Yankees Have Wright Stuffed in First Inning

Chuck Knoblauch and Derek Jeter set the table Tuesday night, and the New York Yankees settled in for a fine first-inning feast, gorging themselves on the tasty offerings of Cleveland starter Jaret Wright.

By the time the inning was over and Indian Manager Mike Hargrove had cleared the mess on the mound, Wright was in the Indian dugout, feeling as if he’d been stuffed through a meat grinder, and the Yankees were well on their way to a 7-2 victory in Game 1 of the American League championship series.

A Yankee Stadium crowd of 57,138, which included Henry Kissinger, Donald Trump, Billy Crystal and Kevin Costner in Yankee owner George Steinbrenner’s box, saw the dormant New York offense finally erupt for 11 hits after a sluggish division series sweep of the Texas Rangers.

Yankee left-hander David Wells, meanwhile, continued to put playoff opponents into a deep freeze, throwing 8 1/3 shutout innings and striking out seven before giving up Manny Ramirez’s two-run homer into the upper deck in left field in the top of the ninth.

Unlike the division series opener, a nail-biter of a 2-0 victory over Texas, Wells was able to relax after his teammates staked him to a 5-0 lead in the first.

“Hitting is contagious--Chuck got it going, and everyone wanted to grab a bat,” said Jeter, who also made a spectacular defensive play in the fourth, backhanding Travis Fryman’s grounder to the hole, leaping and throwing to first.

“You’d like to think it was just a matter of time until we started hitting. People say we’ve been struggling so much, but we’d only played three playoff games.”

The top six hitters in the Yankee lineup combined to bat .175 (11 for 63) against Texas, but that six-pack went seven for 25 with five runs and three RBIs Tuesday night.

Knoblauch and Jeter, who combined to go two for 20 against Texas, each singled and scored in the first, and cleanup batter Bernie Williams, who was 0 for 11 against the Rangers, had an RBI single in the first and an RBI double in the seventh. Jorge Posada added a homer in the sixth.

“Hopefully it will carry over and have an effect on the rest of the series,” Knoblauch said. “We’ll see. Like any championship team, Cleveland is not going to roll over.”

Neither is Wells in a playoff game. Tuesday night’s performance, which came on the heels of his eight-inning shutout of the Rangers last week, improved Wells to 6-0 with a 2.08 earned run average in seven postseason starts and further enhanced his reputation as a big-game pitcher.

“He had a good fastball and moved it in and out,” Posada said. “He had a good curve and was ahead of the hitters the whole game. He was in command. He likes these kinds of situations, and he was on.”

So was the heavy metal music in the Yankee clubhouse before the game, another Wells tradition. “Could you please speak up a bit?” pitcher David Cone asked reporters during a pregame news conference. “My ears are ringing from Metallica playing in my head.”

Wells took the mound with one of his favorite bands, Van Halen, blaring on the stadium public address system, but he quickly punched the mute button on the Indian offense, allowing only three runners to reach second base until the ninth.

“David Wells,” Hargrove said, “did not miss a spot until the ninth.”

The only spots Wright hit were the sweet ones on Yankee bats. Wright, 22, beat the Yankees twice in the 1997 division series and sparkled in Game 7 of the World Series against Florida, but he didn’t even make it out of the first inning Tuesday night.

Knoblauch and Jeter opened with singles, and Paul O’Neill followed with an RBI single to right-center for a 1-0 lead. Williams stroked an RBI single to center before Tino Martinez grounded into a fielder’s choice for the first out, leaving runners at first and third.

Tim Raines struck out with Martinez running on a 3-2 pitch, but Cleveland catcher Sandy Alomar, perhaps fearing the Yankees would pull off a successful double-steal like they did in the division series, did not throw to second.

That decision cost the Indians two, maybe three, runs. Martinez stopped about 15 feet short of second base, then jogged in safely once he saw Alomar hold the ball.

A wild pitch that bounced through Alomar’s legs scored O’Neill to make it 3-0, and Posada’s RBI single to right-center sent Hargrove to the mound and Wright to the dugout. Chad Ogea relieved Wright, giving up Scott Brosius’ RBI single before retiring Knoblauch on a grounder to end the inning.

The five runs in the first and six singles in an inning were American League championship series records, and Wright’s 2/3-inning performance was the shortest outing for a starter in this series since Kansas City’s Dennis Leonard failed to retire any of three batters faced against the Yankees in Game 5 in 1976.

“They say what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger,” Wright said. “I’m still young, and I’m hoping to learn from this. There have been worse days.”

Playoffs

AL CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES

Game 1

New York: 7

Cleveland: 2