Big Unit flops in postseason debut for Yankees

	Winless in eight consecutive Division Series starts, Randy Johnson allowed nine hits and five runs in three-plus innings Friday night. AP

NEW YORK -- The Yankees need Randy Johnson to be a thick coat of paint, the whitewash on a team of knots, protruding nails and blemishes.

They are not good enough to survive the last legs of Bernie Williams in center field, the Octoberphobia of Tom Gordon and the too-cool youthfulness of Robinson Cano. Johnson is supposed to be the kind of pitcher who makes up for those faults, to give the Yankees a sense of swagger. In Game 3 of the Division Series Friday against the Angels, he failed miserably at his mission.

So hard was Johnson hit that you had to wonder if the legendary story of Johnson tipping his pitches was once again in play. "I can honestly look you in the eye and tell you we did not have a single pitch, not one pitch,'' Los Angeles first baseman Darin Erstad said.

That's bad news for Johnson, to be raked for a 9-for-17 night (including five extra base hits) and not have an excuse to easily explain it away.

"I didn't execute my location,'' Johnson said.

He made mistake after mistake. To Bengie Molina in the first: high fastball, resulting in a single. To Garret Anderson, the next batter: low fastball, but over the middle of the plate (home run). Orlando Cabrera in the third: high fastball (double). Molina in the fourth: high splitter (home run). On and on it went, pitches left up in the zone with not even juice on them to get past the Anaheim bats.

Yes, the Yankees took Johnson off the hook, coming back from down 5-0 to take a 6-5 lead, but Johnson's start was a downer that undercut the bit of goodwill he had begun to establish with Yankees fans from his 6-0 finish to the season. They booed him vigorously, and embarrassingly taunted him with chants of "Aa-ron Small!'' that began in the third inning, a call to be done with one of the greatest left-handers in history in favor of a guy who hadn't started a big league game for nine years until this season.

It was that sort of ugly night for the Yankees. Gordon, the real goat of The Great Collapse of the 2004 ALCS, looked jumpy and ill suited for October once again, failing to retire any of the four batters he faced as he let what was a 7-6 game get away from New York. In 18 2/3 postseason innings, Gordon has allowed 31 baserunners and 16 earned runs, a frightful 7.72 ERA that proves the man cannot be trusted in the postseason.

Gordon wasn't helped by Cano making a rookie mistake at second base, losing a force out by drifting off the bag on a change-up of a throw from Alex Rodriguez. With no shot at a double play, Cano must make certain of the one out, but he continued his tendency of getting careless for the sake of coolness. So it was in the bottom of the inning, too, when the Yankees had a wild Scot Shields on the ropes and Cano let him off easy by hacking at the first pitch for a third-out flyball. Then there was Williams, watching fly balls fall into the wet grass in the key sixth inning that he would have snared in his younger, sprier days. The lack of range was made all the more noticeable by the spectacular headlong, diving grab by Angels center fielder Chone Figgins in the fourth, leaving the bases loaded.

"That," Erstad said, "was the play of the game.''

Manager Joe Torre didn't get off easy, either. He suddenly believed that Al Leiter, a guy released by the Marlins in the face of an inability to throw strikes, was a reliable workhorse. Leiter did wonders to get three straight outs in the face of a bases loaded jam in the seventh. But Torre, as he did in Game 2, pushed his luck with Leiter again and lost by sending him out for the eighth instead of getting a fresh arm. Two runs later, the game was further out of reach.

The Yankees will need Shawn Chacon to be their five-gallon bucket of paint in Game 4 to force the series back to Anaheim. And if the series does get to a Game 5, Johnson, having given the Yankees 62 pitches in Game 3, may need to have his spikes on in the bullpen for that one, ready to get an out or two in relief. It is, at this late stage in the New York season, the least he can do.