BALTIMORE – The main reason the Orioles were willing to give up on Armando Benitez is because they never thought he would be able to do what he did Monday night. Orioles insiders say they questioned whether Benitez had the right makeup to be a closer, but if that were the case he probably wouldn’t have been able to finish up the Mets 8-6 win Sunday night.
There was also a prevailing sense that disappointed Oriole fans here would never give Benitez a break, not after he had given up a three-run home run to the Indians’ Marquis Grissom and Tony Fernandez to lose two games of the 1997 ALCS.Benitez showed a lot of bad signs in that series, and yet the Orioles made him the closer the next year, much to the dismay of the Camden Yards faithful. They booed him then, and they booed him again Monday as the new visiting enemy.
“They boo me because they lost a good pitcher and they can’t have him now,” Benitez said with a smile. “Why should I be nervous? I’ve been to the playoffs three times.”
At this point the Mets see Benitez as a future closer and the only reason he is closing out games now is because of John Franco’s middle finger injury. But Sunday night Benitez passed two more little exams in a series of tests, by pitching effectively against his old team in his old park.
First Benitez had to pitch at hostile Yankee Stadium, the site of one of the worst brawls in memory that started after Benitez plunked Tino Martinez in the back. The fans were on him pretty good, but Benitez, despite walking two Yankees, kept his composure and got out of trouble.
Two days later Benitez had to face Martinez himself, and in an emotionally charged moment, he got the Yankee first baseman to pop out to left in the Mets’ 7-2 win. Benitez has been accused of being too emotional, of not toning down his act on the mound, but in both those instances he behaved in a very professional manner, and the same could be said of Sunday.
That game brought two more tests for the 26-year-old Dominican righthander, who was acquired from the Orioles as part of a great three-way deal for the Mets on Dec. 1, when they traded Todd Hundley to the Dodgers for Charles Johnson and Roger Cedeno, and then sent Johnson to the O’s for Benitez.
In the first reunion between Benitez and his former fans, and they let him have it as he came in from the bullpen in the ninth inning looking to preserve an 8-6 lead for Masato Yoshii.
Benitez was not only pitching in the hostile atmosphere of his former home, he was bouncing back from a badly blown save Friday in Tampa Bay when he gave up three runs in the ninth inning. The ability to bounce back is one of the most crucial elements of being a closer, perhaps the thing that sets John Franco apart.
Benitez was summoned from the bullpen to a crescendo of boos from a packed house of 47,480, and that booing turned to loud, ominous cheering when leadoff hitter Brady Anderson walked. But after Anderson stole second, Benitez struck out Jeff Reboulet and induced harmless fly balls from B.J. Surhoff and slugger Albert Belle to end what Yoshii had started.
“He did exactly what I’ve seen him do many, many times before,” Cal Ripken said. “He’s got great stuff and a great arm. Sometimes he has control problems, but who doesn’t? He walked the first guy, but then he closed it out.”
Bobby Valentine acknowledged the tough spot Benitez was in Sunday, and said he was looking forward to the possibility of bringing him into an 8-1 game, which was the lead the Mets had until the Orioles scored a combined five runs in the seventh and eighth innings.
“It was one of those concerns,” he said. “If we had a big lead in the ninth, was that a good time to bring him in? As it turned out I didn’t have the option. It was a close game and he went into the middle of the lineup and got us a save.”
The Orioles, who have Mike Timlin closing games, didn’t think Benitez could do it like that. Sunday he proved them wrong by passing another test.
