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 Yanks' secret: A chop here, a chop there
Posted: Thursday October 22, 1998 02:50 AM
SAN DIEGO (AP) -- Method No. 125 in the ways the New York Yankees can win: The old fashioned chop shop. Ty Cobb would have liked this one. A little chop here, a little chop there, and soon there's a run, another run, and before you know it the World Series is over with a Yankees sweep for win No. 125. The San Diego Padres got tapped to death 3-0 Wednesday night, a week of frustration summed up by their exasperated expressions as they waited for chopped shots to come down. Home runs would have been kinder, even expected. Weren't these, after all, the Bronx Bombers? This time they were the New York Nibblers, noshing on next to nothing. And when it came time to stop the Padres from nibbling their way to runs of their own, the Yankees swiped away the plate, leaving three men stranded in the eighth. Derek Jeter showed the way on offense with the game scoreless in the sixth inning, as Andy Pettitte and Kevin Brown waged a brilliant pitching duel. Brown, throwing at up to 95 mph, had struck out six through the first five innings and looked virtually unhittable. "I was looking forward to a 10-0 game tonight, but Kevin Brown wouldn't have any part of it," Yankees manager Joe Torre said. "It just goes to show we're a multi-talented club." Torre played and managed for three teams in the National League, where manufacturing a run is more common than in the AL, so he was right at home in this kind of game. And he knew, above all, he wanted to get out of town with a sweep. "I didn't want to go home and go to bed tonight and have to play another one tomorrow," Torre said. "I haven't been sleeping too well. My age doesn't let me sleep. I wake up at 3 a.m. and think about having to play them again." Just as one run could open up a game a crack, Torre knew that one victory could open up the Series for the Padres. So if he had to win with little hits instead of big ones, that was just fine. "We had speed, pitching and plenty of power," general manager Brian Cashman said, "but Joe was smart enough to see we could play small ball, too." Jeter started off the small-ball way by getting on top of a sinker and chopping it off the plate to shortstop Chris Gomez. By the time Gomez could get his hands on the ball, Jeter was almost at first, and the throw never had a chance. "Kevin Brown is a great pitcher, and with him you've got to get on base any way you can," Jeter said. "Nobody cares about their batting average on this team. We had to put a run on the board somehow." Paul O'Neill was up next, and to say he was overdue for a hit would have been an understatement. A .317 hitter during the regular season, he was 2-for-16 in the Series coming to bat in the sixth. O'Neill laced a double down the line in right, sending Jeter to third, and that would prove to be the hardest ball a Yankee hit all night. Bernie Williams, the AL batting champion who was mired in a Series slump of his own, followed Jeter's plan and chopped a high bouncer back to the mound. Brown had no play on Jeter, and the Yankees had the only run they would need. "It would have been nice to give up a couple of line drives right to somebody, instead of those 50, 60-foot choppers where you have no chance to make a play," Brown said. Just to be safe, the Yankees manufactured another couple of runs in the eighth. Jeter started it off again with a walk, took second on O'Neill's chop single to first, and went to third on Williams' high chopper to third. After an intentional walk to Tino Martinez, Scott Brosius looped a soft single to left over the drawn-in infield, scoring Jeter. O'Neill then scored on Ricky Ledee's sacrifice fly. It wasn't the kind of slugging the Yankees are famous for, but it was worked all the same. "The Yankees have so many ways to beat you," San Diego manager Bruce Bochy said, "and they beat us a different way every game."
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