| | BOSTON -- Once an October star, Jaret Wright is now a falling one.
Taunted by the Fenway Park crowd from the moment he walked in
from Cleveland's bullpen, Wright's miserable 1999 just got worse.
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| Wright |
Wright, called upon to relieve after starter Dave Burba's forearm tightened in the fourth inning, took the loss Saturday as
the Boston Red Sox extended the AL playoffs to a fourth game with a
9-3 win over the Indians in Game 3.
With "Jar-et, Jar-et" ringing in his ears, Wright, who two
years ago was a postseason hero as a fresh-faced rookie for the
Indians, pitched two-plus innings that were as shaky as his
previous six months.
He allowed five runs, four hits, one walk, one hit batter and one game-tying homer.
"To put it bluntly," Wright said, "I didn't get it done. It was my shot to do something good, and it didn't work out."
Wright had been expected to start Game 4, but Indians manager
Mike Hargrove said before the game he would use Wright in long
relief if necessary in Game 3 and bring back Game 1 winner Bartolo Colon on three days' rest Sunday if Cleveland lost.
Wright helped make it a reality.
He was told before the game to be ready in case Burba's forearm
tightened -- a condition Burba has had for a few weeks but the Indians kept secret. Wright said he felt fine before coming in, but looked like he was overthrowing from his first pitch.
As a 21-year-old rookie in '97, Wright went 3-0 in the
postseason, twice beating the New York Yankees in the division
series. He won Game 4 of the World Series against Florida, and
became the second youngest pitcher to start a deciding game and the
seventh rookie to start a Game 7.
But last year he went 0-2 in the playoffs, losing to Boston in the opener and getting pounded by the Yankees in the ALCS.
He went 8-10 during a regular season that included two stints on the disabled list this season, and a well-publicized trip to AL president Gene Budig's office to discuss his reputation for throwing at batters' heads.
In an April game against Boston, Wright hit Darren Lewis -- who he drilled in the playoffs last year -- to set off a bench-clearing
brawl and escalate tensions between teams with a history of bad blood.
The Red Sox had been waiting for a chance to get even, and they did.
Wright said he wasn't bothered by the deafening chants as the
crowd did a little headhunting of its own.
"I heard it and what-not," Wright said. "But it doesn't
affect your pitching. It's the stuff I've dealt with before. But
it's just getting it done out there. Just hitting your spots and
getting it done. There's no way the crowd should affect you. So
that weight's on my shoulders, not anything the crowd did."
Troy O'Leary, the first batter to face Wright, hit a shot
through the mound that clipped the pitcher on the left leg. Wright
then gave up a single to Lou Merloni and a double to Jason Varitek
that tied it at 1.
Lewis then gained revenge on Wright, slapping an RBI single to right and pumping his fist as he rounded first base.
Then, after the Indians tied it in the sixth, Wright gave up a
leadoff homer to John Valentin. He retired the next three in order, but set the stage for Boston's six-run seventh by walking Merloni
to open the inning, and hitting Varitek.
After being pulled from the game, Wright was given a standing
ovation from the crowd as he walked somberly to the dugout. And when the Red Sox blew it open, all Wright could do was hang his head.
"We were ready today," Wright said. "It didn't work out."
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