CLEVELAND – Maybe that emotional weekend series with the Red Sox extracted more from the Yankees than they thought. Or possibly Billy Traber and Jason Davis are on their way to becoming the next generation’s pitching stars.
Whatever the reason, the Yankees left Jacobs Field last night having dropped two of three to the lowly Indians after the Tribe hung a 3-2 defeat in 10 innings on reliever Sterling Hitchcock and the AL East leaders in front of 30,167.
Hitchcock started the 10th by walking Coco Crisp on five pitches and giving up a double to Matt Lawton. Milton Bradley was intentionally walked to load the bases with no outs and Jody Gerut lined an 0-1 pitch up the middle for the victory.
The loss lowered the Yankees’ lead to two games over the Red Sox (7-1 winners over the Blue Jays last night) in the AL East heading into a weekend series in Toronto.
The Yankees didn’t make out too well on the basepaths last night. Alfonso Soriano was picked off at both first and second and the Indians turned three double plays.
Roger Clemens went seven innings, allowed two runs and seven hits. One of the hits was a two-run homer by Ben Broussard in the second. Clemens fanned six and walked two. Since winning his 300th game on June 13, Clemens is 1-2 with two no-decisions. Tribe starter Jason Davis gave up two runs (one earned) and six hits in six-plus innings.
A little spice was added to the game in the third when Bradley gave Jason Giambi a shove in the back while Giambi was tagging first after fielding Bradley’s ground ball. Giambi turned and glared at Bradley and said something as the Indians outfielder trotted back to the Cleveland dugout.
Chris Hammond replaced Clemens to start the eighth and provided two scoreless innings to get the game into extra frames. Hammond needed a strong throw by left fielder Hideki Matsui to record the final out of the ninth. Matsui fielded Jhonny Peralta’s single down the left-field line and fired a one-hop strike to Soriano. The diving Peralta was called out to end the inning despite TV replays showing he got his hand in ahead of Soriano’s tag.
Indians manager Eric Wedge didn’t win a discussion with second base ump Andy Fletcher on that play and when Wedge yelled something to plate umpire Mike DiMuro on a close 2-1 pitch to Derek Jeter in the 10th, he was ejected.
The Yankees loaded the bases with no outs in the seventh when Davis was replaced by lefty Alex Hererra after Jorge Posada singled and Ruben Sierra reached on an error. Hererra surfaced and Torre countered with Raul Mondesi as the pinch-hitter for the struggling Robin Ventura. Mondesi drew a four-pitch walk to load the bases for Karim Garcia. But Joe Torre sent Todd Zeile to hit and, when Wedge countered with righty David Riske, Torre called for the left-handed hitting Curtis Pride.
Wedge won that battle when Pride hit into a 6-4-3 double play, but Posada scored from third to tie the score, 2-2. Riske then overpowered Soriano, striking him out on three pitches to strand Sierra at third.
Soriano opened the sixth with a sharp single to center and went to second when Davis’ pickoff attempt got past Broussard. But Soriano, who had been picked off first in the first inning, was caught off second when Davis spun and fired to shortstop Peralta. The sting was felt immediately when Jeter sliced the next pitch into the right-field corner for a double. Davis put himself in further trouble by walking Giambi on five pitches to bring up Bernie Williams.
Davis could have had an easy inning-ending double play when he fielded Williams’ one-hopper. Instead, he lost his head and went to first for one out as Jeter and Giambi moved up a base each. The mistake didn’t cost Davis since he retired the suddenly frigid Matsui on a harmless fly to center. Matsui entered the game with one hit in 16 at-bats and went hitless in four trips, although he did drive in the Yankees’ first run with a ground out.