Joe Torre has won four World Series because of the depth of the New York Yankees’ pitching staff. He’s either going to win or lose this one the same way.
While Arizona manager Bob Brenly has prepared himself to lean on Curt Schilling, Torre will cross his fingers and hope for the best with the tattered, 2001 version of Orlando Hernandez in Wednesday night’s Game 4.
Torre has seen “El Duque” do great things, even in one notable case when nobody expected it. He hopes he has one more night of magic in his right arm.
Bothered by a string of injuries, the ageless Hernandez–no one knows exactly how old he is–has had a horrible season. He looked pitiful the last time he was on the mound, taking the loss in the 14-3 defeat to Seattle in the third game of the American League Championship Series.
But Torre, loyal to a fault, is entrusting him with the continuation of the Bronx dynasty. He could bring back Mike Mussina to start on short rest after his abbreviated outing in the Series opener, but he stuck with Hernandez instead.
“Once you start doing that,” Torre said, “it’s sort of a domino effect.”
He’s right, of course. If the Yankees started Mussina in Game 4, they either would have to go with Game 2 starter Andy Pettitte on short rest in Game 5 or use Hernandez. So Torre will stick with Hernandez, who was 4-7 with a 4.85 ERA in his 17 outings this year.
Torre will hope Hernandez can make like it’s 1998 again. That’s the season he gave the Yankees one of their biggest victories during their three-year run of World Series titles.
After being relegated to the No. 4 spot in the rotation, and not pitching in a first-round sweep of Texas, Hernandez was called on to start at Jacobs Field with New York trailing the ALCS two games to one to Cleveland. Hernandez showed why he was a legend in Cuba before getting on Fidel Castro’s bad side. He threw seven shutout innings in a 4-0 victory that was the beginning of the end for the Indians.
“He had not pitched in two weeks and I had no idea what to expect,” Torre said. “He had to go through I think it was about 14 days or 12 days without pitching, but he went out there and attacked, basically. He was a very aggressive pitcher, which we need for him to do [Wednesday] night, too.”
Hernandez wasn’t exactly feeling nostalgic before Tuesday night’s game. He deflected questions about anything and everything, including the cold night in Cleveland.
“You can remember it, but it doesn’t really do anything for today or tomorrow,” Hernandez said. “We need to think about how to win today, and then how to win tomorrow. And then, God willing, Thursday, we’ll be able to speak about tomorrow’s game.”
Follow that? Hey, it has been a confusing season for Hernandez.
After cruising through his first three years in pinstripes, this has been an awful year. Hernandez has been bothered by problems with his elbow, shoulder and foot. The Yankees are so worried about his deterioration that they might look to trade or non-tender him after the season.
But those are concerns that will wait at least until next week, when general managers meet in Chicago. The immediate priority is getting the Yankees out of this hole against Arizona.
Unless Brenly goes soft, Hernandez is going to find himself facing Schilling in Game 4. Even given the recent history of starters working on short rest in the postseason–2-10, 6.95 ERA in 17 starts over the last four Octobers–this is a matchup that heavily favors Arizona. It also gives Brenly a chance to use Randy Johnson in Game 6 and Schilling in Game 7, should the Series make it back to Arizona.
Brenly had not committed himself to starting Schilling but seemed to tip his hand when he had Miguel Batista warming up in the sixth Tuesday. He might have been better off bringing him in to relieve the surprisingly solid Brian Anderson as Scott Brosius lined a single off Mike Morgan to break a 1-1 tie.
For Brenly, the risk in using Schilling on short rest is that the change in routine will take him out of the zone he has been in. He understands the lift the Yankees could get if they pounded the guy who dominated them in the Series opener, putting an exclamation point on a postseason in which he has allowed three runs in 34 innings.
“That’s the great gamble,” Brenly said. “The numbers will show over the past two or three years that is not a good gamble and some very good pitchers, some aces of staffs, have failed coming back on short rest in the postseason. But I choose to think that if we do go that direction, Curt Schilling is a different animal.”
