|
THE ALL STARS
&
PEDRO'S HISTORIC YEAR
1999
ALCS, GAME #3
Pedro vs Roger match-up
turns into a laugher for the Sox
October 16, 1999
...
This was heart-of-darkness, bottomless-pit stuff in which Clemens and
the New York Yankees descended this afternoon in Fenway Park, where
Pedro Martinez burned as brightly as ever and Sox hitters remained as
white-hot as they were last weekend. Just like that, any fears of a
New York sweep in the American League Championship Series evaporated
as the Red Sox inflicted a 13- 1 loss on the Yankees, the worst in
the Bombers' long history of storied autumns.
The shock
value of the defeat, in which Clemens gave up five runs and was pulled two
batters into the third inning, sliced New York's lead to 2-1 in the
best-of-seven series.
With 12
whiffs in seven innings, Pedro, even without his best fastball, set a record for
most strikeouts by a Sox pitcher in the postseason. Tack on the 17 whiffs Pedro
had in New York Sept. 10, and he has 29 strikeouts in his last 16 innings
against the Yankees.
John
Valentin, meanwhile, drove in five runs with a first-inning, two- run home run
off Clemens, an infield out, and two singles, giving him 17 RBIs in eight
postseason games. The Sox rolled up 21 hits, 10 for extra bases, in a stunning
encore to their record 23-run, 24-hit outburst against the Indians last Sunday
night, the last time they were on Yawkey Way. The 21 hits set an ALCS record,
and the Sox have now scored 45 runs in their last 20 innings they've batted at
home.
The Yankees,
meanwhile, saw their record-tying 12-game postseason winning streak come to a
crashing end in a loss that eclipsed their previous worst beating, a 12-1
thrashing by Atlanta in Game 1 of the 1996 World Series. The Sox had lost 10 in
a row in the ALCS since Game 7 of the '86 ALCS against Anaheim, in which Clemens
was the winning pitcher.
Clemens,
whose value to the Yankees was supposed to be measured by his capacity to
deliver in October, was driven from the premises as the Red Sox routed the
Rocket and successor Hideki Irabu in an unprecedented display of Bomber-bashing.
Clemens was long gone by the seventh inning, when the crowd chanted "Where is
Roger?" and answered with, "In the shower."
While Pedro
held up his end of the most anticipated pitching matchup ever on Yawkey Way,
striking out at least one Yankee in each of his seven innings and allowing just
two hits, Clemens had no answer for the sarcastic singsong "Ro-ger, Ro-ger" that
swept the greensward under cloudless blue skies and summer-like temperatures (73
degrees at game time).
Two pitches
into the Sox first, Jose Offerman was aboard third on a triple lashed off the
3-foot retaining wall in the right-field corner. Five pitches later, the Sox
led, 2-0, as Valentin launched a 2-and-2 pitch from Clemens into the left-field
net. Doubles by Nixon and Nomar, sandwiched around a single by Offerman, made it
4-0 in the second, and Torre lifted Clemens for Irabu after a single by Stanley
and a first-pitch strike to Daubach, whose home run off Irabu made it 6-0.
The six runs
eclipsed the number of runs allowed by the Yankees in their five previous games
combined. Daubach's home run left Irabu in the role of sacrificial pitcher, as
he was left in to give up eight runs (seven earned) and 13 hits in 4 2/3
innings. |
