The $200 million elephant dressed in Yankees pinstripes is in the room and the Red Sox can’t ignore it. The Yankees might not catch them, but the Red Sox know their blood rivals can beat them.
Yesterday’s 5-0 Yankees win at Yankee Stadium completed a three-game sweep that was highlighted by Chien-Ming Wang’s seven one-hit shutout innings, two homers from Robinson Cano, four hits by Derek Jeter and Joba Chamberlain’s initial ejection of his short career that miffed Joe Torre.
The sweep moved the Yankees from eight games behind the AL East-leading Red Sox to five with 28 games remaining. It also propelled the Yankees past the Mariners, who lost last night, into the wild-card lead by one game.
“We never thought we didn’t have a chance,” said Cano, who homered to left-center in the third and fifth off Curt Schilling. “We are five games back, and we have to keep working hard.”
And continue to get sterling efforts from the starters. Since returning home following a disastrous 2-5 road trip, the Yankees watched Andy Pettitte, Roger Clemens and Wang smother the Red Sox, who played yesterday without cleanup hitter Manny Ramirez (oblique muscle problem).
“Our pitching dominated the three games,” pitching coach Ron Guidry said. “Hopefully we can keep that up.”
In 20 innings, Pettitte, Clemens and Wang allowed nine hits and four earned runs (1.80 ERA). The best performance was Wang’s yesterday, even if he was complaining about walking four.
“I walked too much,” said Wang, who gave up his only hit (a ground single to right) to Mike Lowell in the seventh. Wang’s third straight win and sixth in seven decisions, hiked his record to 16-6 and kept him in the Cy Young hunt.
Considering the Red Sox always have been tough on Wang, the seven shutout innings were impressive. Even though Wang’s pitch count was at 87 after six, Torre said he wouldn’t have lifted Wang if the no-hitter were still in play after seven.
Chamberlain, the 21-year-old neophyte reliever, drew attention on two counts. First, he was asked to work two innings without having two days’ rest for the first time. General manager Brian Cashman and Torre said that wasn’t in violation of the Joba Rules although the men differ on what should be said about the Joba Rules.
“Not in terms of the media,” Cashman said when asked if he and Torre are on the same page. Cashman was in Torre’s office immediately after the game. “He seems to talk about it. We have a plan in place. How that is articulated is a question that continues to be an issue.”
Asked if he and Torre were on the same page with the plan, Cashman said, “Things are OK, period.”
Torre brought Chamberlain into the game to start the eighth when he pitched around Dustin Pedroia’s two-out double and protected a 2-0 lead. Armed with a 5-0 advantage in the ninth, Chamberlain retired Yankee killer David Ortiz leading off the inning. A 1-1 pitch to Kevin Youkilis was near his head. When the next pitch, clocked at 99 mph, sailed over Youkilis’ head, plate umpire Angel Hernandez immediately ejected Chamberlain.
“It was absolutely ridiculous,” Torre said of Chamberlain being ejected. “There was certainly no message. That’s the last thing you want to do to a club that is down, 5-0, and you have just won two games from. Umpires don’t apply common sense.”
To a lot of people, the Yankees being five out at this juncture doesn’t make much sense, either. They started the series eight out and fading. Now, they are in the room and impossible to ignore.