Hideki Irabu and the Yankees have waited seemingly a lifetime for last night, when Irabu pitched like an upper-echelon starter and not the enigma he has been for most of his pinstriped career. Armed with a tantalizing curveball he threw often for the first strike, a high-octane fastball he painted both sides of the plate with and a filthy split-fingered fastball, Irabu toyed with the Tigers on his way to a 6-0, complete-game victory in front of 26,311 at Yankee Stadium.
How good was Irabu, who improved to 5-3 with his fourth straight victory and first complete game of the season?
“That night in spring training [1998], that’s tough to beat,” Joe Torre recalled of four perfect innings Irabu threw against the Braves. “But for the regular season, it has to be his best outing.”
Irabu, who allowed three hits, two walks, hit a batter, fanned four and needed only 105 pitches to finish, agreed with his manager.
“I thought it was, overall, my best performance as a Yankee,” Irabu said of his third big-league complete game. “I don’t think my stuff was bad at all, and I did have good results.”
Catcher Jorge Posada said Irabu has had more life on his fastball and better action on his signature splitter. But last night, Posada knew early that Irabu had a chance to hold the Tigers hitless.
“He was good enough to throw a no-hitter, that’s how good he was tonight,” Posada said of Irabu, who didn’t give up his first hit until Bobby Higginson’s one-out single in the fourth. “His curveball and splitter were good. When he is throwing his fastball for strikes, he has to have something else.”
The only glitch was Irabu not knowing how many outs there were in the fourth. Having gone to the clubhouse to change his T-shirt, Irabu arrived in the dugout and listened to Orlando “El Duque” Hernandez say, “Go.” Not realizing Ricky Ledee had drawn a two-out walk, Irabu popped out of the dugout and started for the mound. Three steps into the move Irabu noticed the inning wasn’t finished and sheepishly went back down the steps.
Much was made of Irabu’s dominance of the Tigers since he is 5-0 with a 1.35 ERA in eight games against them. Naturally, he doesn’t have a concrete reason for the staggering success. Yet, the Tigers aren’t easily impressed.
“I have no idea why he beats us,” said Higginson, who went 1-for-4. “He doesn’t impress me.”
If Irabu didn’t impress you last night, he never will.
“He pitched a great game,” said Paul O’Neill, who homered in the second and drove in a run during a five-run fifth inning against loser Dave Mlicki (3-8). “I don’t care who it was against. They are a major league team trying to beat us. We got a couple of hits when we needed them and they were enough. You have to give him credit. The last month and a half, he has been consistent. Tonight he was as good as he has been since he has been here.”
O’Neill’s eighth homer, a tracer to right on a 1-0 pitch, was all the support Irabu needed. Not until Tony Clark singled and Juan Encarnacion hit a ground-rule double with two out in the seventh did the Already-Packed-It-In Tigers have a runner get into scoring position.
Irabu responded by getting Frank Catalanotto on a harmless fly to right. After walking Brad Ausmus to start the ninth, the complete game and shutout appeared to be in danger. But Irabu retired Higginson on a grounder to the right side, popped up Dean Palmer and posted the Yankees’ third CG of the year when Clark flied to O’Neill.
Shane Spencer continued to put the left-field job in a full nelson with a 2-for-4, two-RBI night as the DH in place of slumping Chili Davis. In his last seven games, Spencer is 11-for-24 with six RBIs. Spencer’s double that scored Tino Martinez from second and O’Neill from first highlighted the five-run fifth.
Making his first start since being recalled from Columbus (Triple-A) last Thursday, Ledee went 2-for-3 and drove in a run.
The victory was the 47-29 Yankees’ eighth in nine games and moved them three lengths ahead of the Red Sox in the AL East.
While the Yankees were gushing over Irabu’s outing, Higginson wasn’t the only Tiger not doing cartwheels.
“He pitched a good game but you look at us and how many times we have been shut out, it’s going to be pretty easy to do it to us,” said Palmer of the toothless Tigers, who have been blanked 10 times, the most in the majors. “But he certainly pitched a good game against us.”
Now, of course the question is can Irabu lock on to the form he showed last night? We will begin to find out Tuesday night in Detroit when Higginson and his mates get another chance to be impressed.
