IT GETS LATE early around here, Yogi once said. Willie Randolph agrees. Five games into what would be an unacceptable fifth year without a World Championship, it even is already September in The Bronx.
The Yankees came to work yesterday with a two-game losing streak. It only seemed like a four-game losing streak, or a 14-game losing streak, to the people already booing the best postseason closer of all-time, to Bernie Williams hitting .000, to Jason Giambi hitting .200. Also, to Derek Jeter, who came in hitting .500, which is why the Yankees are the Yankees and why, as Joe Torre stares at the ceiling at 3 a.m., he knows it’s not the marinara.
“At one time I thought it was what I ate before I went to sleep,” the Yankees manager said. “Now I realize that doesn’t matter, it’s whether you win or lose.
“One in a row is enough for me.”
Six million a year and all the green tea you can drink cannot replace the stomach lining that Jose Contreras, Esteban Loaiza and Jeff Weaver ate away. A year ago, Donovan Osborne put the stopper to the Yankees’ four game-and-longest losing streak of the season (hey, we can’t make this stuff up), but we saw what all that over-the-counter starting pitching did for them in the end, which is why, thanks to George Steinbrenner’s excellent credit at the Rx, Torre yesterday could send out The Big Antacid.
“If you are going to have somebody trying to get you back on track,” Torre said, “I can only go from experience on the other side.
“When you are facing a Randy Johnson it’s hard to put a game plan together because he’s so dominant at times.”
With a rotation of Erik Bedard, Rodrigo Lopez, Sidney Ponson, Bruce Chen and Daniel Cabrera, the Orioles have put together a game plan to keep scoring. It worked great Friday night, when they pounded out 18 hits, not so well yesterday on 11, even though Johnson looked like Johnson only when with the bases were loaded and nobody out in the fourth and he struck out Brian Roberts and Melvin Mora.
Unfortunately, two runs already were in, and two more would score when Miguel Tejada singled, enabling the Orioles to bat around in an inning in which Johnson hit Luis Matos in the foot and walked Chris Gomez to force in a run. Johnson looked like, well, like Roger Clemens did in his first Yankees season, which was not at all like himself.
We don’t know whether this was just one bad one or the first sign of an ongoing adjustment. We only know that yesterday the required stopping being done was mostly by the Orioles stopping catching the ball, and by the fans, who stopped booing Rivera when he appeared through the bullpen gate to put away an 8-5 comeback victory.
“They aren’t necessarily the same people,” Torre said. “I think we all have the same confidence in Mo, but frustration got to them the last time he pitched.
“They don’t forget who Mo is. They still believe he’s going to do it, don’t hold their breath.”
Even when Roberts hit a two-strike double to lead off the ninth, the encouragement was ongoing. Rivera sawed off Mora and, after Tejada lined to Gary Sheffield, froze Sammy Sosa with a fastball.
“I think they were Boston fans. If they were New York fans I wouldn’t be sleeping,” Rivera said with a smile.
“I was able to work on mechanical stuff in the bullpen and the baseball was moving better. I’m not the kind of guy to have doubts. Those games are going to happen, I don’t know how many times I have to say this.”
Every time he surprises us by failing, reminding us that the guy who really puts the stop to Yankees losing streaks is the one who has been doing it for seven years.
