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Yankees News for August 24
Topic Started: Aug 24 2005, 07:15 AM (19 Views)
Giambino
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Yankees News for August 24

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Click here for links to full articles then click READ MORE under Yankees news for August 24: http://www.yankeemania.com
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Felix the Cat shows claws
August 24
New York Daily News: Felix Escalona stepped into the batter's box and crossed himself, touching his fingers to his lips before grabbing hold of his bat. It was appropriate. Just about everyone at the Stadium figured that for Escalona to be the hero in the ninth inning last night it would probably take a miracle.
But moments after Toronto intentionally walked Derek Jeter to load the bases and bring the backup infielder to the plate, Escalona delivered a sharp single to center that brought home the winning run and gave the Bombers a gritty 5-4 victory before 50,528 screaming fans.
The Yanks never led until the final hit, and the dramatic victory puts them less than a percentage point in front of victorious Cleveland in the wild-card race. Oakland lost to Detroit to fall a game back.
"This is what you need this time of year," Jeter said. "You need everyone to contribute."
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Leiter impresses in the long haul
August 24
Newsday: "The ovation began building as manager Joe Torre was walking to the mound and didn't stop until Al Leiter reached the Yankees' dugout. Leiter had pitched into the eighth inning in his longest start as a Yankee when Torre came to get him after a leadoff single by Russ Adams in a 2-2 game.
Leiter had a lot to feel good about as he took that walk to the dugout in his hard-stepping, hunched-over way. But all he was thinking about was that final at-bat. Adams hit a grounder that trickled off the glove of a diving Tino Martinez and was fielded by Robinson Cano, but the second baseman had to hold it. Leiter, who falls off to the third-base side on his delivery, was not about to beat Adams to the bag.
"It ends up being a foot race between the fat guy and the real quick guy," said Leiter, who punched at his glove after the play. "And I'm the fat guy."
Adams scored the go-ahead run three batters later on Shea Hillenbrand's single. Tanyon Sturtze gave up the hit, but Leiter would have been tagged with the loss if the Yankees hadn't rallied in the eighth. Leiter wasn't involved in the decision in the Yankees 5-4 victory; Torre gave him a great deal of credit for it anyway.
"He got us late into the game and that's what we needed to have happen," said Torre. "It just made me feel good. Today I feel was a terrific outing." In his eighth start for the Yankees, Leiter was charged with three runs and six hits with one walk and five strikeouts. He came in averaging 6.8 walks per nine innings. He threw 121 pitches, which is the amount it usually takes him to get through five, but this time he threw strikes and got outs when he had to.
Leiter had nine three-ball counts; Toronto batters went 1-for-8 with a walk. The one was a home run by Vernon Wells leading off the fourth, when the Blue Jays scored twice to take a 2-0 lead.
The outing may have solidified his spot in the rotation.
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Mariano shakes off blown save
August 24
New York Daily News: Mariano Rivera wasn't happy with the way the top of the ninth inning finished last night, but after allowing a run for the fourth time in his last seven appearances, the Yankee closer wasn't particularly shaken, either.
That was mostly because the Blue Jays didn't exactly knock him around. An infield hit, a swinging bunt and a single to shallow left gave the Jays a short-lived 4-3 lead before the Bombers rallied in the bottom of the inning, leaving Rivera to simply shrug his shoulders.
"You make pitches and sometimes they hit them," he said. "The ball didn't leave the infield, hardly.... That's the game. You can't tell what's going to happen."
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Matsui blast bails out Yanks
August 24
New York Daily News: Hideki Matsui doesn't grab headlines like Jason Giambi, Alex Rodriguez or Derek Jeter. But he can deliver heroics as thrilling as any of his Yankee teammates.
Matsui belted the game-tying home run in the bottom of the ninth to keep the Yankees alive in their 5-4 come-from-behind win against the Blue Jays last night at the Stadium.
Matsui drove in three runs in the Yankees' 7-0 victory over the Jays Monday night. In the seventh inning last night, Matsui hit a one-out single and later scored on a sacrifice fly to tie the game at 2.
"That was huge," Torre said of the game-tying homer. "It gave us a huge lift."
Matsui belted the homer to right field off Miguel Batista, a pitcher he has had some success against in the past.
"I was not thinking home run at all, I was just looking for a good pitch to hit and get a good swing on it," Matsui said through an interpreter. "Even if I had two strikes, I still wanted to wait and see a good pitch to hit."
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Former Unit Coach Hired By Bombers
August 24
New York Post: For almost 30 minutes yesterday, Randy Johnson spoke with pitching expert Joe Kerrigan at his locker.
Kerrigan, the former Boston pitching coach and manager recently hired by the Yankees, was Johnson's Double A and Triple A pitching coach in the Montreal organization in the late 1980s.
GM Brian Cashman said yesterday that Kerrigan was hired to "tighten up" the team's advance scouting, but Kerrigan doesn't have a title.
