THE ALL STARS &
PEDRO'S HISTORIC YEAR
 1999 ALCS, GAME #5
The Yankees leave the
Sox out in the cold

October 18, 1999 ... There was no mistaking winter's chill. Those deepest fears were realized, when Orlando Hernandez plunged an icepick deep into the heart of Red Sox Nation and the New York Yankees put this Sox century into cold storage with a 6-1 win that closed out this American League Championship Series, four games to one.

The Yankees, in whose long shadow the Sox have labored since what seems like the dawn of memory but dates only to the sale of Babe Ruth 79 years ago, broke out the champagne after winning their 36th American League pennant.

Hernandez, voted ALCS Most Valuable Player, threw seven shutout innings, allowing just three hits and striking out nine, before giving up a leadoff home run to Jason Varitek and a double to Nomar Garciaparra to open the eighth. Hernandez was closing in on 140 pitches when manager Joe Torre replaced him with lefthander Mike Stanton.

While the Yankees made their pitching change, Pedro Martinez sent a huge charge through the sellout crowd of 33,589 by sprinting out to the bullpen to warm up, in the event of a Sox comeback that never materialized. The Sox loaded the bases after Garciaparra's double, but Yankees reliever Ramiro Mendoza struck out Scott Hatteberg and retired Trot Nixon on a foul popup to end the threat. Hope then evaporated in the ninth when Jorge Posada hit a two-run homer off Tom Gordon.

The Sox committed another pair of costly errors, leaving them with the unwanted legacy of being the most error-prone team in LCS history. Ten E's spell nothing but heartbreak for a team that exceeded all expectations by winning 98 games in '99, including four in postseason.

The Yankees, who won each of the first two games in the Bronx by a single run, outscored the Sox, 15-3, in the final two games after suffering their worst loss ever in the postseason, the 13-1 beating Martinez and the Sox inflicted on Roger Clemens. But the Bombers' last two wins were hardly as one-sided as they sound. The 9-2 win in Game 4 was a one-run game until the ninth, and Game 5 was 2-1 until the seventh.

Despite some impassioned cheerleading by Pedro, the Sox could not solve another son of the tropics, Cuban defector Hernandez, who set a personal postseason best with nine strikeouts, including the side in the seventh, and remains unbeaten in five postseason starts. The Sox did no better than a draw against El Duque in Game 1, when they battled him to a 3-3 draw through eight innings, only to fall in 10 innings on Bernie Williams's walkoff home run off Rod Beck.

Jeter's home run accounted for the only runs scored by either team until the seventh, when first baseman Stanley failed to glove Garciaparra's rising throw after fielding Jeter's grounder, the ball skipping off leather and into the Sox dugout for a two-base error. Paul O'Neill singled to right, with Jeter halting at third after a last-second stop sign by third base coach Willie Randolph.

Williams replaced Derek Lowe with lefthander Rheal Cormier, who loaded the bases by walking Bernie Williams on a full count. Chili Davis followed with a ground ball just to the left of Jose Offerman, who bobbled the ball as Jeter scored to make it 3-0. Tino Martinez's single made it 4-0 before Cormier struck out Posada and Shane Spencer to end the inning.

The difference in the series, Joe Torre said, was the starting pitching.