BOSTON – Joe Torre’s first decision back on the job already has proven itself worth second-guessing.
Fearing rain would make it too risky to pitch Roger Clemens in tonight’s series finale, Torre pushed him back a day, all the way to Chicago.
Turns out the Yankees could have used their ace on the familiar Fenway Park mound tonight to try to avert a sweep delivered by the hated Red Sox, improbable caretakers of first place.
Then again, nothing Clemens could have done tonight, provided there is a tonight and it’s not rained out, could have changed the order of the standings. The Red Sox assured the Yankees would head for the Second City in second place by winning again last night.
This time the margin was 6-0 and the chief executioners were the men on both ends of a fresh, young battery.
Right-hander Brian Rose, called up from Pawtucket to make the start in place of sore-shouldered Juan Pena, tossed seven shutout innings of six-hit, one-walk ball. Catcher Jason Varitek went 4-for-4, homered twice and drove in three runs.
Two-thirds of the way over, this series has been a mismatch made in Fenway heaven. The Yankees have lost 8 of 10. The Red Sox have won 11 of 13 and lead the American League East by a game and a half.
Back in spring training, when the Yankees dealt for Clemens and Red Sox GM Dan Duquette was getting hammered for losing Mo Vaughn to the Angels via free agency the way he lost Clemens to the Blue Jays, this scenario would have seemed unimaginable.
Watching the teams play head to head makes the standings seem a little less flukish, less fleeting. May isn’t September, but it isn’t March, either.
The return of Clemens will boost the Yankees, all right, but it won’t do anything to firm up the sagging underbelly of the rotation.
Forty percent of the time the Yankees send either Hideki Irabu or Orlando Hernandez to the mound. There was a time when that didn’t sound bad at all. Now is not that time.
Irabu was no Rose last night. He teased the Yankees with a pair of strong starts, combining for one walk, 10 strikeouts and three earned runs in 14 innings against the Mariners and Angels.
The Yankees turned to Irabu to even the series at Fenway. He responded by grooving too many straight, belt-high fastballs down the middle. Removed from the game with two outs in the fifth inning, Irabu allowed nine hits and five earned runs. The pitching line would have been worse but for Bernie Williams making a leaping catch at the wall to deny hard-hitting Jose Offerman extra bases in the two-run fourth inning.
El Duque takes the mound tonight to the sounds of ”Sweep! Sweep!” raining on him from the intimate Fenway seats. In his past six starts, El Duque is 1-4 with a 7.86 ERA and 0-3 with an 11.57 ERA in the last three.
Even with two-fifths of the rotation iffy, the Yankees have more starting depth there than in the bullpen or behind the regular position players. Depth had been such a big part of what has made the Yankees special during the Joe Torre years. Lack of it has been a big reason the Yankees have appeared so lifeless of late.
Tim Raines, Darryl Strawberry, Homer Bush and Graeme Lloyd are gone and not one of them has been replaced adequately. The Yankees need left-handed bats and speed off the bench, a second effective lefty out of the pen.
Having both Raines and Strawberry on the roster seemed like excess at times, though each brought a different type of bat from the left side. The switch-hitting Raines was an ideal contact pinch-hitter, Strawberry an intimidating long-ball threat. Ricky Ledee was supposed to be both and was neither.
Raines, now a member of the surprising A’s bench, sure would look good back in a Yankees uniform.
So would Bush.
”Homer was terrific for us,” GM Brian Cashman said. ”We don’t have the speed off the bench we had last year, but we have a guy who plays more positions.”
Cashman meant Clay Bellinger, a poor man’s Luis Sojo. Bush complemented Sojo far better.
Then there is Mike Figga, the ultimate no-time player. He is the rope in the tug of war between the Tampa and New York factions that run the Yankees. He also happens to be a native of Tampa. Steinbrenner is proud of Tampa athletes to the point his judgment is clouded.
Two of the three anonymous relievers – Tony Fossas, Jay Tessmer, Dan Naulty – will be gone as soon as Clemens and Jeff Nelson are activated.
That will help but won’t do anything for the sputtering offense.
”These guys know it’s just around the corner,” Clemens said of the offense. ”We could be in first place by 10 games and there are going to be some grumpy people around here. It’s good to see the level of expectations so high. I’ve never been in that situation with a group of men before. I like it.”
He would like it much better if the Yankees really were 10 games up, a place he can begin to take them.