Yankees Ride Again Braves Wilt Under Yanks’ Bullpen Heat

Simple.

You keep knocking on Door No.1, and a new guy walks in with a 90-mph fastball.

If Joe Torre had known that winning a World Series could be so cut-and-dried, he might have tried it earlier.

The Yankees are world champions again, which is the New York definition of standard time.

They beat the Atlanta Braves, 3-2, in Game 6 on Saturday night, another two-thumbs-up of a game, another sterling World Series.

When you figure out how New York won it, let Torre know - and Atlanta manager Bobby Cox, for that matter.

The Yankees hit .216, the Braves .254.

The Yankees’ ERA was 3.93, the Braves’ 2.33.

Nobody in the New York offense had more than four RBIs, and the Bronx Bombers hit two home runs.

Yankees starting pitchers had two quality starts in six games, Atlanta pitchers had six (and 16 in 16 postseason games).

How did they do it? Mirrors. And mirror images. It’s easy to tell the Yankees relievers apart until they release the ball. Then they get monotonous. The Braves managed nine hits in the last 19 innings the Yankees relievers pitched, and MVP John Wetteland became the first man to save four Series games.

“A very tough cookie,” Yankees coach Don Zimmer said of Wetteland, who writes poetry and answers media questions with lectures.

Wetteland was tough enough to withstand three Braves singles in the ninth, including one from the corroded bat of Terry Pendleton. He also had to get Mark Lemke, who is normally shockproof in October. Lemke lofted a foul ball that third baseman Charlie Hayes dived down the Braves’ dugout steps to nearly catch. Wetteland bit his lip and got a more navigable popup from Lemke to Hayes, well inside the playing field, and the party began.

The two prior innings were easier on the hearts of Torre, Zimmer, and Torre’s brother Frank, who received his long-awaited heart transplant Friday morning.

They were handled by Mariano Rivera, who probably should be second to teammate Andy Pettitte in the Cy Young voting. Rivera gave up just one home run all season, and in the eighth he mowed through Chipper Jones, Fred McGriff and Javy Lopez.

Then there were Graeme Lloyd, David Weathers and Jeff Nelson, against whom Atlanta went 3 for 30. Nelson came from Seattle this year, Lloyd from Milwaukee, and Weathers from Florida. Weathers was even demoted to Triple-A during August.

“When you’re on a losing team, sometimes losing’s OK,” said Nelson. “Some of us have been in that situation. We all had to make adjustments here, because in New York they want you to win, and win all the time. We were under pressure.”

The New York bullpen worked 25 innings in the Series, the starters only 30. That is not usually the prescription for a trophy. But Torre was a master juggler, keeping all of them rested yet sharp. In the three games played under National League rules, New York was 3-0. It is not coincidental that Torre was a three-time National League manager, Zimmer once managed the Cubs, pitching coach Mel Stottlemyre was formerly with the Mets and Astros, and batting coach Chris Chambliss has worked with Atlanta and St. Louis.

“Joe can manage the rest of his life and never have a year like this one,” Zimmer said. “Everything he did worked out right. It was destiny.”

Cox would agree. To his grave he will argue that the Series turned in Game 4 when right-field umpire Tim Welke impeded Jermaine Dye’s path to a foul pop that fell harmlessly, when Atlanta led 6-0.

Cox complained about it for two days. Umpires can read. When Terry Tata capped a miserable postseason for his profession by stretching his imagination and calling Marquis Grissom out on a steal, Cox argued bitterly. On his way back, he saw Welke at third. Moments later he was ejected.

“I should have been ejected,” Cox said. “I just wanted to let them know that they’d blown some plays.”

“The picture tells the story on that call,” Grissom said. “But the Yankees beat us. They didn’t make mistakes, and they probably wanted it more than we did.”

That’s 26 World Series games this decade, but only one title for the Braves. “Anybody who calls us a failure is addlebrained,” general manager John Schuerholz said. But in a Series measured by bullpen heat, New York was the team of the 90s.

The following fields overflowed: CREDIT = Mark Whicker Orange County Register