Fans exiting the subway an hour before Friday night’s playoff game at Yankee Stadium must have thought they had the wrong starting time.
A loud cheer erupted from inside the half-filled ballpark that could be heard all over the Bronx–the sound of Yankees fans wildly celebrating a big win.
The confused strap-hangers eventually discovered those cheers were being showered not on the Yankees but the White Sox, whose Game 3 sweep of Boston was being shown on the Jumbotron in right field.
It was only the beginning of a wild, rainy night in New York, where Los Angeles blew a five-run lead before bouncing back to win 11-7 and grab a 2-1 edge in the division series.
Game 4 takes place Saturday, weather permitting, with Angels left-hander Jarrod Washburn facing Shawn Chacon.
“The postseason is a time to think small,” Yankees manager Joe Torre said beforehand, suggesting small ball would be on the menu under adverse weather conditions.
But in a game that played extra-large, no lead was safe. Angels left fielder Garret Anderson, hitless in eight at-bats coming into the game, homered, tripled and drove in five runs to lead the 19-hit attack.
Randy Johnson, who helped carry New York into the postseason with a 6-0 record over his final eight starts, put the Yankees in a 5-0 hole before being booed off the mound during the fourth inning. The Big Unit looked like small potatoes to the Angels, giving up nine hits, including four extra-base hits, in three-plus innings.
The Yankees bounced back to take a 6-5 lead in the fifth, only to watch the Angels go ahead with two in the sixth off Aaron Small. Steve Finley’s RBI suicide squeeze capped a two-run seventh that increased the lead to 9-6. Two runs in the top of the eighth made it 11-6 and the Angels bullpen closed it out, allowing only a Derek Jeter homer to lead to off the eighth.
No one could’ve predicted the horrible outing Johnson endured, and he inadvertently asked for fan abuse Thursday, suggesting that “if they want to boo me, then boo me, or cheer me, but do something, because I feed off that and have pretty much my whole career.”
Instead of feeding off the booing, the $16 million ace was eaten alive by the revived Angels offense. A three-run home run by Anderson in the first and a two-run shot by Bengie Molina looked like lethal blows at the time, but only proved to be appetizers in a smorgasbord of offense.
Greeted by a double and single to start the fourth, Johnson officially became the Big Toast, giving way to Small. Fortunately for Johnson, Angels starter Paul Byrd staged his own implosion during the Yankees’ four-run fourth. Hideki Matsui led off with a solo home run, before a run-scoring groundout from Jorge Posada and Jeter’s RBI single pulled the Yankees within one run.
After the Yankees tied the game 5-5 in the fifth on an RBI double by Robinson Cano off Brendan Donnelly, an errant throw home by Orlando Cabrera sent Cano scampering to third, where he scored the go-ahead run on Bernie Williams’ sacrifice fly.
Small, a journeyman pitcher who went 10-0 for the Yankees in the regular season, promptly showed how he became a journeyman, handing the lead back in the sixth. Darin Erstad’s RBI single tied it at 6-6. After a bloop, two-out single Adam Kennedy, Chone Figgins snapped an 0-for-11 playoff skid with a run-scoring single that put the Angels ahead 7-6.
Sloppy fundamentals by Alex Rodriguez and Cano helped keep alive an Angels rally in the seventh, leading to Finley’s successful squeeze off Al Leiter that no one saw coming. In the end, the only lesson learned in Game 3 was $200 million doesn’t go as far as it used to.
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psullivan@tribune.com
