One pitch. One swing. One trip around the bases.
Thanks largely to Derek Jeter, the New York Yankees are only one victory away from their fourth World Series parade in the last five years.
On another pleasant autumn night at baseball’s epicenter, Jeter, the pressure-proof shortstop who had just been moved to the leadoff spot, put the Yankees ahead on Bobby Jones’ first pitch. Jeter’s blink-and-you-missed-it homer set the tone for a 3-2 victory in Game 4 of the Subway Series.
Much to the chagrin of most people in the Shea Stadium crowd of 55,290, relievers David Cone, Jeff Nelson, Mike Stanton and Mariano Rivera protected the narrow lead for starter Denny Neagle, who was quick-hooked in the fifth inning. The Yankees lead the Mets three games to one, with all four games decided by one or two runs.
Andy Pettitte will try to get the clinching victory for the Yankees in Game 5 on Thursday night. He faces fellow lefty Al Leiter.
If the Mets can win, they’ll not only force the series back to Yankee Stadium but will get another shot at Roger Clemens. The five-time Cy Young winner, who was fined $50,000 for throwing the barrel of a broken bat in the direction of Mike Piazza in Game 2, would be the Yankees’ starter on Saturday.
But for the Mets to extend the series, they’ll have to find a way to contain Jeter. He had a triple in addition to the leadoff homer on Wednesday. He has hit in 13 consecutive World Series games and all 15 postseason games this year. He’s 8-for-18 with four extra-base hits and has scored five runs in the four games against the Mets.
“He’s a tough kid,” manager Joe Torre said. “In 1996, all our rallies, especially in postseason, either started with him or ended with him. You can’t teach that.”
Jeter’s homer came when Jones tried to sneak the first pitch of the game past him. He threw a 78-m.p.h. changeup and Jeter crushed it. The long, high drive sailed into the bleachers in left field. It was Jeter’s first homer of the World Series and third this postseason.
Paul O’Neill, suddenly doing a pretty good impression of Mookie Wilson, lined a Jones pitch into the right-field corner for his second triple in two nights at Shea. The Mets intentionally walked Jorge Posada to set up a double-play situation, but Scott Brosius foiled it with a sacrifice fly to center-fielder Jay Payton for a 2-0 lead.
Jeter kept the pressure on Jones in the third inning. He hit a high drive to right-center that hit on the warning track and bounced high off the fence. By the time the ball came down, Jeter was on his way around second with a leadoff triple. He scored on Luis Sojo’s ground out to second baseman Edgardo Alfonzo, giving the Yankees a 3-0 lead.
The Mets closed that gap to 3-2 in the third. Timo Perez, who had been 1-for-14 in the series, led off with a single grounded up the middle. Piazza drove a 1-0 pitch from Neagle just beyond the wall in left field for his second homer of the series and fourth in the Mets’ 13-game playoff run.
Torre had said on Monday that both Neagle and Cone would pitch in Game 4. He proved that he meant it, lifting Neagle with a 3-2 lead in the fifth. He was only one out away from qualifying for a victory, there was nobody on base, but Torre wasn’t going to take a chance on Piazza hitting his second homer of the game off Neagle.
Torre went to Cone. The former Mets ace got Piazza to hit a high pop for the last out of the fifth. Piazza turned out to be the only hitter Cone would face, as Torre pinch-hit for him with Jose Canseco with two on and two outs in the sixth.
Canseco took a called third strike from Mets lefty Glendon Rusch to keep the Yankees’ lead at only one run.
While Rusch kept the Mets’ deficit at 3-2, they could not put much pressure on the Yankees. Nelson, who was the winning pitcher, may have made the defensive play of the night in the sixth inning.
With Robin Ventura on first base with one out, Benny Agbayani hit a liner up the middle. Nelson threw out his glove and plucked it from the air. He turned what could have been a single into a double play as Ventura had no chance to get back to first base.
Torre pulled Nelson after he walked pinch-hitter Lenny Harris with one out in the seventh inning. Stanton struck out two more pinch-hitters, Bubba Trammell and Kurt Abbott.
Rivera took it from there, recording the last six outs.
The biggest of those may have been when he got Piazza to ground out to Jeter for the second out of the eighth inning. Piazza also had barely missed a homer in the first inning. His drive into the second deck was just foul. But Rivera got him to hit the ball on the ground.
Todd Zeile singled with two outs in the eighth to give Ventura a chance. But the former White Sox third baseman popped up Rivera’s first pitch.
