The Yankees flexed their muscles tonight by hitting four homers off Oriole pitching, as they cruised to an 8-4 win at Camden Yards. The Yankees are now one win away from reaching the World Series for the first time since 1981.
Kenny Rogers continued to struggle, as he was only able to compete three-plus innings while allowing four runs on five hits. Joe Torre turned to his terrific bullpen, which completely shutdown Baltimore for the rest of the game. David Weathers, Graeme Lloyd, Mariano Rivera and John Wetteland combined to toss six shutout innings.
“This team just keeps winning,” Torre said. “I’ve never been around a team with such terrific camaraderie and chemistry. I guess that started when we started winning.”
The Yankees jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the first after Bernie Williams smacked a two run home run to right field. Rogers gave one back in the bottom half when a Rafael Palmeiro sac fly scored Brady Anderson.
New York added another run in the second on Darryl Strawberry‘s solo home run – the first of his two jacks on the night. Again, Rogers allowed the Orioles to answer with a run when Chris Hoiles hit a solo homer of his own.
Paul O’Neill hit a two run homer as the Yankees’ power barrage continued in the fourth, but Rogers got into a jam in the bottom of the fourth and was replaced by Weathers, who allowed two inherited runners to score to cut the Yankees’ lead to 5-4.
In the eighth, the Yankees put the game away against Armando Benitez. A Cecil Fielder groundout with runners on first and third made the score 6-4. Strawberry then smacked a two run shot to left field. Wetteland came on to close out the game.
“We feel that no one can stop us,” Rivera said. The Yankees go for the AL pennant tomorrow night when Andy Pettitte starts against Scott Ericsson.
Box score and playoff stats:
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 R H E
- - - - - - - - - - - -
Yankees 2 1 0 2 0 0 0 3 0 8 9 0
Orioles 1 0 1 2 0 0 0 0 0 4 11 0
Batting AB R H RBI BB SO BA OBP SLG
Jeter SS 5 1 1 0 0 2 .417 .417 .583
Boggs 3B 5 0 0 0 0 1 .045 .087 .091
Williams CF 4 2 2 2 0 0 .483 .568 1.069
Martinez 1B 4 1 1 0 0 0 .250 .333 .344
Fielder DH 4 0 0 1 0 1 .231 .333 .462
Strawberry LF 4 3 3 3 0 1 .286 .333 .714
ONeill RF 3 1 1 2 1 1 .174 .240 .304
Duncan 2B 3 0 1 0 0 0 .258 .303 .323
Girardi C 3 0 0 0 1 2 .238 .385 .333
2B:Jeter (3);Duncan (2);Williams (2)
HR:Williams (5);Strawberry 2 (2);O'Neill (1)
RBI:Strawberry 3 (4);O'Neill 2 (2);Williams 2 (11)
Fielder (9)
Pitching IP H R ER BB SO ERA
Rogers 3 5 4 4 2 3 10.80
Weathers W (2-0) 2.2 3 0 0 0 0 0.00
Lloyd H (1) 0.1 0 0 0 0 0 0.00
Rivera H (2) 2 3 0 0 1 2 0.00
Wetteland 1 0 0 0 0 1 0.00
