With Mariano Rivera unavailable and John Wetteland not yet back from the DL, manager Joe Torre was forced to use a committee of relievers to close out tonight’s game. Wally Whitehurst, who was starting in place of the struggling David Weathers, earned his first win in nearly two years by tossing seven innings of two-run ball. The Yankees came away with a 5-4 victory.
Paul O’Neill was the star of the game. With the game tied 1-1 in the sixth, O’Neill ripped a three-run double to give the Yankees the lead. They added one more in the seventh on an RBI groundout from Darryl Strawberry.
Oakland was able to score two runs off newly-acquired Graeme Lloyd to cut the lead to 5-4. O’Neill then made a leaping catch at the wall on a Matt Stairs fly ball for the second out of the ninth, keeping the Yankees lead at one. Dale Polley allowed two singles, prompting Torre to bring in Dave Pavlas. Pavlas gave up another single to load the bases, but he wass able to strike out Jason Giambi to end the game.
“It was a weird game,” O’Neill said (Via NY Times). Indeed it was. To get contributions this late in a season from guys like Whitehurst along with a committee of relievers who closed out the game is unusual. But as Torre pointed out, it’s become the norm in the Bronx. “That’s the way it’s been all year,” said Torre (Via NY Times). “Every single person who has been on our 25-man roster has helped win a ball game.” (Via NY Times)
With Baltimore’s win, the Yankees’ lead in the division remains at six. New York will go for the sweep tomorrow afternoon as Andy Pettitte starts against Willie Adams.
Box score and current stats
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 R H E - - - - - - - - - - - - Athletics 0 0 0 1 0 0 1 2 0 4 13 0 Yankees 1 0 0 0 0 3 1 0 0 5 8 0 Batting AB R H RBI BB SO BA OBP SLG Jeter SS 2 2 0 0 2 0 .308 .370 .425 Boggs 3B 4 1 3 0 0 0 .320 .393 .401 Strawberry LF 3 1 1 2 0 0 .275 .374 .514 Fielder DH 4 0 0 0 0 1 .254 .355 .490 Martinez 1B 4 0 0 0 0 0 .306 .371 .476 B.Williams CF 3 1 2 0 1 0 .306 .388 .531 ONeill RF 3 0 1 3 1 0 .305 .417 .469 Sojo 2B 3 0 1 0 0 1 .212 .245 .268 Girardi C 3 0 0 0 0 1 .296 .349 .374 2B:Sojo (9));B.Williams (19));Strawberry (9)); O'Neill (28)). RBI:O'Neill 3 (76);Strawberry 2 (28). Pitching IP H R ER BB SO ERA Whitehurst W (1-0) 7 7 2 2 0 1 2.57 Lloyd H (17) 0.1 2 2 2 0 0 3.14 Boehringer H (1) 1 1 0 0 0 1 7.08 Polley H (4) 0.1 2 0 0 0 0 9.00 Pavlas S (1) 0.1 1 0 0 0 1 2.61
