Now It's 2-1 Punch

By MIKE DiGIOVANNA

Oct. 31, 2001 12 AM PT

TIMES STAFF WRITER

NEW YORK —

President George W. Bush threw out the first pitch in a memorable pregame ceremony, and New York Yankee right-hander Roger Clemens and Arizona Diamondback left-hander Brian Anderson came up with several big pitches, but Game 3 of the World Series came down to a tale of two left fielders.

One played it safe, pulling up a few feet in front of a flare that dropped for the game-winning hit; the other played roulette, leaving his feet for a screaming liner with two men on base, and because of that gamble, his team is still standing.

Shane Spencer made a game-saving diving catch of Matt Williams’ sixth-inning laser, and Scott Brosius’ looper in the bottom of the sixth fell in front of Arizona left fielder Luis Gonzalez for a tie-breaking RBI single, as the Yankees defeated the Diamondbacks, 2-1, Tuesday night before a crowd of 55,820 in Yankee Stadium.

Clemens withstood a strong and surprising challenge from the soft-serving Anderson, limiting the Diamondbacks to one run on three hits and striking out nine in seven innings, and Yankee closer Mariano Rivera, a spectator for Games 1 and 2, struck out four of six batters over the final two innings for the save.

The victory pulled the Yankees to within 2-1 of the Diamondbacks in the best-of-seven series and forced Arizona Manager Bob Brenly to alter his pitching rotation for the rest of the series.

Brenly will scrap original Game 4 starter Miguel Batista in favor of Game 1 winner Curt Schilling, who will be pitching on three days’ rest tonight. The move will enable Schilling to pitch Game 7 if necessary on three days’ rest. The last pitcher to start three games in the same World Series was Minnesota right-hander Jack Morris in 1991. Batista will start Game 5 and Randy Johnson Game 6 if necessary.

“Because of the pitch count [102] in his last outing and his insistence that he’s ready to take the ball, I think he’ll be fine,” Brenly said of Schilling. “I mean, he didn’t do cartwheels or anything like that [when I told him], and he didn’t look at me like I was crazy. He knew there was a possibility he would pitch in Game 4, and he’s prepared for it.”

Spencer forced Brenly’s hand with his spectacular catch, but his wasn’t the only diving catch in the sixth. With the score tied, 1-1, Clemens got two quick outs before hitting Reggie Sanders with a pitch, and Sanders stole second.

Erubiel Durazo ripped a grounder toward right field, but second baseman Alfonso Soriano thrust his body and glove toward the ball and caught it at the end of his dive. Soriano couldn’t recover in time to throw out Durazo, but the stop forced Sanders to hold at third.

Williams followed with a sinking line drive to medium left. Spencer, who made only 68 appearances in the outfield this season, most of those in right, raced in and toward the line and made a diving catch about six inches above the turf, the ball hitting the heel of his glove but somehow finding its way to the pocket.

“That was the play of the game,” Gonzalez said. “If he doesn’t make that catch, we score two runs, and it’s a whole different game.”

The catch sent a surge through the Yankees, and they carried that momentum into the bottom of the sixth, as Bernie Williams opened with an infield single. After Tino Martinez flied to right, Jorge Posada walked. Brenly pulled Anderson for right-hander Mike Morgan, who struck out pinch-hitter David Justice for the second out.

But Brosius flared a ball toward the left-field corner that dropped about four feet in front of Gonzalez for an RBI single and a 2-1 lead. Gonzalez did not appear to take the best route to the ball, but it seemed he still had a chance with a dive. He chose not to leave his feet.

“I was kind of indecisive on whether to go for it or not, and the ball was well-placed,” Gonzalez said. “When you’re indecisive, you usually do what I did. If I go for it and miss it, two runs score.”

Had Gonzalez made the catch, had the Diamondbacks cashed in on Anderson’s gutty 51/3-inning, two-run, five-hit effort and beaten the Yankees, they would have taken a 3-0 edge in the Series with the knowledge that no baseball team has ever come back from such a deficit to win a seven-game series.

Now, the Series has a whole different feel, because even though Schilling was dominant in Game 1, limiting the Yankees to one run on three hits in seven innings, there is no guarantee he will be as effective on three days’ rest. And if the Yankees win tonight, they’ll even the series, 2-2, with a chance to take a 3-2 lead against Batista in Game 5.

“You don’t want to be down, 3-0, for sure,” Yankee Manager Joe Torre said, “especially with some of the pitching they can throw at you.”

Added Brosius: “This was a game we had to have.”

Clemens gave them a chance to take it, shaking off his nagging hamstring injury and a touch of wildness to shut down the Diamondbacks for most of the evening.

“He was dynamite, just dynamite,” Torre said. “He gave us more than we hoped for.”

Anderson gave the Yankees more than expected, doing his best Jamie Moyer impression by mixing several 76-mph changeups with a fastball that rarely topped 86 mph. But he kept the Yankees off-balance; New York, which had six hits in the first two games, had only seven Tuesday night.

“How many times have we been down this road?” Torre said. “The question has been asked, and I still believe in my club, even though we’re not a club that’s going to score a lot of runs. But I sure as heck know we can score more than we’ve been scoring, and I still have to anticipate that we’re going to do that.”

They did in the second inning when Posada ripped a full-count fastball far over the wall in left for a home run and a 1-0 lead, snapping New York’s 18-inning series scoreless streak dating back to the first inning of Game 1.

Arizona countered in the fourth when Steve Finley walked, Gonzalez singled on an 0-2 pitch and Sanders flied to right, advancing Gonzalez to third. Williams’ sacrifice fly to right made it 1-1.

The Diamondback defense bailed Anderson out of the first inning when Finley made a leaping catch of Martinez’s two-out drive to the wall with runners on first and second to end the inning.

But it was a sloppy defensive game for Arizona; catcher Damian Miller misplayed two popups, Miller and first baseman Mark Grace collided on a foul pop, the ball dropping, and shortstop Tony Womack made an error.

None wound up costing the Diamondbacks any runs, but they were cause for concern.

“We know what the Yankees are capable of doing,” Gonzalez said, “but we’re still up by a game, and we have a lot of confidence.”

WORLD SERIES

NEW YORK YANKEES vs.

ARIZONA DIAMONDBACKS

Arizona leads series, 2-1

GAME 3

Yankees 2, Diamondbacks 1

GAME 4

Tonight at New York

5:15 p.m., Channel 11