| | The at-bat: Tino Martinez in the third inning.
The situation: Atlanta's John Smoltz pitching with the bases loaded (Chuck Knoblauch on third, Derek Jeter on second and Bernie Williams on first) with one out.
The sequence: Ball 1 (fastball low and away). Strike 1 (tailing fastball over inside corner). Two-run infield single off the glove of first baseman Ryan Klesko.
How it played out: How many times have we seen this in the postseason: Manager sees first base open, orders an intentional walk and immediately gets burned?
Mr. Hargrove, meet Mr. Cox. You two have something in common.
Cleveland's Mike Hargrove tempted fate twice in Game 5 of the AL Division Series against Boston, walking Nomar Garciaparra to set up a possible double play -- and Troy O'Leary made him pay each time with a home run.
Atlanta manager Bobby Cox suffered a similar fate on Wednesday night. Knoblauch led off the third and reached when Walt Weiss couldn't field his groundball to the hole. Jeter followed with a single and Knoblauch raced to third. Jeter stole second as Paul O'Neill struck out. And Cox decided to walk the switch-hitting Williams to load the bases, bringing up the left-handed Martinez to face the right-handed Smoltz.
Martinez worked the count to 1-1, then hit a sharp ground ball between first and second. Klesko, not known for his glove work, ranged slightly to his right and reached down for the ball -- but instead of fielding it, it hit off his forearm and dribbled behind second baseman Bret Boone and into short right field. Knoblauch and Jeter scored to give the Yankees a 2-0 lead.
Cox, who will get plenty of votes for NL manager of the year, has been star-crossed in the World Series. Every move he made in the series seemed to backfire:
In Game 1, he left Greg Maddux in the game to face four batters in the eighth inning and saw the Yankees rally with four runs to erase a 1-0 Atlanta lead.
In Game 2, he altered his lineup looking for offense -- inserting Ozzie Guillen at shortstop and Keith Lockhart at second base --- and watched his middle defense collapse, while the offense collected one hit in seven innings.
In Game 3, he left flu-ridden Tom Glavine in the game in the eighth to face Chuck Knoblauch, who homered to tie the game.
And in Game 4, he walked Williams and ended up giving up a pair of runs. One out later, Jorge Posada singled in Williams with the third run in the inning, giving the Yankees and Roger Clemens more than enough cushion in a 4-1 win.
"We knew we had to play a perfect game and we just didn't do it," Smoltz said.
"We thought we did everything right," said Cox. "Things just didn't go our way." | |
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