Yanks 7 Red Sox 2
Tino Martinez and Nick Johnson. You can’t mention one without thinking of the other. How does it go? Johnson is pushing Martinez out of The Bronx? Does Martinez re-sign with the Yankees to keep Johnson in the minors or turn him into trade bait?
That makes for wonderful November discussion and will come down to what Martinez wants in terms of dollars and years.
With Joe Torre wanting to collect data on Johnson to see if he fits on the Yankees’ post-season roster, the manager put the neophyte Johnson at first base yesterday and used Martinez as the DH.
Along with Andy Pettitte’s best outing in three weeks, Johnson and Martinez carried the Yankees to a 7-2 victory over the hapless Red Sox in front of a sold-out Yankee Stadium crowd of 55,318.
A sweet swing and a tremendous eye have everybody from Tampa to The Bronx believing the 22-year-old Johnson is going to be a very good big leaguer. Yet, he started yesterday batting .150 and in a 2-for-25 (.080). Sure, he was in the majors less than a month, but still . . .
Johnson gave Torre some positive information when he crushed the first pitch from Hideo Nomo into the right-field seats on a line for his maiden major-league homer that gave the Yankees a 2-0 lead.
“I was like a little kid,” said Johnson, who spent Saturday night visiting the Empire State building, walking through Times Square and dining at a Union Square restaurant. “I was drifting and floating around the bases.”
An RBI single by Bernie Williams hiked the Yankees’ lead to 3-1 in the fifth and Martinez’ three-run homer off Rolando Arrojo in the seventh put the game away. It was Martinez’ 32nd homer and delivered his 108th RBI.
“It was a one-run game and I wanted to get one run in,” said Martinez, who hit a three-run and two-run homer Saturday.
Pettitte, who had allowed 23 earned runs and 43 hits in his previous four starts (24 innings) when he was 0-3, worked 72/3 innings, allowed four hits, one run and improved to 15-9.
The victory was the Yankees’ sixth straight over Boston and their ninth in 10 games. It hiked their lead over the bumbling Bosox to 13 games and reduced the magic number to eight.
As for the Red Sox, they have dropped 13 of 14 and watched manager Joe Kerrigan pull first baseman Izzy Alcantara from the game after Alcantara didn’t run out an infield pop caught by Jorge Posada.
Johnson has no idea what’s in store. He could be on the post-season roster or playing in the Arizona Fall League next month. Next year he could replace Martinez the way Tino replaced Don Mattingly or he could return to Columbus (Triple-A).
Yet, whatever happens, Johnson isn’t losing sleep.
“I am pretty easy going, I just go with the flow,” said Johnson, who had the home run ball which was going to his father, Bob. His mom, Paula, has the ball from his first major league hit.
According to David Cone, the Yankees could be asking for trouble if they turn Martinez loose.
“He will be hard to replace,” Cone said. “I understand there are some big-time free agents out there, but it’s hard to argue with the success he has had and what he means to the ballclub. He is one of my favorite teammates of all time, that’s how much I respect him.”
