CLEVELAND – Termites in the bat rack, not Lake Erie midges, did in the Yankees last night.
Though a brief but fierce invasion of Jacobs Field by the local bugs helped the Indians tie the score in the eighth off Joba Chamberlain, the top reason the Yankees are one game away from baseball death in the ALDS is that their bats have been turned to dust.
Not long after the Indians posted a 2-1 Game 2 victory in 11 innings that put them up 2-0 in the best-of-five affair, Alex Rodriguez bemoaned the lack of support for Andy Pettitte, who pitched brilliantly and was done in by the midges, Chamberlain and the Dead Bat Society.
“Three hits in 11 innings is unacceptable,” said Rodriguez, who went 0-for-4 and fanned with the potential go-ahead run on second to end the ninth. He has four hits in his past 50 postseason at-bats and is 0-for-his-last-19.
Taking it further, the Yankees have eight hits in 20 innings and are batting a pitiful .121 (8-for-66) in the two games.
Last night their offense consisted of Melky Cabrera’s home run in the third inning off Fausto Carmona, who overpowered the Yankees with a 95 mph sinker and a tantalizing changeup. The Yankees sent a batter to the plate three times with a runner in scoring position. In the two games they are 1-for-9 in the clutch.
Tomorrow night at the Stadium the Yankees will turn to Roger Clemens and hope the 45-year-old can keep their season alive. If he can’t, or they don’t hit Jake Westbrook, the Joe Torre era is likely over. George Steinbrenner has been unwilling to even talk to Torre about his future, and a third straight year of getting bounced in the first round isn’t going to set well with The Boss, who is expected to be on hand tomorrow night.
“A win right now would take a lot of pressure off all of us,” said Rodriguez, who admitted he swung at ball four in the ninth instead of taking the walk.
As for Chamberlain, he bailed out Pettitte in the seventh by fanning Franklin Gutierrez and getting Casey Blake on a fly to right. But when Chamberlain took the mound in the eighth the midges were everywhere. Twice he was showered in bug spray. It clearly affected his control, as he walked two, hit a batter and uncorked two wild pitches. The second errant toss scored Grady Sizemore from third with the tying run.
“I am not going to make excuses,” Chamberlain said. “I have to do a better job of executing my pitches.
“They bugged me, but you have to deal with it. I will never make an excuse. I let my guys down.”
Mariano Rivera supplied two scoreless innings to get the game to Luis Vizcaino in the 11th. With the bases loaded and the count full on Travis Hafner, Vizcaino challenged Hafner with a fastball, and he lined it to right-center for the game-winner.
“We are very confident,” Sizemore said about the trip to The Bronx. “We feel good about the momentum from these two games. We have to go to New York and finish it off.”
While the Indians look for the kill, the Yankees’ approach is one at-bat at a time.
“We are much better than that,” Rodriguez said. “We have to get home and play Yankee baseball. This series is far from over.”
It is if the Yankees didn’t find a way to leave the termites on the shore of Lake Erie.