The Futility Infielder

The Yankees took the Marlins' best punch last night, outlasting ace Josh Beckett and then lighting up Florida's bullpen in a rain-soaked game that matched Sunday night's score, 6-1. Mike Mussina picked up where he left off in Game Seven of the ALCS, stifling the Marlins when they had men on base and making a key defensive play to prevent a run. The Yanks now lead the series 2-1.

The Marlins got off to a flying start, as Juan Pierre keyed a first-inning run for the second time in this series. Centerfielder Bernie Williams and rightfielder Karim Garcia combined to misplay his blooper into a leadoff double. Then, with Alfonso Soriano playing Pierre close at second, Miguel Cabrera slapped a one-out single through the widened hole in the right side to put the Marlins on the board first, with the Yankee second baseman doing his best there-goes-my-taxicab impression. At this point it looked as though the contact-hitting Marlins might exploit the Yanks' defensive weakness as they sloshed around the spacious Pro Player Stadium field. But Mussina limited the damage from there, and that would be the only run he surrendered on the night.

The Yanks began the game absolutely stifled by Beckett, who was perfect through the first three innings on the strength of a 98-mph heater to which the Yanks simply couldn't catch up. Derek Jeter got their first hit in the fourth, a one-out double, and then the Yanks loaded the bases on a Jason Giambi walk and then a Hideki Matsui hit-by-pitch. Jorge Posada battled Beckett through an eight-pitch at-bat to draw a walk and force in the tying run as Marlins manager Jack McKeon went ballistic over home plate ump Gary Darling's strike zone judgement in the Florida dugout.

The rain, which had nearly saturated the field prior to first pitch, really picked up in the fifth, and with two outs in the bottom of the inning, the umps paused the game for a 39-minute rain delay. Mussina returned and yielded a single to Pierre, but on the next pitch, the Marlins centerfielder was gunned down by Posada trying to steal second.

With the score still deadlocked, the Marlins could have broken the game open in the sixth. Ivan Rodriguez punched a one-out double which at first looked to go out of the park. Cabrera then singled to right, with Garcia bobbling the ball off the heel of his glove. Inexplicably, Florida third base coach Ozzie Guillen had held Rodriguez at third, not realizing the Yankee rightfielder's misplay. With runners on the corners, Moose then battled Derek Lee in a seven-pitch at-bat, and Lee smoked a comebacker to the pitcher that he didn't field cleanly. With no option to make an easy play at first or to try a 1-6-3 DP, Mussina fired home, and the Yanks caught Rodriguez in a rundown, Posada tagging him out near third base. Mussina then went to a full count against Mike Lowell before striking him out to end the threat.

Beckett returned from the rain delay fairly sharp, striking out four over the next two innings. The Yanks got two on in the sixth via a Jeter single and a Matsui walk, to no avail. But by the end of the Yankee seventh, the 23-year-old Florida ace had thrown 103 pitches.

McKeon's managing in the bottom of the seventh turned the game around. After Jeff Conine led off with a single, Alex Gonzalez tried twice to bunt, but both attempts went foul. Even after Gonzalez finally popped out foul to first baseman Giambi, McKeon was still set on moving Conine over via a sacrifice, so he elected to let Beckett hit for himself -- an ass-backwards move that I find puzzling. I mean, I'm no big fan of littleball, but if you're going to play for one run, you've got to get that runner in scoring position with one out and then take two cracks at getting him home. Using your second out to get him to second is an exercise in futility. Better to pull Beckett and get a real hitter in the box with a shot at piecing together a rally -- especially with the rain returning and a very real possibility that the game might be halted again, finishing your ace for the night. In this situation, the Marlins had lefty Todd Hollandsworth (4-for-6 with a walk in postseason pinch-hitting appearances), lefty Lenny Harris (pretty useless but still the all-time pinch-hit leader), and righty Juan Encarnacion, who has a reverse platoon split (.765 OPS vs. righty, .736 vs lefty this season, and an even more pronounced split for the past three years). But McKeon used his ace to bunt Conine to second, and the Yanks countered by intentionally walking Pierre to face struggling Luis Castillo. Mussina struck Castillo out on three beautiful curveballs to end the inning.

