Curses! Boston Is Foiled Again

By MIKE DiGIOVANNA

Oct. 15, 1999 12 AM PT

TIMES STAFF WRITER

NEW YORK —

It seems the Boston Red Sox were put on this earth for the sole purpose of giving the New York Yankees a team to torment for a century or so.

As they did in 1920, when they bought Babe Ruth from the Red Sox and won 24 World Series championships to Boston’s zero, and 1978, when they erased a 14-game deficit in July and came from behind to win a one-game playoff to determine the division champion, the Yankees put the Red Sox in their place like a big brother vanquishing his pesky little brother Thursday night.

Paul O’Neill knocked in the go-ahead run with a single in the seventh inning, and the Yankees withstood Red Sox uprisings in the eighth and ninth for a pulsating 3-2 victory in Game 2 of the American League championship series before 57,180 in Yankee Stadium.

New York took a commanding 2-0 lead in the best-of-seven series, which shifts to Boston for Pedro Martinez vs. Roger Clemens in Game 3 Saturday, and the tortured souls of Red Sox fans must be wondering what they can do to break this spell the Yankees have over their team.

Thursday night was a big tease for the Red Sox. Jason Varitek (second-inning triple) and Troy O’Leary (eighth-inning double) hit balls that missed clearing the wall by inches, and neither scored.

O’Leary, who had seven RBIs in Boston’s division series-clinching victory over Cleveland on Monday night, came up with runners on first and second and two out in the first and third innings. Both times he struck out.

The Red Sox loaded the bases with one out in the eighth, a wild, thinking-manager’s inning in which Boston’s Jimy Williams used four players in one lineup spot and New York’s Joe Torre used four relievers, but right-hander Ramiro Mendoza struck out Butch Huskey and got Jose Offerman to fly out, ending the threat.

Then came the ninth, which began with the Red Sox figuring they had no chance against robo-closer Mariano Rivera, who hasn’t given up a run since July 21.

Single to left by Nomar Garciaparra. Bloop single by O’Leary, Garciaparra to third. Hopes of fans across New England soar. Damon Buford swings through blazing 2-2 fastball. Sox fans crushed.

“How can you not admire their team, they’ve battled all year and have a bunch of gamers,” said Yankee pitcher David Cone, who earned the victory with an inspiring seven-inning performance. “But we have a resilient team as well. We find ways to win.”

Especially in the playoffs. The victory was the Yankees’ 12th in a row in the postseason, tying the major league record set by--who else?--the Yankees in the 1927, ’28 and ’32 World Series. It marked Boston’s 10th consecutive AL championship series loss, their last win coming over the Angels in Game 7 in 1986.

The Red Sox and Yankees have now played 19 innings of baseball, covering 7 hours and 25 minutes, in New York. In only one inning did more than one run separate the teams.

“These tight one-run games in this atmosphere, I’d like to say they’re a lot of fun, but they’re tense when you’re out there,” O’Neill said. “Our pitching has been great, their pitching has been great. We’re fortunate to be up, 2-0.”

Indeed, Garciaparra’s two-run homer in the fifth had given the Red Sox a 2-1 lead, but the Yankees surged ahead with two runs in the seventh, a rally Ricky Ledee began with a walk off Boston starter Ramon Martinez.

Scott Brosius bunted Ledee to second, and Joe Girardi popped to second for the second out. But Chuck Knoblauch lined an RBI double into the left-field corner to tie the score, 2-2.

Williams, not wanting to abuse reliever Derek Lowe (11 innings in six playoff games) and unable to go to Rich Garces (tired arm after his two-inning stint Wednesday night), turned to erstwhile closer Tom Gordon, who missed most of the second half because of elbow problems.

Gordon walked Derek Jeter, and Williams yanked Gordon for left-hander Rheal Cormier to face O’Neill, who looped an RBI single over Garciaparra’s head at shortstop for a 3-2 lead.

Pedro Martinez-Clemens in Game 3 was supposed to be the marquee pitching matchup of the series, but they’ll have a hard time matching Ramon Martinez-Cone, a duel of rehabilitated right-handers.

Cone, who had surgery to remove an aneurysm in his right arm in 1996 and struggled for much of the second half this season, gave up two runs on seven hits and struck out nine. The Yankees were concerned Cone might be rusty because he hadn’t started since Oct. 2, but of his 128 pitches, 84 were strikes.

Martinez, whose career was thought to be over after 1998 surgery to repair a torn rotator cuff, gave up three runs on six hits, including Tino Martinez’s fourth-inning homer, and struck out five. Cone was one strike away from escaping a runner-on-second, no-out jam in the fifth, having struck out John Valentin with a nasty slider and getting Daubach to pop to short after Offerman singled and stole second.

Cone jumped ahead of Garciaparra, 1-2 on the count, and thought he’d try a little deception, hesitating in mid-delivery and kicking his knee slightly toward second base, a la Luis Tiant, and dropping down for a sidearm curveball.

The pitch seemed as much a surprise to Garciaparra as a Vermont winter--it was as if he saw it coming for weeks. The wiry shortstop turned viciously on the pitch, belting it a dozen rows deep into the left-field seats for his third playoff home run, turning a 1-0 deficit into a 2-1 lead.

Like so many advantages the Red Sox have had over the Yankees, it was short-lived.

“We’ve competed very well against them, but not on the bottom line, which is to win,” Williams said. “We had the right people up at the right time, but it just didn’t work.”

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

AL CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES

UP NEXT

Game 3, Saturday at Boston, 1:15 p.m., Channel 11

NEW YORK

Roger Clemens

(14-10, 4.60 ERA)

vs. BOSTON

Pedro Martinez

(23-4, 2.07 ERA)

New York leads best-of-seven series, 2-0

UMPIRE BLUES