Wells Gets Cheers, Loss in New York

As he made the long walk from the Yankee Stadium bullpen to the visiting dugout before Friday night’s game, David Wells heard the crowd. These were his people, welcoming him back to New York, and Wells, traded to the Toronto Blue Jays in spring training, never quite got over the reception.

“It was an unbelievably great ovation,” he said after the New York Yankees beat the Blue Jays, 6-4, ending Toronto’s eight-game winning streak. “It was overwhelming. I was in awe. I was very emotional and I got caught up in it.”

The result was that Wells, who pitched a perfect game on this mound a year ago, had trouble throwing strikes and it turned out to be his undoing.

“I was all over the place, trying to regain my composure, got behind almost everybody,” he said, “and they made me pay for it. I had no confidence in my curveball. I was fastball, fastball, behind in the count. Do that and they’re going to murder you.”

Wells pitched in and out of trouble until the seventh inning when he walked the first two batters, Paul O’Neill and Bernie Williams.

The Yankees made him pay. With O’Neill and Williams running, Chili Davis, who had three hits, hit a two-run double off the right-field wall.

Tino Martinez’s RBI single made the score 4-1 and finished Wells (3-1). As he headed to the dugout, the crowd of 36,529 gave him a standing ovation. Meanwhile, Orlando Hernandez (3-1) pitched the Yankees to their third consecutive victory, giving up seven hits in 7 1/3 innings.