Alive!
In one emotionally wrung and high-pitched battle which might have showcased Roger Clemens’ final appearance in the game we’ve been watching him dominate for the past twenty some-odd years, the Yankees survived to face the back end of the Indians’ rotation another day.
With Joe Torre’s job apparently on the line, an appalling fact if true, the players responded and beat the snot out of Cleveland.
The always excellent Bob Klapisch writes in today’s Record:
The Yankees left the meeting feeling renewed. Johnny Damon said, “We knew there was a lot on the line, we love Joe Torre.” Wouldn’t you know, the Bombers blew away the Indians when it mattered.Torre chose not to use Steinbrenner’s comments as a rallying point before Game 3, as tempting as it must’ve been. The manager spoke to his players in a closed-door meeting and could’ve easily reminded them the loudmouth Steinbrenner was at it again.
But Torre never broke stride. Instead, he summoned Yogi Berra into the room and, according to one person who witnessed the meeting, asked Yogi what he thought of being down 0-2 in a best-of-five series.
“Well, you know, it isn’t over ‘til it’s over,” Berra said, breaking up the room. “We were down [1-3] in the ‘58 Series against the [Milwaukee] Braves and we came back to win that one.”
“Yeah, I know, my brother was on that team,” Torre said, referring to Frank.
Game four kicks off tonight at the Stadium. Chien Ming Wang is pitching on short rest but he dominates at home, so… good move, Joe.
When this is all over and the Yankees have bested the Indians in five games (would have been four if they weren’t fucked by the descending bugs in Game 2), we’ll remember that Cleveland manager Eric Wedge elected not to move up CC Sabbathia so he could get the dominant Fausto Carmona the start in game 5.
Everything’s on the line. More drama. More heartstrings pulled tighter than a drum.
They will win.
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