As it turned out, Beckett was about cooked. He struck out Soriano to begin the eighth (big surprise there, as Sori continues to swing at anything within three feet of the plate -- 23 K in 64 PA this October). Jeter was next, with the Yanks' only two hits on the night. For some reason, McKeon had first baseman Lee playing at normal depth instead of guarding the line, and Jeter lashed a ball down the rightfield line for a double, his third hit of the night -- the entirety of the Yankee output to that point. This finished Beckett, and McKeon brought in Dontrelle Willis, who was wild. Willis started by walking Giambi, and nearly did so to Bernie Williams before the Yankee centerfielder flied out, with Derek taking third. He gave up a go-ahead single to Matsui, and then walked Posada on four pitches to load the bases. Chad Fox came on in relief of Willis and struck out pinch-hitter Ruben Sierra to end the inning, but it had been a costly one for the Marlins.

After seven bob-and-weave innings from Mussina, Mariano Rivera made his first appearance of the Series in the eighth inning, protecting a 2-1 lead. Well-rested since seeing no work since his three-inning stint last Thursday, he retired the side on a mere six pitches. And then the Yanks built him a real cushion. Aaron Boone -- who'd committed another error, his third of the Series, earlier in the ballgame -- crushed Fox's first pitch of the inning for a home run. "Not useless!" my girlfriend hollered, countering my earler diagnosis of Boone. One out later, Fox entered the annals of Ripley's Believe It or Not by issuing a walk to Soriano, only his third of the postseason, and the first that didn't occur leading off a ballgame. McKeon went to the pen again, calling upon Braden Looper, a servicable reliever who's stayed well under my radar despite nearly 370 appearances for the Fish over the past five years. Looper began badly, hitting Derek Jeter on the elbow with his second pitch. One out later, Bernie got ahead on a 2-1 count and then smacked a three-run homer to centerfield, breaking the game open once and for all. Rivera worked a spotty ninth, allowing a base hit to Conine and throwing 17 pitches, but finishing the job. Mussina got credit for the win, his first of the postseason against three losses.

So the Yanks now find themselves in control of the series, having beaten the Marlins' ace and reclaimed the home-field advantage, and set to start Roger Clemens against Carl Pavano on Wednesday night. This will almost definitely be the final start of Clemens' illustrious career; even if there's a Game Seven, Clemens would be on only three days' rest, with Mike Mussina in line for the start on full rest. We can expect lots of ceremony on the part of Fox's broadcasting crew, though Clemens has been through this rigamarole so many times over the past month that it really shouldn't be much of a factor. Even with his abortive start in Game Seven of the ALCS, Clemens is 2-0 with a 4.26 ERA in his three postseason starts. He's never lost a World Series start, holding a 3-0 record with a 1.56 ERA in 40.1 innings, though he did garner a no-decision the Yanks' Game Seven loss in 2001.

Young Pavano has pitched well this postseason, mostly in relief, for a 1.46 ERA and 2-0 record in 12.1 innings. The Yanks got a quick glimpse of him in Game Two, when he pitched a scoreless inning, striking out Sori and Jeter, allowing a double to Giambi, a walk to Williams, and retiring Matusi on a groundout. With the Marlins struggling for runs -- only five in the series' three games -- he's got a big task to keep the Yankee bats at bay until the Fish can put up some numbers.

Not that the Yankee bats are steamrolling anybody, but 12 runs scored in two games is a veritable plethora of support, especially for Mussina, who has yet to take the mound this postseason with a lead. But a quick look at the two teams' offensive performance is revealing:

         AVG   OBP   SLG   OPS

Yanks   .258  .374  .464  .838

Fish    .216  .262  .247  .509

The Fish haven't shown any power (a mere 3 doubles and no homers) or patience (six walks) compared to the Yanks (5 doubles, 5 homers, and 15 walks). It's tough to manufacture runs when you can't get people on or bring them around, a fact the Marlins surely know by now. Good pitching will beat good hitting in October, and vice versa.