Sunday, October 06, 2002
Angels 9, Yankees 5
By JOHN DELCOS
The (Westchester, N.Y.) Journal News
ANAHEIM, Calif. — Joe Torre and Derek Jeter leaned on the rail in front of the New York Yankees' dugout and blankly stared at the celebrating Anaheim Angels.
They felt they should have been the ones laughing and hugging, rolling on the ground, tasting champagne.
It was as if staying in the dugout would prolong the summer; that once they entered their clubhouse, they would walk into a winter of uncertainty.
“Disappointment,” was how Jeter defined his feelings after the Yankees were dismissed from the AL Division Series in four games, losing 9-5 Saturday to the Angels, a team they were supposed to dust from their shoulders like dandruff.
“I can't even begin to think about next year. Our season just ended fifteen minutes ago.”
This was the Yankees' earliest playoff exit since 1997, when Sandy Alomar and the Cleveland Indians stunned them; this year, they were shocked by the Angels, a team Torre compared favorably - in terms of heart, hustle, timely hitting and strong pitching - to his 1996 championship team.
“When you play for or manage the New York Yankees, you're never satisfied until you get to the World Series,” said Torre, summarizing what this winter will be about.
“It's a bad taste right now. We were beaten by a team that played a whole lot better than we did. I told my players how proud I was of them. The only thing you can do is to prepare yourself to do the best you can. If it doesn't pan out, you have to deal with it.”
Today, the Yankees are dealing with as complete a postseason breakdown as any they have had during this run, ranking right down there with last year's 15-2 blowout at Arizona.
David “I was programmed for this,” Wells, was pushed around like the schoolyard weakling, the offense frittered away against Jarrod Washburn, who worked on three days rest, and Alfonso Soriano, the Yankees' MVP this season, committed a game-tying error in the third.
However, in fairness to Soriano, had he made the play, it wouldn't have mattered because the Yankees' 103-victory season was washed away in an eight-run, 10-hit fifth inning.
It began with Shawn Wooten's game-tying homer, and one out later, continued with five straight singles, including RBI hits by Darin Erstad, Tim Salmon and Garret Anderson, then after another out, a run-scoring single by Scott Spiezio made it 6-2.
“I was thinking, "Please hit the ball to somebody,' ” said Jason Giambi. “You just want it to end.”
It wouldn't.
Each hit brought the question of how long Torre would stick with Wells, but that was answered when he went to Ramiro Mendoza, who gave up an RBI single to Wooten and a two-run double to Bengie Molina.
Quite simply, with the bullpen depleted because of Mike Mussina's injury-related early departure in Game 3, and early performance-related exits by Roger Clemens and Andy Pettitte in the first two games, there was nothing left.
Starters Orlando Hernandez and Jeff Weaver, symbols of the Yankees' wealth and depth, it was thought, would save them in an emergency. However, the emergency came in their need to use them a combined four times in four games as no Yankee starter lasted more than six innings.
“Sure I'm surprised,” Pettitte said. “I thought I would go at least six.”
Torre says the Yankees are all about pitching; their strong suit was why they lost.
“It was just a bad time to have a three-game losing streak,” Torre said. “I have no explanation because we all know we're capable of pitching better than we did in this series.”
The Yankees, a team that thrived on its power this summer, couldn't bail out the staff. Down 9-1, they chipped away for single runs in the sixth and seventh on Jorge Posada's solo homer and Francisco Rodriguez's run-producing wild pitch.
Twice in the seventh, the Yankees had the bases loaded but came away with a single run in what is the microcosm of Torre's fears about a power-laden offense: All or nothing.
The Yankees, whose offense was good enough to win Games 2 and 3, got to Washburn for a run in the second on Robin Ventura's double off the wall.
Anaheim tied it, 1-1 in the third, but Jeter's sacrifice fly gave the Yankees a brief 2-1 lead in the fifth, which was quickly erased with Wooten's homer to lead off the bottom of the inning.
Soon, it all was erased.
“We have no excuses,” said Jeter. “They just outperformed us. Winning is not an easy thing to do. We've made it look easy, but it's not. This is such a disappointment.”
When asked if there was an emotional range in defeat, was it worse to lose in the first round or in the ninth inning of Game 7 of the World Series as they did last year, Jeter just shook his head.
“It doesn't make any difference,” Jeter said. “When you lose, you lose.”
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Angels 9, Yankees 5
