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Goin' back to Cali A's rip Clemens, force Game 5 in Oakland
NEW YORK (AP) -- The Yankees' quest to become the first team in a quarter-century to win three straight World Series comes down to this: Win Sunday night in Oakland or fail. The brash Athletics forced New York back to the West Coast for a decisive fifth game in their AL playoff series with a surprisingly easy 11-1 rout Saturday night. "We're getting on this plane tonight and we're going out there for a reason," Yankees manager Joe Torre said. "I don't sense anything needs to be said." Olmedo Saenz rocketed a three-run homer in the first on Roger Clemens' 13th pitch, and Barry Zito and Oakland's bullpen made sure the lead held up. "We're having a great time, so we'll see what happens," said Saenz, surprised to start against a right-hander. "We got good momentum going in the first inning." Zito, the youngest pitcher in the series at 22, shut down New York's sickly offense for 5 2/3 innings in his postseason debut, allowing just one runner past first base until the sixth. A's relievers didn't allow a hit until the ninth. "One for my scrapbook, I guess," Zito said. "I tried not to feel the pressure, I guess. I tried to approach it like it was a regular-season game. Trust my body, trust my stuff."
Andy Pettitte, who rescued New York by winning Game 2, will pitch on three days' rest in the twilight on Sunday night against Gil Heredia, who beat Clemens in the opener. "I expect him to throw a shutout the way he's been pitching against us," Oakland's Ben Grieve said. "If anything, we're due against him." Both traveled to the West Coast on Saturday, to be well rested in case Game 5 was needed to determine Seattle's opponent in the AL Championship Series starting Tuesday. Their teammates were to arrive only about 14 hours before gametime. New York, which ended the season with 15 losses in 18 games, hasn't homered in seven games and 62 innings since Glenallen Hill connected at Tampa Bay on Sept. 28. The Yankees, seeking to become the first team to win three straight Series titles since the A's from 1972-74, are hitting like Superman after contact with kryptonite, batting .221 in the series with just nine extra-base hits in four games -- all doubles. Scott Brosius is 1-for 13 (.077), Hill 1-for-12 (.083), Paul O'Neill 2-for-14 (.143) with a pair of infield hits, Derek Jeter and David Justice each 3-for-15 (.200), and Luis Sojo and Jorge Posada each 3-for-13 (.231). "Hopefully, we can get some hits," Torre said. "That's been the most frustrating part of it for me, my players and my coaches. We're going to get hits sooner or later, mark my words." Clemens, the second-oldest player in the series at 38, looked like his five Cy Young Awards were rusty relics, dropping to 3-5 with a 4.32 ERA in 14 postseason starts. "Nothing has really come easy this year at all," Clemens said. "It's disappointing, no question about it."
He walked two of his first three batters and gave up a line-drive homer to Saenz into the left-field seats. Then Clemens needed great defense to bail him out of a jam in the second -- Sojo threw out Grieve at plate on Long's grounder to second, with Posada expertly blocking Grieve's foot from touching home. It took 25 pitches before a batter swung and missed, and hitters swung and missed just seven of the 93 pitches Clemens threw in five-plus innings. While he recovered in the middle innings, retiring nine in a row, Oakland chased him in the sixth when Eric Chavez singled, Miguel Tejada doubled under the glove of a diving Brosius at third and Grieve singled them both in.
Ramon Hernandez drove in Grieve with an infield grounder off Mike Stanton for a 6-0 lead. That was around the time Benny Agbayani's 13th-inning homer led the New York Mets over San Francisco across town at Shea Stadium. Saturday marked the first time two major league postseason games were played in one city on the same day. Clemens, booed when he walked to the Yankees dugout after Torre took him out, pitched on three days' rest for the first time in seven years, and was wild from the beginning, walking Long on four pitches leading off the game. Randy Velarde grounded into a force play, Jason Giambi walked and Clemens gave up a homer on a high fastball to Saenz, who had just nine in 214 regular-season at-bats. "It's been a grind," Clemens said. "We're obviously not trying to do it the easy way." Saenz was bruised when he was hit on the right wrist by a pitch from Dwight Gooden in the ninth and left the game. Zito, a little more than a year out of Southern California, looked sharp and self-assured, hooking curveballs at will. "That's the way he's been just about every time out," Oakland manager Art Howe said. "He was the key to the game, to go out and keep putting zeros up." New York finally broke through for a run in the sixth, just its 12th in the first four games of the series. While Posada hit an RBI double that chased Zito, Jim Mecir retired Tino Martinez on inning-ending popup. Oakland tacked on one run off Gooden in the eighth and four more in the ninth. By then, both teams' bags were packed. "We'll show up tomorrow," Torre promised. "We're not making that trip for nothing." Notes: Mecir left in the seventh with patella tendinitis in his left knee, but thinks he'll be able to pitch Sunday. ... New York has lost 22 of its last 23 when scoring three runs or fewer, including 14 in a row since beating Toronto 3-2 on Sept. 13. ... The previous two times the Yankees went to a fifth game in the first round, they lost 4-3 at Cleveland in 1997 and 6-5 in 11 innings at Seattle in 1995.
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