BOSTON – One day after the Red Sox put Troy O’Leary on the disabled list due to personal reasons caused by a nasty divorce, Chuck Knoblauch was asked if his throwing disorder could land him on the shelf.
“If it doesn’t get better,” Knoblauch told The Post prior to last night’s 3-0 victory over Pedro Martinez and the Red Sox. “I would never want to do anything to hurt this team.”
Ever since Knoblauch committed three errors last Thursday and left a game against the White Sox at Yankee Stadium to talk to Joe Torre in the clubhouse, Torre has used a defensive replacement for Knoblauch every chance he has gotten.
In Sunday’s blowout loss to the White Sox, Torre hooked Knoblauch after five innings. Monday night, when the Yankees handed the Red Sox their worst loss ever at Fenway, Torre inserted Clay Bellinger in the seventh inning.
And last night the Yankees acquired ex-Met Jose Vizcaino, a utility infielder, from the Dodgers for Jim Leyritz. Vizcaino becomes another possible defensive replacement for the scatter-armed Knoblauch.
“I don’t mind it,” Knoblauch said of the early exits. “It was a lot tougher last year. Joe is doing it for the right reasons. He is a great man and I would never want to do anything that would go against him.”
Last night Torre replaced Knoblauch with Bellinger in the sixth inning again. But this time plate umpire Larry Young ejecting Knoblauch was the reason after an irate Knoblauch tossed his helmet from near the third base dugout halfway between the third base line and the mound.
Knoblauch and first-base coach Lee Mazzilli were irate that Young called Knoblauch out for runner’s interference when Martinez hit him in the left elbow running toward first. Young ruled that Knoblauch was out of the baseline, an opinion Torre didn’t share until looking at a replay.
“Stupid. Sometimes you do stupid things,” Knoblauch said of throwing his helmet and earning the Yankees’ first ejection of the season.
From a fielding standpoint, Knoblauch had a stellar game. He handled four chances without incident and made a stunning play to rob Jose Offerman of a hit by ranging behind second base and making a leaping, one-hop throw to first.
“He has bounced back great,” Steinbrenner said.
When Knoblauch surfaced Friday night at Yankee Stadium after the three-error debacle, he hinted he would seek professional counseling. That hasn’t happened yet but that’s probably more related to the Yankees being on a four-city, 13-game road trip than a reluctance on Knoblauch’s part.
“I wouldn’t comment on that,” GM Brian Cashman said when asked if the team had been looking for a sports psychologist to talk to Knoblauch.
