Yankees' bats wake up at last

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Posted: Wednesday October 14, 1998 02:01 AM

Jeter had two of the Yankees' 11 hits in Game 6, including a two-run triple which put the game away in the sixth AP

NEW YORK (AP) -- For two weeks, the New York Yankees finessed their way through the American League playoffs, winning games with a minimum of help from their hitters.

On Tuesday night, the bats finally showed up.

Led by their own version of the Killer Bs -- Bernie Williams and Scott Brosius -- the Yankees scored six runs in the first three innings. Then, when the Cleveland Indians wiped out almost all of the early lead, New York struck again for three wrapup runs and a 9-5 victory that secured the team's 35th American League pennant.

The team that was batting just .198 through the first five games against Cleveland had 11 hits, including a three-run homer by Brosius and three hits by Williams, who drove in two runs and scored another.

Manager Joe Torre had waited patiently through the divisional playoffs against Texas when the Yankees swept three games but scored just nine runs. After scoring five runs in the first inning of the championship series against Cleveland, New York's bats disappeared again.

But Torre thought the hitters were beginning to come around over the weekend.

"I felt the pressure leave us after Saturday, once we were even at two [wins]," he said. "We had a good batting practice Sunday. We left some runners. We could have scored more."

The Yankees managed five runs in that game and more than matched that in the first three innings Tuesday, when they scored six.

The batting averages coming into Game 6 of the ALCS reflected the problems New York's hitters were having. The first two hitters in the batting order, Chuck Knoblauch and Derek Jeter, were both at .150. Jorge Posada and Joe Girardi, sharing the catching, were at .182 and .200. Tino Martinez, who had more than 100 RBIs for the fourth straight year, was at .063.

So what was up with the Yankees bats?

"Sometimes it's playoff pressure. Sometimes it's good pitching. Sometimes it's a combination," Torre said.

The Yankees had compensated, though.

"We always take chances," Torre said. "We play aggressive. We don't sit around, waiting for people to hit home runs. Even though we haven't hit, we do enough things. We move runners. We get walks, things that don't show up in the batting averages."

On Tuesday night, they showed up.

The Yankees scored twice in the first inning against starter Charles Nagy with a string of line drive hits. Knoblauch doubled, setting up a run in the second and Brosius' three-run homer gave New York a 6-0 lead.

When Cleveland cut the lead to one run, Jeter's triple scored two runs and Williams singled home another. For a night, the Yankees hitters had returned.

Knoblauch and Jeter had two hits each, raising their averages to .200. Even Martinez managed a hit, pushing his to .105. The breakout night raised the team average to .218, pale by comparison to the .288 they hit in the regular season.

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