He said that none of his pitches were working. He gave up his most hits in more than two years.
Meet David Wells, last night’s WINNING pitcher.
“Good thing I didn’t walk anybody,” Wells said, “because it could have been an ugly, ugly night.”
Instead, it was just an ugly win. In the Yankees’ 6-4 triumph over the Mets, Wells (10-2) pitched six innings, allowing four runs and 12 hits (his most since May 23, 2001). But to his credit, he battled through 90-degree heat and worked out of numerous jams before the bullpen took over in the seventh.
“He got us through,” Joe Torre said, “and that’s the most important thing. The problem was he couldn’t locate.”
Was it ever! Wells, one of the game’s premier control pitchers, had control issues all night – with every pitch he tried.
“You name it, it was up,” Wells said, chuckling. “My changeups were terrible. I got them up and they were crushing them.”
Wells’ problems began early, when he allowed two runs and three hits in the first inning. He never worked a perfect inning and was lifted after 82 pitches. He was also visibly frustrated on several hits (sometimes mouthing obscenities), though he insisted, “I wasn’t mad at anybody but myself.”
But befitting the wise veteran that he is, Wells also exhibited a penchant for working out of jams. More specifically, he exhibited a penchant for producing inning-ending double plays, a skill that helped him strand eight Met runners.
“That was the key,” Wells said. “That’s what helped me out of it, or it probably would have been 15-6, them.”
In the third, Wells loaded the bases with one out, then simply induced Tony Clark to bounce into an inning-ending 5-4-3 double play. Wells called that sequence “the pinnacle of the game for me.”
In the fourth, he allowed a one-out single to Tsuyoshi Shinjo. But again, he got a 5-4-3 twin killing, this time to Roger Cedeno.
Now you see why in Wells’ last 25 decisions, he’s 22-3. And why in the 15 games he’s started this season, the Yankees are 12-3.