Wright-Ogea, Ogea-Wright -- no matter

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Posted: Monday October 12, 1998 12:39 AM

Wright answer, too late: Jaret Wright walked seven but gave up just one run in a six-inning performance AP

CLEVELAND (AP) -- Jaret Wright and Chad Ogea. Chad Ogea and Jaret Wright.

The order hasn't mattered to the Cleveland Indians pitchers in the AL championship series. Either way, they can't beat David Wells and the New York Yankees.

Ogea got the start, but Wright lasted longer, in the Indians' 5-3 loss to the Yankees on Sunday.

"We walked 11 and hit two, so keeping them to five runs is pretty amazing," Cleveland pitching coach Mark Wiley said.

Except for a reversal of names, Game 5 was similar to the Indians' 7-2 loss in Game 1, when Wright surrendered five runs in two-thirds of an inning and Ogea turned in a strong performance in relief.

This time it was Ogea who ran into trouble early.

In a three-run New York first, Ogea hit Tino Martinez and Chuck Knoblauch, who both wound up scoring, walked two and had Paul O'Neill's potential double-play ball glance off his glove for a single.

"It was an instinctive reaction to go after the ball," Ogea said. "You have to field your position. Yeah, I wish I let the ball go.

"I felt fine, I felt confident but some weird things happened. The ball tipped off my glove and things snowballed from there."

The second inning didn't start much better. Knoblauch walked and moved up on Derek Jeter's sacrifice bunt. After O'Neill hit an RBI single, Bernie Williams followed up with another base hit and Ogea was done.

Enter Wright and his 67.50 ERA for the series.

But Wright, who also got shelled in Cleveland's playoff opening loss to Boston, pitched well.

Wright walked seven but gave up just one run -- Chili Davis' solo homer -- in a six-inning performance that tied for the second-longest AL championship history. The longest relief appearance was Dick Tidrow's 6 2-3 innings in Game 1 of the Yankees-Kansas City Royals series in 1977.

It was Wright's first relief appearance as a professional player.

"It was a big adrenalin rush for myself," he said. "It's a new thing for me."

Wright said he did a better job locating his fastball Sunday than in his last two playoff starts. But he wasn't angry with Indians manager Mike Hargrove for starting Ogea over him.

"Never second guess," Wright said. "If you can second guess, you win the World Series every year. You go out there, you know what your role is, and you just try to do it."

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CNN/SI Player Page: Jaret Wright CNN/SI Player Page: Chad Ogea
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