Bad blood
Jays' HRs chase Yanks' Irabu in 5-4 win, Bronx brawl
Posted: Saturday September 12, 1998 12:46 AM
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Irabu charged the plate and was held back as both benches and bullpens emptied AP |
NEW YORK (AP) -- While the Rocket kept his streak intact, the Yankees and
Blue Jays couldn't hold on to their tempers.
Roger
Clemens, who has 13-game winning streak, pitched five innings before
leaving with an apparent bruised right palm and a no-decision, and Toronto
hit four homers off Hideki Irabu
for a 5-4 win in game delayed by a bench clearing.
Toronto won for the 12th time in 14 games to stay within five games of
Boston in the American League wild-card race. The AL East champion Yankees
had their three-game winning streak stopped and fell to 11-12 in their last
23 games.
Tony
Fernandez hit a two-run homer and Carlos
Delgado, Jose Cruz Jr.
and Shannon
Stewart each hit solo homers for the Blue Jays. Stewart's leadoff shot
in the seventh broke a 4-all tie and chased Irabu (11-9).
Clemens and Irabu exchanged beanballs earlier in the game, touching
off a near-brawl reminiscent of the Yankees' clash with Baltimore in May.
Trailing 3-0, the Yankees tied it with a three-run fourth off Clemens.
Tino
Martinez hit an RBI double and Jorge Posada
had a run-scoring groundout before Ricky Ledee's
sacrifice fly to deep right made it 3-all.
Clemens, who hit Derek Jeter
during spring training and again in a July 17 game, drilled the next
batter, Scott
Brosius, in the back with his next pitch.
Brosius had words with Clemens on his way to first and several
Yankees, including Chad Curtis and
Darryl
Strawberry, climbed to the top step of the dugout and yelled at Clemens
as well.
Irabu started the brawl in the top of the fifth by hitting Shannon Stewart (right) in the back with his first pitch AP | |
Yankees manager Joe Torre came out to argue with plate umpire Mike
Reilly and was tossed before the inning ended peacefully.
But Irabu touched things off in the top of the fifth by hitting
Stewart in the back with his first pitch. Irabu charged the plate and was
held back as both benches and bullpens emptied.
After some finger pointing, the swarm of players and coaches drifted
toward the visitors' dugout, much like the ugly May 19 brawl between the
Yankees and Orioles that resulted in five suspensions.
Strawberry threw a wild punch as things escalated and Stewart was
momentarily knocked to the ground as players held each other back.
New York bench coach Don Zimmer was ejected along with New York
reserve infielder Homer Bush,
Toronto manager Tim Johnson and Blue Jays pitcher Bill Risley.
Carlos Almanzar (2-2) relieved Clemens to start the sixth and pitched
1 1-3 innings. Dan
Plesac struck out all three batters he faced and Robert Person
pitched the ninth for his second save.
Clemens struck out five through the first two innings and didn't give
up a hit until Brosius singled through the middle with one out in the
third. The next batter, Joe Girardi, hit
a hard comebacker that Clemens bare-handed to start a double play.
Clemens took a couple of warmup pitches to make sure his right hand
was OK. Two pitches later, Clemens' wrist was checked after he knocked down
Chuck
Knoblauch's liner.
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New York bench coach Don Zimmer (right)was ejected along with New York reserve infielder Homer Bush AP |
Yankees fans began to cheer when Clemens was way out of the strike
zone with his second set of warmup tosses, but the right-hander quieted
them down by striking out Jeter to end the third.
After warming up to start the sixth, Clemens motioned to the Blue
Jays' dugout and was replaced by Almanzar. Clemens was charged with three
runs and seven hits in five innings with seven strikeouts.
Torre was hoping to see some improvement from Irabu, who had lost
three of his previous four starts and was quickly pitching himself out of
postseason plans.
"We just want to see a quality outing," Torre said before the game.
"He doesn't have to try to be Roger Clemens or anything."
Irabu looked like a Clemens clone at the start, striking out the side
in order in the first and fanning Delgado to open the second before
Fernandez connected for his seventh homer.
Irabu gave up five runs and seven hits in six-plus innings with eight
strikeouts.
Delgado led off the fourth with his 31st homer to make it 3-0.
Notes: Yankees GM Brian Cashman wouldn't confirm a report that the
club agreed with second baseman Chuck Knoblauch on a $9 million, two-year
contract extension when he was acquired from Minnesota in February. "Right
now, all we have is the old contract," he said. ... The Yankees must finish
14-3 to break the record of 116 wins set by the '06 Cubs. ... Clemens is
one strikeout shy of tying Bob Gibson for 10th place on the career list.
Clemens, who has 3,116 strikeouts, is one of 11 members of the
3,000-strikeout club. He hasn't lost since May 29 against Cleveland.
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