Speculation has already begun that Kerrigan will replace Mel Stottlemyre as pitching coach next season, since Stottlemyre has once again said he'll retire after this year.
After a Sunday start in which he served up four homers in one inning, Johnson has been searching for answers.
"I think that was just an aberration," Kerrigan said before last night's 5-4 victory over Toronto. "I know it's not supposed to happen for somebody as great as Randy Johnson. It can happen to anybody in this game of baseball. And I'm sure him and Mel will figure it out. Mel's a great pitching coach.
"You always hear names like Leo Mazzone and Larry Rothschild. To me, if he's not the top pitching coach in the game, he's got to be in the top three."
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Playoffs in cards for Yanks, count on it
August 24
Newsday: Despite the fact they've been hurt by injuries and underperformance in their pitching rotation and still occasionally have to hope for the best from ancient, used-up discards (the plucky Al Leiter started last night, for instance), and despite the fact they somehow can't consistently beat the as-low-as-ever Devil Rays and haven't once beaten the lowlier-than-anyone Royals, the Yankees are going into the playoffs via the wild card. That's as close to a guarantee as I'll make.
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Yanks eye 4 million
August 24
New York Daily News: Whether the Yankees make the playoffs is a mystery that may take all season to solve. However, whether they draw four million fans for the first time in team history is a question that may soon be answered.
"If I don't get bad weather," Lonn Trost said yesterday, "all I have to do is sell 12,000 tickets."
That's how close the Yankees are. Once seemingly unable to crack the three million mark - remember when George Steinbrenner envied how other teams outdrew his Bombers? - the Yankees are on the verge of becoming the third team team in major league history to pass four million, including the Blue Jays who did it three times.
In terms of tickets sold, the Yankees - who lead the majors in home attendance - are 12,000 away, according to Trost, the team's chief operating officer. Trost said the Yankees could reach that mark within a week. Some tickets remain for this weekend's series against the Royals.
The caveat, of course, is whether the weather cooperates. If even one of the Yankees' remaining 18 home dates is rained out, they might not get to four million. Attendance figures don't count until the games that tickets are sold for are actually played.
The Yankees' total attendance through 63 home dates this season is 3,137,960, the seventh straight time the team has topped three million. They are averaging 49,809 per game.
They essentially need to keep that pace to get to four million.
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Sheff Worried About Doc
August 24
New York Post: Gary Sheffield of course was worried when he heard about Dwight Gooden's latest run-in with the law, the most recent in a long list of substance-abuse woes. The Yankees right fielder said he's been dealing with Gooden's troubles for 17 years.
But as far as helping his uncle, he said there's no more help to give.
"I did that before. I put him in rehab; I spent a lot of money to do that. I've done pretty much everything you could possibly do. It comes to a point you just have to let him go through what he's got to go through," Sheffield said before last night's game vs. Toronto. "Sometimes it's in God's plans for us to back off and let him do it, because the family has tried everything."
The 41-year-old Gooden was being sought by police yesterday on a felony warrant after he allegedly refused to get out of his 2004 BMW to take a field sobriety test and drove away from the officer who pulled him over.
"It's sad. It's a shame what he has gone through," Joe Torre said. "To have the problems he's had throughout his career, I'm sure he wishes he can turn the pages back."
Now Gooden, who was out on bail after a March domestic-violence arrest, is wanted on felony charges of DUI and fleeing police, and a misdemeanor charge of resisting arrest without violence.
"You just have to be there as a family member," said Sheffield, who said he hadn't talked to Gooden in a month. "I'm sure everybody has a person in their family that has a problem, and he happens to be the one. When he hurts, I hurt. When he's dealing with this, and not in the right frame of mind, I get really concerned."
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Click here for links to full articles then click READ MORE under Yankees news for August 24: http://www.yankeemania.com
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Former Unit Coach Hired By Bombers
August 24
New York Post: For almost 30 minutes yesterday, Randy Johnson spoke with pitching expert Joe Kerrigan at his locker.
Kerrigan, the former Boston pitching coach and manager recently hired by the Yankees, was Johnson's Double A and Triple A pitching coach in the Montreal organization in the late 1980s.
GM Brian Cashman said yesterday that Kerrigan was hired to "tighten up" the team's advance scouting, but Kerrigan doesn't have a title.
Speculation has already begun that Kerrigan will replace Mel Stottlemyre as pitching coach next season, since Stottlemyre has once again said he'll retire after this year.
After a Sunday start in which he served up four homers in one inning, Johnson has been searching for answers.
"I think that was just an aberration," Kerrigan said before last night's 5-4 victory over Toronto. "I know it's not supposed to happen for somebody as great as Randy Johnson. It can happen to anybody in this game of baseball. And I'm sure him and Mel will figure it out. Mel's a great pitching coach.
"You always hear names like Leo Mazzone and Larry Rothschild. To me, if he's not the top pitching coach in the game, he's got to be in the top three."


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