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Closer Look Angels take apart Yankees by taking a fantastic fifthPosted: Saturday October 05, 2002 10:17 PM
By John Donovan, CNNSI.com ANAHEIM, Calif. -- It all came horribly apart for the New York Yankees in the bottom of the fifth inning Saturday afternoon. Nothing they had -- not their history, not their millions of dollars of talent, not even that old Yankees magic -- could prevent it. A home run. A single. A beautifully executed hit and run. A bloop hit to a sunny center field, placed in the perfect spot. Hit after hit after hit. RBIs by the bucketful. Four straight two-out hits, for crying out loud. "Everything they could have hit," Yankees starter David Wells said, "they did." In a sea of noisy red in a redone old ballpark in the sprawling greater Los Angeles area, the Anaheim Angels, playing in their first postseason in 16 years, used their record-setting fifth inning to hand the Yankees a lesson in humility, pummeling New York 9-5 in Game 4 of their American League Division Series. The win gave the series to the Angels, their first postseason series win in their 42-year history, and sent the Yankees home as first-round losers for the first time since 1997. New York had been in the past four World Series, winning three of them. "They just hit everything. Everything that was thrown up there, they hit," said shortstop Derek Jeter, slumping in his chair in a stunned Yankees clubhouse. "And they didn't get any cheap hits, either." The Angels' outburst in the fifth inning was so sudden and so thorough that the Yankees didn't stand a chance. They lost their lead before they knew it. Wells was shaking his head in disbelief at his smacking around. Manager Joe Torre was moved, finally and reluctantly, into going to his bullpen after getting down by four runs. "You just hope that somebody hits something at somebody," first baseman Jason Giambi said. Lefty Wells had coasted through the first four innings, giving up two hits and one run while throwing only 39 pitches. The Yankees led 2-1, and the one run they gave up was directly attributable to an error by second baseman Alfonso Soriano, who let David Eckstein's roller scoot between his legs in the third inning. Despite the error, Wells had the lead and firm control going into the fifth -- until pitch No. 42. Anaheim designated hitter Shawn Wooten took that pitch and punched a solo home run to left center to tie the score. After catcher Bengie Molina flew out to right, the Angels strung together five hits -- all of them singles -- to take a 5-2 lead. It was the beginning of a stunning end for the Yanks. The singles came in all sorts of ways. Benji Gil drove one up the middle. Eckstein worked the count to 2-2, then grounded a single through the hole on the right side of the infield on a perfectly executed hit-and-run with Gil. Darin Erstad followed with maybe the most bizarre hit of a bizarre inning, a high bloop that neither Yankees center fielder Bernie Williams nor second baseman Soriano could get to. "I couldn't hear," Soriano said. "The crowd was too noisy. It was a long way to go for me. It was far. "But I get to those balls all the time. That's my job." Later, with two outs, Scott Spiezio, Wooten (again), Molina and Gil (again) all had hits. Three of them were on the first pitch. Molina's double off the left-field wall drove in two runs to make it 9-2. "It was like every time there's a hit, it was first and third," the Angels' Tim Salmon said. "That's just been the club all year long. It was just awesome." By the time the inning ended, Anaheim had sent 13 batters to the plate, knocked Wells and reliever Ramiro Mendoza out of the game with 10 hits (tying a postseason record last accomplished in 1929) and scored eight runs (a new ALDS record). It tied the worst postseason inning ever for the Yankees. Wooten and Gil tied a division series record with two hits apiece in the inning. Wooten and Molina both had two RBIs, too. The Yanks, who lost for the first time in their history when playing a Game 4 elimination game in a five-game series, tried to come back. They scored a single run in each of the sixth, seventh and ninth innings. But no way did the Yankees' challenge come close to matching what the Angels did in a single inning. "If you go out and execute like they did, you're going to win," Jeter said. "I don't know what to tell you. They were just the better team." |
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