Orioles, Yankees Back At It
In wild-card baseball, if you can’t beat ‘em during the regular season, try again in the postseason.
For the first time, two teams from the same division are playing for the pennant. The New York Yankees’ four-game lead is gone and forgotten.
“I was an advocate for the wild card, anyway,” Cal Ripken said Monday as the Baltimore Orioles prepared for Tuesday night’s start of the A.L. championship series against New York. “There were times under the old system when teams won over 100 games and one could not go to the playoffs.”
New York, starting Andy Pettitte over David Cone in the opener against Scott Erickson, went 10-3 against the Orioles during the regular season and held off the September challenge to its A.L. East lead.
But Baltimore became the first wild-card team to advance in the playoffs when it clipped Cleveland, so the Yankees and Orioles are back at it, this time in a best-of-7 series with a World Series berth at stake.
“Whatever happened is in the past. Now everybody is at the same level,” said Baltimore’s Roberto Alomar, who’s likely to be booed loudly at Yankee Stadium for spitting at an ump on Sept. 27.
Though Alomar apologized, and the umpire, John Hirschbeck, said he was willing to put the episode behind him, the fans aren’t likely to let go so soon.
Both teams competed for free agents last fall, with New York’s re-signing of Cone and Baltimore’s deal with Alomar the main moves. When one signed a pitcher, the other signed one, too. And the competition carried over to the season.
“I think it was fated. I think this was meant to be,” Orioles manager Davey Johnson said. “There’s always been a great rivalry between the Yankees and Orioles.”
With a four-game sweep at Camden Yards following the All-Star break, New York appeared to put the Orioles away. The Yankees opened a 12-game lead on July 29, but Baltimore cut it to 2 games on Sept. 15. Only when New York won two of three from the Orioles in mid-month did the lead seem safe.
“The way they played the second half of the year, I sort of expected this to happen,” Yankees manager Joe Torre said.
Both teams have players limping into the series. If B.J. Surhoff isn’t ready because of a sore left hamstring and right knee, Mike Devereaux or Pete Incaviglia will start in left field for the Orioles.
New York expects Paul O’Neill to start despite his sore right hamstring, but if it hampers him too much, Darryl Strawberry could get a start.
“At this stage of the year, it doesn’t matter what the matchups are,” New York’s Cecil Fielder said.
Pettitte, 3-0 against the Orioles this season and 5-0 over two years, got the Game 1 nod over Cone for two reasons:
Baltimore was 24-25 against left-handed starters.
It will be easier for him to come back on three days’ rest than Cone, who was limited to just 11 regular-season starts because of the surgery to repair an aneurysm near his pitching shoulder.
“I thought for sure Coney was going in Game 1 and I was going in Game 2,” said Pettitte, who pitched the second game of the Texas series.
Torre made the decision Sunday on the team plane as the Yankees came home from Arlington.
“We do it on the run,” Torre said. “Sure, you use stats, but a lot of things are from the gut. A lot of time stats don’t tell you the mood of the team, how people are physically.”
Erickson, who didn’t get a decision in Game 2 against Cleveland, was 0-2 in three starts against the Yankees this season but had a 1.96 ERA.
The O’s probably have a better offense, but New York’s pitching appears to be stronger. And the Yanks have the hot bullpen.
“I see the Yankees heavily favored, but I still like our chances,” Johnson said.