Getting ahead of the New York Yankees is tough enough. But how does anyone ever stay ahead of them? The San Diego Padres need an answer to that question and they need it fast.
For the second time in four nights, the Yankees recovered from a listless start to win against the Padres’ celebrated bullpen. They did it the hard way this time–on the road, while facing the heavy-metal iceman, Trevor Hoffman, with 64,667 on their feet at Qualcomm Stadium.
Scott Brosius’ three-run home run off Hoffman in the eighth inning carried the Yankees to a 5-4 victory Tuesday night. It was the second homer of this vintage Southern California night for Brosius and left New York only one victory away from sweeping the 94th World Series.
“This is the kind of thing that as a kid you dream about,” Brosius said. “It’s something I’ve done in my backyard 100 times.”
No team ever has come back from a 3-0 deficit in the Series and it’s hard to see how the Padres can become the first. It was pitching that won a pennant for San Diego and now the Yankees have beaten the Padres’ pitching staff every way possible.
They counter-punched against Padres’ middle relievers in Game 1, scored early knockdowns against starter Andy Ashby in Game 2 and landed a knockout blow against Hoffman in Game 3. San Diego’s Kevin Brown, who left the opener with both a sinus infection and a 5-2 lead, comes back on three days rest to try to stop New York’s latest six-game winning streak Wednesday night. He faces Andy Pettitte.
“This game reaches in and grabs your guts out,” Padres manager Bruce Bochy said. “When you lose games like this, it’s tough to take. . . . Now our backs are to the wall, we know that. The only thing we can do is go out tomorrow and play our hearts out.”
When Hoffman entered with a 3-2 lead after Randy Myers walked the leadoff man in the eighth, the AC/DC screamer “Hells Bells” blared over the stadium speakers and fans shrieked like savages.
“I could feel the vibration,” Yankees manager Joe Torre said. “I don’t know if I’ve ever been in a louder ballpark.”
San Diego fans are accustomed to Hoffman slamming the door. After all, he was 53 for 54 in save situations during the regular season and entered the postseason having converted 80 of 82 going back to 1997.
Hoffman needed six outs to reduce San Diego’s deficit to one game. He only got one before Brosius left his mystique in tatters. It was his second blown save in five opportunities in the postseason.
Hoffman got the first out of the eighth on Paul O’Neill’s warning-track fly. Hoffman went to a full count before walking Tino Martinez. He challenged Brosius with a fastball over the middle of the plate. Brosius drove it to center field. He had rounded first base by the time it cleared the blue fence and he thrust both arms into the sky. He added a pump of the fist rounding second.
“With Trevor on the mound, the only thing you’re thinking is to pick the ball up, see (it) as good as I can and put a good swing on the ball,” said Brosius, who is 7 for 13 with five RBIs in the Series. “It just so happens it was a fastball out over the plate and I hit it hard in the air.”
In a game that began as a pitching duel between David Cone and Sterling Hitchcock, Brosius’ leadoff homer in the seventh started the Yankees’ recovery from a 3-0 deficit. It came on a 3-2 fastball from Hitchcock.
“He’d been aggressive all night with his fastball,” Brosius said. “He had a three-run lead and I thought he was going to be aggressive and try not to walk me.”
Brosius’ second homer didn’t finish the Padres. They scored a run in the eighth on a Greg Vaughn sacrifice fly, then got two hits in the ninth off Yankees closer Mariano Rivera. He struck out Andy Sheets to strand the tying run on third.
Rivera has been automatic in October. He has thrown 12 scoreless innings in nine playoff appearances.
Hitchcock and Cone kept the game scoreless through five innings. Neither allowed a hit before Derek Jeter’s fourth-inning single, and Cone didn’t give up his first until a leadoff single by the .120-hitting Hitchcock in the seventh. It led to a three-run inning for the Padres. The biggest blow was Tony Gwynn’s run-scoring single to right field, which was exacerbated by an O’Neill throw into the third-base dugout.
New York cut San Diego’s lead to 3-2 in the seventh. Brosius’ homer was followed by a Shane Spencer double, knocking Hitchcock out of the game. The Padres gift-wrapped the second run on a Jim Leyritz passed ball and a Ken Caminiti error.
Few major-league teams have ever been as unforgiving as these Yankees. They were 114-48 during the regular season and are 10-2 in the postseason. Just how does a team celebrate its 125th victory, anyway?
“We are on the brink of doing something really special,” Cone said. “There’s going to be a lot of arguments about where this team fits in historically. But we have one more game to go.”
