina, who had a somewhat disappointing .270 average in the regular season, is 7-for-11 thus far in the playoffs.
“He really likes postseason baseball, and he gets fired up during the season,” manager Tony La Russa said. “This year he got sluggish a couple of times and wasn't happy with his average, but he just started fresh the first game of the playoffs and he's been outstanding.”
Vina's average is 16 points below his career mark and 33 points below last year's career-best .303 season. He came to life against the Diamondbacks' two aces, Randy Johnson and Curt Schilling, helping the Cardinals beat both of them.
“You wanted to think positive,” Vina said. “But to actually do it is very special.”
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TORRE'S ANGEL DAYS: Yankees manager Joe Torre spent six years as a broadcaster for the Angels before leaving in 1990 to manage the St. Louis Cardinals.
“You don't get a chance to win or lose because you're a broadcaster,” he said. “Probably one of my big thrills that year (1986) was being in the clubhouse when they clinched and to interview Gene Autry and Gene Mauch.”
The Angels are back in the playoffs for the first time since '86.
Torre described Autry, who died in 1999, as a great friend.
“I'm sure he's looking down enjoying this now,” he said.
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MR. OCTOBER SPEAKS: Hall of Famer Reggie Jackson, who earned the nickname of Mr. October because of his World Series heroics while playing with the Yankees in the late 1970s, has ties to the Angels, too.
“They're an underrated ballclub, maybe without a great player,” Jackson said of the Angels, for whom he played from 1982-86. “But they're a great team.”
The Angels made it to the playoffs in Jackson's first and final years with them — two of the three times they had played in the postseason before this year.
“They've got better pitching than we had, and their offense is probably as good,” said Jackson, employed by the Yankees as a special adviser. “We had more power than they did, but they've got a guy like Garret Anderson who's been very steady all year long. Defensively, we were at least just as good.
“I'm not saying they got more out of their players than we did, because all of our everyday players contributed. But this club has better pitching, and better pitching is going to win.
“The Angels are a ballclub that's jelling and coming together and is managed well. And I believe that you give leadership credit.”
Jackson earned lasting fame in the 1977 World Series, hitting homers in Games 4 and 5 and three more in Game 6 to lead the Yankees past the Los Angeles Dodgers.
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HECKLE ME, PLEASE: Jarrod Washburn, who started Game 1 for the Angels, said he knew that playing in Yankee Stadium in October would be a memorable experience, but “It was even cooler than I thought it would be.”
He even appreciated the heckling.
“They were yelling things like "You're going to choke.' "You won 18, you're not going to win any more,”' Washburn said. “There was one guy who was all over me for about two minutes while I was stretching. I said a few things back to him, having fun and smiling, having a good time. Then he asked me for my autograph.”
Washburn didn't oblige because pitchers usually don't give autographs on the day they're pitching.
“I told him if he was there the next day, I would. But I didn't see him,” Washburn said. “Or hear him.”
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TORRE LIKES TO EAT ON THE ROAD, TOO: When the Anaheim Angels went to New York to start the ALDS, Manager Mike Scioscia made it a point to dine on the veal at Cafe Fiorello, his favorite New York restaurant.
His Yankee counterpart, Joe Torre, also has his favorite eatery in Orange County — Antonello's at Fashion Island shopping center in Newport Beach.
“When I'm there, I eat something non-fattening — fish with a little pasta,” Torre said “I'm boring when you go out to eat with me. I mean, the only part about no restraint is my wine selections.”
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BENES' BACK: St. Louis Game 3 starter Andy Benes pitched on the final day of the regular season and had to leave after five innings because of back spasms. That is of no concern to the right-hander anymore.
Benes said he threw in the bullpen without any problems on Wednesday in preparation for Saturday night's start.
“I had a rough go for a couple of days, but I feel fine now,” Benes said. “I don't anticipate any problems. No excuses, I'm ready to pitch.”
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WHACKY PLAYS: Oakland manager Art Howe has never been shy about voicing his displeasure with the Metrodome, and the propensity for strange plays to happen there.
When asked Friday about the difficulty of seeing the ball against the off-white Teflon-coated roof, Howe recounted one of his first games with Oakland at the Dome in which the A's misjudged a pop fly that turned into an inside-the-park home run.
“Two on, two out in the eighth, just a lazy fly ball, mid center field and our center-fielder never saw the ball and we ended up losing the game,” Howe said.
On Friday, first baseman Scott Hatteberg lost the ball on a pop-up by Jacque Jones in the first inning.
“Exactly what we were afraid might happen took place,” Howe said. ”(Hatteberg) said he didn't see it originally off the bat, and then he found it for a split instant, and he took his eyes off it, and that's all she wrote. But we got a break on it. It just hit right in front of the bag and kicked foul and Barry got the strikeout.”
“We had some funny plays out there,” Twins manager Ron Gardenhire said. ”(Home plate umpire) Jim Joyce told me he had never seen a pop fly go up and land and go foul. I said, 'That's the Metrodome buddy, get used to it.”'
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MILTON NOT MIFFED: Eric Milton, the Twins' No. 2 starter all season, said he wasn't miffed by being bumped to No. 4 for the division series, even though he had a strong finish to an injury-plagued year.
“I'm just happy to get the opportunity,” Milton said. “There is going to be a lot of pressure and I am looking forward to the challenge.”
Milton will face Tim Hudson in Game 4 Saturday at the Metrodome.
“Milty's pumped up,” Gardenhire said. “He's been waiting a long time for this one. It's our biggest game of the year. We have to come back and get after them.”
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BYU 35, Utah State 34
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Aiken 27, Belmont 6
Anderson 37, harrison 34
Batavia 44, Williamsburg 0
Bethel Tate 35, Clermont NE 0
CCD 55, Landmark Christian 28
Chaminade-Julienne 57, Purcell Marian 13
CHCA 37, Columbus Bishop Hartley 0
Clinton-Massie 33, Blanchester 0
Colerain 31, Oak Hills 13
CovCath-Highlands rescheduled for today
Dayton Dunbar 46, Western Hills 18
Dixie Heights 24, Conner 6
East Central 31, Lawrenceburg 7
Glen Este 21, Winton Woods 14
Goshen 14, Hillsboro 7
Holy Cross 36, Bellevue 6
Holy Cross 36, Bellevue 6
How Enquirer poll teams fared
Indian Hill 19, Wyoming 0
Indiana football scores
Kentucky football scores
Kettering Alter 28, Badin 14
Kings 42, Ross 13
Lakota West 33, Milford 21
Lebanon 7, Carroll 0
Lemon-Monroe 17, Talawanda 14
Lloyd 37, Newport 7
Loveland 35, Norwood 13
Madeira 29, Finneytown 0
Mason 39 , Northwest 21
Mauk sets national yards record
Meadowdale 34, Jacobs 6
Middletown 14, Fairfield 6
New Richmond 35, Western Brown 0
NewCath 48, Ludlow 0
North College Hill 44, Lockland 7
Ohio football scores
Prep football scores
Princeton 42, Lakota East 21
Reading 34, Deer Park 0
Ryle 24, Boone County 9
Scott 56, Grant Co. 6
Simon Kenton 26, Campbell County 22
St. Xavier 35, LaSalle 7
Sycamore 49, Hamilton 7
Taylor 17, Mariemont 14
Turpin 20, Amelia 12
Wilmington 6, Little Miami 0
Woodward 26, Shroder Paideia 0
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Playoffs notebook
