"Mr. 300" shoots down Jays
By Geoff Marks
Well, the Yankees win again. Yesterday’s game belonged to Ruben Sierra aka "Mr. 300." In the top of the ninth Sierra cashes in with his 300th homerun — a grand slam! Also having a big game was Tony Clark who showed his stuff with THREE jacks, a three-run shot, and two solo homers. Gary Sheffield also homered and had a two run triple, A-rod had a solo shot, and Jorge Posada, Ruben Sierra, and Hideki Matsui also collected RBI’s. Blue Jay starter Ted Lilly was taken out after allowing 7 runs on 5 hits in 5.1 innings. Frasor and Chulk also pitched, but neither had a "memorable performance". But it was the doomed Kerry Ligtenberg who pitched the ninth, who was truly destroyed. It was a nine run 9th, the highest scoring inning for the Yankees this year. Ten hits, nine runs, and eleven base runners.
For the Jays, it was Delgado with a RBI sac fly in the 1st, Reed Johnson with a two-run double in the 2nd, and sac fly for Gregg Zaun in the 3rd. This was it for a while, but then in late innings they were pushing for a comeback. Bottom of the 8th was rally time. Hinske single! Zaun walk! Chris Woodard RBI single! Reed Johnson RBI single! But then Torre brings in star closer Mariano Rivera, and he ends the inning before too much damage can be done, and also closes it out in the 9th.
The final, badly lopsided score: 18-6 giving the Yankees another for the "Win" column. For the pitching, Kevin Brown collects the win, Mariano Rivera with the save, his league leading 45th, and Ted Lilly is handed the loss, his 9th of the year. Frank Menechino — that’s right — the back up third-basemen for the Jays comes in to replace Ligtenberg, and he gets the final out of the 9th after giving up two hits. This was his second pitching performance in the majors. A milestone game for Ruben Sierra, and yet another comeback victory for the Yanks.
Today, it's the Yankees v. The Jays one more time before they head home to the Bronx.
With Boston’s win over the Detroit Tigers yesterday, the Yankees maintain their 5 1/2 game lead. The Red Sox are looking great lately but need to be in top condition if they want to take the division title over the Yankees.
