Yankees Delayed, but Not Denied

Their hearts were heavy, but their bats were not. The New York Yankees erupted for four sixth-inning runs in a 4-0 American League division series-clinching victory over the Texas Rangers on Friday night.

The day before the series began, Ranger Manager Johnny Oates promised his team “would do everything we can to rain on the Yankees’ parade.”

He wasn’t kidding.

A torrential downpour, mixed with a hefty dose of thunder and lightning, caused a 3-hour 16-minute rain delay in the bottom of the sixth, sending most of a Ballpark in Arlington crowd of 49.950 to the exits, but that merely delayed the inevitable.

Once play was resumed at 12:24 a.m. CDT, the Yankees completed their three-game sweep of the best-of-five series to gain a berth in the AL championship series against either Boston or Cleveland beginning Tuesday night in Yankee Stadium.

Paul O’Neill jump-started the Yankee offense with a bases-empty home run in the sixth, and recently ordained New York cult hero Shane Spencer added a three-run homer to uplift the Yankees, who just a day earlier were struggling to cope with the news that teammate Darryl Strawberry has colon cancer.

Yankee right-hander Jeff Nelson pitched a scoreless seventh and eighth, striking out two of the seven batters he faced, and closer Mariano Rivera pitched a scoreless ninth, touching off a relatively mild celebration at 1:26 CDT.

There were also tornado warnings in the Arlington area during the early innings Friday, but it was the Rangers who were blown away by Yankee starter David Cone.

Drawing on some reserve tank of emotion--the pitcher seemed drained Thursday after learning Strawberry would have surgery today to remove a tumor on his colon--Cone came through with 5 2/3 sparkling innings, shutting out the Rangers on two hits and striking out six.

Cone, pitching with Strawberry’s No. 39 stitched into his cap, allowed only two runners to reach second base, one of those on second baseman Chuck Knoblauch’s second-inning error.

Cone retired Tom Goodwin and Mark McLemore to start the sixth, and then the rains came at 9:08 p.m. CDT, with the Yankees one out short of making it an official game. Ranger starter Aaron Sele wished the heavy weather had come about a half-hour earlier.

The right-hander matched Cone zero for zero through five innings, mixing his fastball with an effective overhand curve to blank the Yankees on four hits.

But with one out in the sixth, Sele hung one of those curves on the outside corner, and the left-handed O’Neill went the other way with it, driving his eighth career postseason home run over the wall in left-center for a 1-0 lead.

Sele rebounded to strike out Bernie Williams looking, but Tino Martinez beat out a grounder to the shortstop hole for a single. The Yankee plan was obvious at this point--stay back on Sele’s curve and drive it to the opposite field.

Tim Raines, batting left-handed, followed the lead of O’Neill and Martinez by lining a double into the left-field corner, putting runners on second and third.

Up stepped Spencer, the 26-year-old rookie who became the 27th major leaguer in history to homer in his first postseason at-bat in Game 2 Wednesday night.

One pitch later--one incredibly sumptuous, thigh-high hanging curve over the middle, that is--the Yankees had a 4-0 lead, after Spencer laced a three-run homer, his ninth homer in his last 33 at-bats, into the left-field bleachers.

A disgusted Ranger fan caught the ball and, like a second baseman turning a double play, immediately fired it back toward the infield, where it almost reached Spencer as he was rounding second base. Spencer didn’t even flinch, which is no surprise.

This kid spent eight long years in the Yankee farm system before getting a shot at the big leagues this season, and he seems determined to enjoy every second of it.

He hit eight home runs in September, a Yankee rookie record, and three grand slams in a span of 10 days from Sept. 18-27, fueling speculation that he was using a bat called “Wonder Boy.”

Spencer earned AL player-of-the-week honors last week, and if there was an MVP award for the division series, he would be a heavy favorite.

“Every time he does something good he gets this embarrassed smile,” Yankee Manager Joe Torre said. “I don’t have to say anything to calm him down. He doesn’t seem nervous. Eight years in the minor leagues . . . now that’s a reason to be nervous.”

If anything, it was the Rangers who seemed tense. They entered the playoffs with the best-hitting team in the league, but watching them in the division series, it’s hard to believe this is the same team that clobbered the Angels last week, sweeping a three-game series by the combined score of 25-3.

In 27 innings of the division series, the Rangers scored one run, a low for any postseason series, and went 13 for 92 (.141). The third through sixth hitters--Rusty Greer, Juan Gonzalez, Will Clark and Ivan Rodriguez--combined to go 4 for 44 (.091).

“You can’t hit a three-run home run with only one guy on base--I think that’s what we’re trying to do,” Oates said before the game. “If we look forward to winning three in a row, that’s quite mind-boggling. All we have to do is win one game.”

Easier said than done.