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 Toast of New York Yankees' Cone stops Rangers, four-game losing streak
Posted: Wednesday April 21, 1999 08:50 AM
NEW YORK (AP) -- Nearly seven months later, the Texas Rangers still can't hit New York Yankees pitching. David Cone allowed three hits in eight innings and Paul O'Neill homered twice to lead New York to a 4-0 victory Tuesday night, snapping a four-game losing streak. "It's a lot easier when you win," acting manager Don Zimmer said after his team avoided what would have been its first five-game skid since September 1997. And it's a lot easier with a pitching performance like Cone's. "I felt sharp tonight," Cone said. "I got on top of the ball more and had more life on my fastball. I threw a lot of curves early and went to sliders and splitters late to keep them off balance." The Rangers, who scored just one run and batted .141 against New York in last year's division series, couldn't do any better Tuesday, failing to get a runner past second base. "What makes him effective is that he throws his pitches no matter what the count," Rusty Greer said. "It is very tough to zero in on one of his pitches or on one side of the plate." Cone, 36, has had major arm surgery twice in the last three seasons and faced questions this spring whether he could repeat his 20-win season from a year ago. After three starts, he has answered the critics. Cone (3-0) has a 0.94 ERA and is holding opponents to a .121 batting average. "I know I will be scrutinized and rightly so after what I have been through," he said. "I don't take exception to the questions, I just try to let them motivate me." Cone was replaced by Mariano Rivera after throwing 100 pitches, an efficient night for him. He threw 105 pitches in 5 1-3 innings in his first start and 113 in six innings in his second start. He also had no problems pitching to Jorge Posada instead of Joe Girardi, who caught 34 of Cone's 35 starts last year. Cone struck out seven and allowed just six runners. "It was a lot of fun," Posada said. "He was on tonight. His fastball was great today and he went right after the hitters." The Yankees scored as many runs in the first three innings - thanks to O'Neill - as they did the entire weekend in Detroit. Derek Jeter singled with one out in the first off John Burkett (0-2) and scored on O'Neill's first homer, a towering fly to right-center. That broke an 0-for-15 stretch for O'Neill. "Sure it bothered me," O'Neill said of his hitless stretch. "You come out every day and want to succeed. It's not 0-for-4 or 0-for-5. It's 0-for-15 and that's a lot of at-bats." After Burkett got out of a bases loaded jam in the second, O'Neill lined the first pitch of the third into the right-field seats for his third homer this season and 14th career multihomer game. The Yankees added another run in the fifth on Chili Davis' RBI double. Luis Sojo and Bernie Williams each went 3-for-4. Burkett allowed three runs and seven hits in two-plus innings, raising his ERA to 12.00 in three starts. But with the way Cone was pitching, none of that mattered. "That's the beginning of the story, the end of the story and everything in between," Texas manager Johnny Oates said. "When Cone's pitching like that, you ain't going to win." Notes: O'Neill's previous multi-homer game came last Sept. 10 against Toronto. ... Cone lost his only game with Posada as catcher last year, allowing six runs in seven innings against Seattle on Aug. 2. ... Chuck Knoblauch was caught stealing second on a pitchout in the first inning, the fifth runner in five tries thrown out by Ivan Rodriguez. ... Burkett is 0-4 with a 9.90 ERA in five regular-season starts against New York. He did beat the Yankees in Game 1 of the 1996 division series. ... Juan Gonzalez has no homers in 14 games this season, the longest drought to start a season in his career. ... Yankees minor league catcher Jaime Torres went 1-for-2 as the DH in an extended spring training game, his first game action since undergoing thyroid cancer surgery last month. ... Roger Clemens (1-0) tries for the second time Wednesday to tie the AL record by winning his 17th straight decision. He will face Rick Helling (0-2).
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