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 Better late than never Yankees complete sweep of Texas following 3-hour delay
Posted: Saturday October 03, 1998 08:52 AM
ARLINGTON, Texas (AP) -- With his New York Yankees teammates celebrating all around him, Tim Raines climbed atop a picnic table and made a special toast to the one guy missing the party. "Straw really wanted this and this one's for him," Raines said, dedicating to Darryl Strawberry the Yankees' 4-0 victory over the Texas Rangers early Saturday that completed a sweep of their AL division series. Raines' words were met with cheers, a big swig and the spraying of champagne. And why not? After the 36 hours the Yankees had been through, they deserved it. Players learned just before batting practice Thursday that the 36-year-old slugger has colon cancer. On Friday, their mood lightened when Strawberry sent them a videotaped pep talk urging them to "go get 'em," but then they had to wait out a three-hour, 16-minute rain delay before finishing their mission. "I don't think anyone knew how to react," winning pitcher David Cone said of the celebration. "It was nice to see the guys let go a little bit -- not too much, but just right."
Strawberry watched the game from his New York hospital room. He's scheduled to undergo surgery this afternoon. The Yankees were flying back around the same time. New York plays the winner of the Boston-Cleveland series in the AL championship series, starting Tuesday night at Yankee Stadium. The Indians beat the Red Sox 4-3 Friday to take a 2-1 lead, and Game 4 is today. The Yankees' 3-0 start to the postseason enhances their claim to being one of baseball's greatest teams ever. They won an AL-record 114 games in the regular season and are eight victories from a second World Series championship in three years. Shane Spencer has emerged as the latest secret to New York's success. After blowing onto the scene with three grand slams in the last few weeks of the season, he hit two in this series, including a three-run shot Friday, prompting Torre to refer to Spencer as "Roy Hobbs." "If I'm dreaming, I don't want to wake up," Torre said.
"It hasn't settled in," said Spencer, a 26-year-old rookie who was sent down three times before finally sticking in the majors "I'm enjoying it." Spencer's homer and a solo shot from Paul O'Neill, both off Aaron Sele, put New York ahead in the sixth. Cone retired the first two batters in the bottom half of the inning, then the rain hit and play was stopped at 10:08 p.m. EDT. More than two inches of rain fell during the holdup, which threatened to cause the first suspended game in postseason history. The game finally resumed at 1:24 a.m. and ended at 2:26 a.m. Cone left after the delay, having allowed just two hits and striking out six in 5 2-3 innings. It was a remarkable performance considering in the two previous days former teammate Dan Quisenberry died, then he got the news about Strawberry. "The last few days have been surreal, incredible," Cone said.
Texas had only one run and 13 hits in the series -- far less than anyone expected from the AL's best-hitting team in the regular season. "I know we have good starting pitching, but to hold that ballclub to three runs in three games is amazing," Yankees manager Joe Torre said. Rangers manager Johnny Oates was just as surprised that his pitchers held New York to eight runs in three games -- and Texas lost. "Not that I didn't expect low-scoring ballgames, but I expected more than 13 hits," Oates said. "We've had that many in one inning before." Rusty Greer, Juan Gonzalez, Will Clark and Ivan Rodriguez -- the 3-4-5-6 hitters -- were 4-for-44. Greer, Gonzalez and Clark each had more than 100 RBIs in the season but were shut out by the Yankees. "I don't think we need to isolate on any one individual," Oates said. "We can name Rusty or Juan or Will or Pudge, but you go one-through-nine and we really never got a sustained offense. We never got anything going from anybody." New York had some problems at the plate, too. AL batting champion Bernie Williams was 0-for-11 with four strikeouts and O'Neill's homer was the first RBI by one of the first first six hitters in the lineup. Spencer, O'Neill and Scott Brosius combined to drive in all eight New York runs in the series. Notes: The rain almost forced the game to be suspended and resumed Saturday, which would have been a postseason first. ... More than 5,000 of the 49,950 fans stayed throughout the rain delay. ... New York pulled off the seventh three-game sweep in the four years of the division series.
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