GAME 1
Yankees 6
Devil Rays 5
GAME 2
Yankees 6
Devil Rays 3
Even Yogi might say it’s over.
As the Yankees complete the Kansas State portion of their schedule, it is becoming abundantly clear the AL East race is done.
Yesterday and last night at a soggy Stadium, the Yankees beat up their latest cream-puff opponent, the Devil Rays, twice.
Ruben Sierra led the way, hitting the game-winning homer in the first game and driving in three runs in the second.
The Yankee victories – 6-5 in the day game and 6-3 in the nightcap – allowed them to tie their season-best winning streak of eight games and give them the best record in baseball at 92-56.
With the Red Sox loss, it pushed the magic number down to 10 and Boston 5½ games back wit 14 to play.
“It’s significant,” Joe Torre said of yesterday’s 1½-game turnaround.
In the night game, Sierra knocked an RBI single in the first and a two-run double in the fifth. The struggling Jason Giambi smacked a solo homer, winner Mike Mussina pitched seven innings of two-run (one earned) ball and Mariano Rivera picked up his second save of the day.
In the day game, Sierra slammed a game-winning eighth inning homer to give the Yankees a 6-5 victory. Bernie Williams, on his 35th birthday, added two homers. Gabe White got the win.
Yesterday’s double-header delight began at 1:09 with a confident Jeff Weaver firing a first-pitch strike. By 1:12 p.m., an already dejected Weaver allowed the day’s first run. Weaver only allowed three runs in five innings, which doesn’t sound as bad as it looked.
He gave up nine hits and afterward hung on to the idea that he was one of the best players on the team, even though a postseason roster spot seems unlikely.
Sierra’s place on the playoff roster is assured, but his part is still somewhat undetermined. Torre is wrestling Sierra’s excellent offense against his below-average defense.
Yesterday in game one, Torre fought his choices. Before Hideki Matsui hurt his knee in the seventh, forcing Torre to remove him, Sierra – who played right field in the day – was headed for the bench.
Torre planned on putting the superior defender and the right-handed hitting Juan Rivera in right. Rivera would have been due up in the eighth to face lefty reliever Joe Kennedy. With only another lefty, Karim Garcia, available, Torre stuck with Sierra.
“I’d rather be lucky than good,” Torre said.
Leading off the eighth, Sierra crushed a Kennedy fastball. Sierra, doing his patented celebratory skip that pre-dates Sammy Sosa’s version, watched the ball climb over the 408-sign in center.
Torre got plenty lucky in the second game. In the fifth, Derek Jeter stole second and saw with the Devil Ray’s in a Jason Giambi shift, there was no one on third. Jeter outraced third baseman Jared Sandberg to third. But with Sandberg almost riding Jeter like a jockey, Jeter over slid the bag. The lucky, but good part? Jeter was not injured.