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Mariners vs. Yankees |
Mets vs. Cardinals
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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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