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Look back at: Divisional Playoffs |
League Championship
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Wednesday, October 25
Agbayani's double shakes up Series
By Bob Klapisch
Special to ESPN.com
NEW YORK -- Hands on their hearts, the Mets promised us a real World
Series, not just a four-game calisthenics session for the Yankees. Just wait,
they said, until the world champs had been lured back to Flushing, stripped
of the designated hitter, made to play a real, low-scoring, National League
game.
Just wait, the Mets whispered. Just watch. They made all the right,
tough-guy noises, but who really believed them? Even John Franco admitted,
"The Yankees have been unbelievable. They just don't quit."
Franco paused, smiled and provided a scouting report the National League
has known all October.
|  | | Armando Benitez and Mike Piazza celebrate the Mets' first World Series win since 1986. |
"But neither do we," the reliever said.
That explains perfectly why the Mets beat the Yankees 4-2 in Game 3
Tuesday night, and why, suddenly the World Series really could become a
street fight. In fact, the most serious question surrounding the Yankees is
how they'll react to their first Series defeat in 15 games, and whether they
can contain the Mets, now that the boys from Flushing have grown legitimate October muscles.
Now only did the Mets beat El Duque, but they did so on a night when he seemed untouchable, combining a wide-sweeping slider -- so appetizing
to right-handed hitters, yet so deadly -- with a 92-mph fastball that
overpowered the Mets.
Hernandez registered 12 blistering strikeouts, but there were two factors
that changed the chemistry of this game. First, Rick Reed was nearly as
effective, or as Franco said, "He was able to match Hernandez inning for
inning. That was huge."
Second, Joe Torre chose loyalty over logic in the eighth inning, when
Todd Zeile punched a one-out single to left. The game was tied 2-2, and with
Hernandez' pitch count already over 120 entering the inning, the debate in the Yankee dugout had been understandably intense.
Was it time for bullpen help? Torre admitted he'd already asked Hernandez
after the seventh inning if he was tired. The right-hander bristled at the
suggestion of leaving the game.
"After seven, I was willing to say, 'Let's try something else.' But he
wasn't into that," Torre said. "His getting out of the bases-loaded jam (in
the sixth inning) the way he did, he deserved the
right to get a decision. It was really tough for me to deny him what he
wanted very badly."
Call it patience, or a tactical error that'll haunt the Yankees, but
Torre's decision to skip over Jeff Nelson may have cost the Bombers a chance
to take a 3-0 Series lead. That's because the tiring Hernandez allowed Benny
Agbayani a sharp, RBI double into the left-center gap -- giving the Mets a 3-2
lead and turning Shea into an open-air asylum.
Oh, there was no doubt the Series had shifted from the Bronx to Queens.
The ballpark was so loud and so raucous, the stands literally shook for a
30-second span. Franco said "our fans have waited 14 years for this," which
is why the PA system's music seemed louder, the dugout high-fives delivered more forcefully, and the Mets acted like ... well, like they'd just
won the war.
In a way, they did -- albeit a small one. Bobby Valentine was dead-on
right when he said, "It seems like the last few years, there hasn't been a
lot of competition in the World Series. Now it seems like there's a light
year's difference between (being down) 3-0 and 2-1."
Of course, the Mets aren't foolish enough to boast, not when they're
depending on Bobby Jones, the rotation's weakest component, in Game 4. But the Mets are also aware of the Yankees' vulnerability in
starting Denny Neagle and what beating him would mean.
Does anyone at Shea have to say it? If the Mets tie the Series, they'll
turn to Al Leiter, their best big-game pitcher, to engineer this stunning
resurrection. And if Leiter does win, we can already imagine the drama of
seeing Roger Clemens stare down Mike Piazza Saturday night at Yankee Stadium,
this time with the Yankees' season near its expiration.
But first things first, say the Mets. Actually, they're hoping to
remember the Game 3 lesson, administered by the quiet, easy-going Agbayani.
He was 0-for-2 with a walk in his first three plate appearances against El Duque, but Agbayani returned to the plate in the eighth with a specific, well thought-out plan of attack.
"I'd been swinging at balls up in the zone," he said. "So I went up there
thinking about getting him to throw the ball a little slower. I was thinking,
'Get the ball down. Let him throw something where I can drive it to the
outfield.' "
Agbayani's patience, followed soon after by Bubba Trammell's sacrifice
fly, paid a huge dividend. You saw it on the Mets' faces. You heard it in Joe Torre's somber tone, when he said, "You have to give the Mets credit. They
played a heck of a game."
It wasn't hard to understand why Torre looked so serious. His players
wore the same mask of concern.
They realize the World Series just evolved from a Yankee pageant into an
old-fashioned, New York street fight. Stay tuned.
Bob Klapisch of the Bergen (N.J.) Record covers baseball for ESPN.com.
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