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 victory.
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 American League Division Series.
“The momentum is going to swing from pitch to pitch, and Game 4 will be no different,” Angels manager Mike Scioscia said.
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.
In a game that played extra-large, however, no lead was safe. Los Angeles left fielder Garrett Anderson, hitless in eight at-bats coming into the game, homered, tripled, singled twice and drove in five runs to lead the Angels’ 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 for extra-bases, 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 runs in the sixth off Aaron Small. Steve Finley’s suicide squeeze capped a two-run seventh that increased the lead to 9-6, sending home the rain-soaked crowd.
No one could have 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. Anderson’s three-run home run in the first and Bengie Molina’s two-run shot in the third 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.
“Randy just didn’t hit his spots,” Torre said. “We saw Roger [Clemens] struggle [Thursday]. . . . I don’t care how hard you throw. You’re not going to get results it you don’t hit your spots.”
Fortunately for Johnson, Angels starter Paul Byrd staged his own implosion during the Yankees’ four-run fourth. Hideki Matsui led off with a home run, before a run-scoring groundout from Jorge Posada and Derek Jeter’s RBI single pulled the Yankees within a run.
After the Yankees tied it 5-5 in the fifth on Robinson Cano’s RBI double off Brendan Donnelly, an errant throw home by Orlando Cabrera sent Cano scampering to third. 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 back the lead back in the sixth.
Darin Erstad’s RBI single tied it at 6-6. After a bloop, two-out single by 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
