Posted on 10/21/2001 10:01:00 PM PDT by Satadru
NEW YORK (AP) -- Alfonso Soriano, a rookie on a team of veterans, moved the New York Yankees one win from their fourth straight trip to the World Series.
Ending a wild and gritty game, Soriano hit a two-run homer off Kazuhiro Sasaki in the bottom of the ninth inning Sunday night to give the Yankees a 3-1 victory over Seattle and a 3-1 lead in the AL championship series.
``I think we're just blessed,'' said Bernie Williams, who tied it with an eighth-inning homer. ``It has taken a lot of work. It has a lot to do with the attitude of this club.''
Seattle's Bret Boone broke up a scoreless game with an eighth-inning homer off Ramiro Mendoza, moving with Mariners within six outs of fulfilling the prophesy of manager Lou Piniella, who pledged his team would stretch the series to six games and force New York to return to Safeco Field.
But Williams answered right back with a drive off Seattle's Arthur Rhodes in the bottom half.
``There's a certain amount of magic that's tied to him,'' Yankees manager Joe Torre said of Williams. ``We all expect it, and he's never let us down.''
Soriano, the rookie second baseman whose strong spring training caused the Yankees to find a spot for him in their lineup, won it with his homer off Sasaki, last year's AL Rookie of the Year.
``I just concentrated on connecting well with the ball and going after it,'' the 23-year-old Soriano said through a translator. ``It's something very big to be a hero in a game like this.''
Roger Clemens and Paul Abbott reunited in a rematch of last year's fourth game. Clemens allowed one hit, just like he did last year, but Abbott pitched hitless ball.
But, because of their wildness, both were pulled after the fifth inning. Abbott walked eight, one short of the ALCS record.
It then came down to a battle of the bullpens and the Yankees prevailed. As usual.
Andy Pettitte will try to close it out Monday night for New York against Aaron Sele in a rematch of Game 1 starters. The three-time defending World Series champions are trying to become the first team to win four straight pennants since they did it from 1960-64.
It forced a series of must-win games for Seattle, which tied the regular-season record of 116 wins but now must win three straight to reach its first World Series.
``This puts us in a rather precarious position,'' Piniella said. ``It was a great ballgame. We didn't lose. We just got beat.''
Soriano's home run, which sailed to right-center field over Mike Cameron's attempt at a leaping catch, was the fourth game-winning home run for the Yankees in ALCS play.
Chris Chambliss hit a series-winner against Kansas City in 1996, and Williams had game-ending homers against Baltimore in 1996 and Boston in 1999, both in series openers.
There were just two hits in the game before the drive over Death Valley by Boone, who had five RBIs Saturday in Seattle's 14-3 rout. Left fielder Chuck Knoblauch kept going back but the ball, caught in a stiff wind, kept on going.
``He hits that home run in that situation, the job our bullpen has done all year, you can put it in the bank,'' Abbott thought to himself.
Williams sliced an opposite-field drive just foul down the right field line, then popped a home run over the right-field wall, with outfielder Ichiro Suzuki smacking into the fence as he ran out of room.
``Off the bat, I thought it was a deep fly ball,'' Rhodes said. ``Once I saw the wind take it, well, nothing you can do about that.''
After Mariano Rivera pitched a 1-2-3 ninth -- throwing just three pitches -- New York won it in the bottom half.
Scott Brosius, whose two-run double propelled the Yankees to their Game 2 win, reached on an infield single with one out. Shortstop Mark McLemore made a diving stop on the ball up the middle but his throw pulled first baseman John Olerud off the bag as Brosius just made it.
Soriano was criticized by the Yankees after Game 1 for failing to run out a ball he thought was a home run and then getting only to first base when it hit off the wall. This time, the ball made it over the wall, and Yankee Stadium rocked as fans jumped up and down.
``I don't know if you can get any higher than this,'' Torre said. ``We're going to have to calm down for a game tomorrow.''
New York stranded eight runners over the first seven innings, going 0-for-6 with runners in scoring position. Seattle went 0-for-3 with runners in scoring position and left six on base.
Abbott, the first pitcher pulled with a postseason no-hit bid since Baltimore's Mike Cuellar left after 4 2-3 innings and nine walks in the 1974 AL playoffs, stranded runners on first and second in the third, fourth and fifth innings. Nearly half of Abbott's pitches were out of the strike zone: 48 balls and 49 strikes.
Clemens, winless in three postseason starts this year while pitching with an injured hamstring, was wildly inconsistent, his splitter either diving down for strikes or sailing high for balls.
Seattle's bullpen got in and out of trouble in the sixth when Tino Martinez blooped a one-out opposite-field double to left off Norm Charlton -- the Yankees' first hit of the game.
Jorge Posada was intentionally walked and Seattle brought in Jeff Nelson, an integral part of the Yankees' championship run before signing with the Mariners after last season.
Shane Spencer, 2-for-2 against Nelson in his career, pinch hit for Paul O'Neill and walked, with Nelson overthrowing his slider.
Brosius took a strike, then checked his swing on a ball as Piniella screamed from the dugout, bubble gum coming out of his mouth, arguing that Brosius went around. Brosius took a ball, fouled off a pitch, then grounded to second for aninning-ending double play as the emotional Nelson pumped his fist.
Notes
Paul McCartney, watching from the front row behind home plate, was shown on the scoreboard singing along to the Beatles' song ``I Saw Her Standing There.'' ... The postseason record of 10 walks was set by the Yankees' Bill Bevens in losing a one-hitter to Brooklyn 3-2 in Game 4 of the 1947 World Series. ... The previous LCS record for walks by both teams in a game was 14 byOakland and Baltimore in Cuellar's 1974 outing.
The New York Yankees are America's team? And they're selflessly winning for the nation rather than for themselves? Whatever fantasy makes you happy, I guess.
The (soon to be four-peat) Yankees are going to be the best this year. I suspect the A's and Mariners will be back next year for another go.
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