Mariners vs. Yankees | Mets vs. Cardinals
Sunday, October 15
In a pinch, Yankees go without O'Neill
Associated Press

SEATTLE -- It might have been the most embarrassing walk in the long, proud career of Paul O'Neill.

Bases loaded, two outs in the seventh inning. O'Neill coming to the plate as the tying run for the New York Yankees in Game 5 of the AL Championship Series on Sunday.

Only it wasn't O'Neill. Two steps from the batter's box, he saw teammate Tino Martinez waving from first base. Manager Joe Torre had signaled from the dugout but hadn't been heard -- he wanted Glenallen Hill to pinch hit.

O'Neill, one of baseball's most emotional players, looked crushed. The aging star, the guy Yankees owner George Steinbrenner calls "my warrior," simply dropped his head, shook it slightly and made his way back the bench.

Twenty rows behind home plate, seated in the stands at Safeco Field, Nevalee O'Neill watched her husband's lonesome hike. She had seen him play with a torn hamstring in the 1996 World Series and then suffer through the 1999 World Series with a cracked rib and the pain of his father's death.

And now, this kind of hurt.

As it turned out, the move did not work. Hill looked at strike three from Seattle reliever Arthur Rhodes and the Yankees missed their best chance to get back in the game and end the series. They lost 6-2, letting the Mariners cut their deficit to 3-2.

For the 37-year-old O'Neill, it already had been a season of struggle.

Despite recording 100 RBI, he hit only .283 with 18 home runs and went the final 3½ weeks of the regular season without an extra-base hit.

His slump continued in the postseason, and he went into Sunday's game batting just .182 in the AL playoffs against Oakland and Seattle. The skid cost him his usual No. 3 spot in the batting order, with Torre dropping him to seventh but still kept him in right field.

O'Neill had showed recent signs of breaking out, however. He had a sacrifice fly against Rhodes in Game 2, and a second-inning single Sunday gave him hits in three straight games.

In Game 1 against Seattle, Torre had taken out O'Neill -- while he was still in the on-deck circle -- and put up Hill as a pinch hitter in the eighth. Representing the tying run, Hill also took strike three from Rhodes.

Torre played the percentages again Sunday, pulling the left-handed O'Neill to put up the right-handed Hill against the lefty Rhodes.

Hill had six career grand slams and 14 career pinch-hit home runs, but once again could not solve Rhodes.

O'Neill, meanwhile, slowly walked to the end of the bench, got a cup of water and could merely watch.



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