by Clive Dahlton
Oak, CA -- Barry Zito was nearly un-hittable tonight, literally. If not for a botched chance play that led to a Derek Jeter homer in the first, Zito would have carried a no-hitter into the ninth with two outs, where Soriano collected the only other Yankee hit on the day. Zito also punched out 10 batters in the process. Manager Joe Torre didn't give any high praise to Zito however, during his post-game presser. "Pitcher's have freak days where they are better than they actually are talent-wise, and lineups have off days where you couldn't hit a beachball," Torre said, "and I think we had a combination of both today. The kid isn't any good, barely can hit 90 with his fastball, whatever. Big deal."
Zito made a bold proclamation pre-game that handling this lineup would be easy, and he made good on that promise. There was very little doubt from the get go that Zito was going to dominate. Catcher Ramon Hernandez said he only missed his spot a few times all day long. "The Jeter homerun was luck," Hernandez said after the game. "It was a perfect pitch, in a perfect spot, and he just went out and got it, you can't really fault yourself for that."
Zito said he's kind of glad that Jeter got to him in the first: "It's not that im glad he got a hit," Zito said, "it's just that if it would have gotten broken up with two gone in the ninth, that would be devastating. I knew I didn't have a shot from the get go so, It kind of helped me relax, and I didn't have the no-hitter talk all game long."
The A's season record now stands at 12-10. The win puts them .5 games back from division leading Seattle.
BOXSCORE: 2002 New York (AL) Yankees At 2002 Oakland Athletics 4/25/2002
Yankees AB R H RBI AVG Athletics AB R H RBI AVG
A.Soriano 2B 4 0 1 0 .337 D.Justice RF 4 0 1 0 .238
D.Jeter SS 4 1 1 1 .235 S.Hatteberg 1B 4 0 1 0 .220
B.Williams CF 3 0 0 0 .275 E.Chavez 3B 4 0 1 0 .236
J.Giambi DH 3 0 0 0 .306 M.Tejada SS 4 1 1 1 .400
J.Posada C 3 0 0 0 .259 J.Giambi LF 2 0 2 0 .348
R.White LF 3 0 0 0 .229 C.Pena DH 3 0 0 0 .180
R.Coomer 3B 2 0 0 0 .278 M.Ellis 2B 2 0 0 0 .279
A-R.Ventura PH,3B 1 0 0 0 .197 T.Long CF 3 2 2 2 .243
S.Spencer RF 3 0 0 0 .000 R.Hernandez C 3 0 0 0 .149
N.Johnson 1B 3 0 0 0 .219
-- -- -- --- -- -- -- ---
Totals 29 1 2 1 Totals 29 3 8 3
A-Pinch Hit For Coomer In 8th Inning
Yankees......... 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 - 1 2 0
Athletics....... 0 0 1 1 0 0 1 0 - 3 8 1
Yankees (14-9) IP H R ER BB SO HR PC ERA SCORESHEET
M.Mussina LOSS(2-3) 7 8 3 3 2 5 3 102 4.94 A1 D1
M.Stanton 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 8 1.29 D2
Totals 8 8 3 3 2 5 3
Athletics (12-10) IP H R ER BB SO HR PC ERA SCORESHEET
B.Zito WIN(3-1) 9 2 1 1 3 10 1 117 2.68 A1
Totals 9 2 1 1 3 10 1
ATTENDANCE- 33,929 DATE- Thursday, April 25th 2002 TIME- Day WEATHER- Average
UMPIRES- Derryl Cousins, Alfonzo Marquez, Scott Packard, Jeff Nelson
T- 2:25
LEFT ON BASE- Yankees: 4 Athletics: 4
DOUBLE PLAYS- Yankees: 3 Athletics: 1
ERRORS- E.Chavez
DOUBLES- A.Soriano(12th), S.Hatteberg(5th), E.Chavez(3rd)
HOME RUNS- D.Jeter(3rd), M.Tejada(8th), T.Long-2(3rd)
WALKS- B.Williams, J.Giambi, J.Posada, J.Giambi, M.Ellis
STRIKE OUTS- A.Soriano, D.Jeter-2, B.Williams, J.Posada, R.White, R.Coomer-2,
S.Spencer, N.Johnson, E.Chavez-2, C.Pena-2, T.Long
GIDP- R.White, C.Pena, M.Ellis
WEB GEMS- Top 5th: Eric Chavez robbed Rondell White of a base hit.
No comments:
Post a Comment