Wednesday, October 27, 1999
YANKEES 6, BRAVES 5
Curtis' 2nd HR completes rally in 10th inning
BY CHRIS HAFT
The Cincinnati Enquirer
NEW YORK — These aren't the New York Yankees of Ruth and Gehrig or Mantle and Maris, who could slug opponents into submission.
But once in a while, these Yankees can imitate their hallowed ancestors nicely.
New York overcame a 5-1 deficit with four homers after the fifth inning Tuesday night, including a pair from Chad Curtis, who opened the 10th inning with a blast to left field off former Reds left-hander Mike Remlinger. It shattered a 5-5 tie and gave the Yankees a 6-5 victory over the Atlanta Braves in Game3 of the World Series.
“Somebody asked me who would be the star in the series, and it's always somebody you don't expect,” Braves manager Bobby Cox said of Curtis, who was 0-for-10 in the postseason after hitting .262 in 96 regular-season games as a reserve outfielder.
“Somewhere between second and third base, I felt like there was electricity running through my legs,” Curtis said.
The Yankees, who lead the Series 3-0, can pull the plug on the season tonight. To sweep this 95th Fall Classic, the Yankees must rely on Roger Clemens, the once-invincible but now vulnerable right-hander,
who pitches Game 4 against Atlanta's John Smoltz. The Yankees, who won four in a row from San Diego last October, also posted the only other back-to-back Series sweeps in 1927-28 and 1938-39.
A roaring crowd of 56,794, the largest Series gathering since the renovated Yankee Stadium reopened in 1976, watched New York extend its Series winning streak to 11 games, one short of the record began by those legendary '27 Yankees.
The Braves received decent pitching from Tom Glavine, who missed his scheduled Game 1 start with a case of the flu. After Glavine allowed a first-inning unearned run, his lapses occurred intermittently: Curtis' two-out homer in the fifth inning that narrowed Atlanta's lead to 5-2, then Tino Martinez's one-out blast in the seventh that shaved the difference by another run.
But Glavine began the eighth by allowing a single to ninth-place hitter Joe Girardi. Up came Chuck Knoblauch, who sliced a 2-0 pitch toward right field. Brian Jordan, who committed a two-base fielding error in the first inning, leaped above the 9-foot-high wall, but the ball struck the middle of his open glove and plopped back out for a tying two-run homer.
“It was a dinky home run,” Cox said.
Skeptics will insist that Cox should have removed Glavine earlier. But upon leaving the game after Knoblauch's homer, the left-hander had thrown only 77 pitches.
“I know everybody's going to ask why I didn't take him out, but he was throwing great,” Cox said. Referring again to Knoblauch's homer, Cox added, “When you hit a pop-up 315 feet, that's an out, in my book.”
Nothing was cheap about the game-winner from Curtis, who belted Remlinger's 1-1 pitch while trying merely to hit the ball up the middle. “When you take that approach, you leave yourself in a better position to hit a mistake,” Curtis said.
Curtis' heroics ended a succession of frustrations. He didn't play in last year's World Series against San Diego, despite appearing in 151 regular-season games. “I felt like I was congratulating my teammates more than celebrating with them,” Curtis said.
Curtis left no doubt that he was a Yankee when he spurned a request from NBC's Jim Gray, Pete Rose's tormentor, for a postgame chat. Outraged at Gray's controversial Sunday interview with Rose, the Yankees have boycotted on-field appearances with Gray.
“It's not a personal thing with me and Jim Gray,” Curtis said. “It's just what the team decided.”
The Yankees' victory obscured an outstanding effort by Bret Boone, the former Reds second baseman who went 4-for-5. He doubled in each of his first three at-bats, becoming the first player to double three times in a Series game since Brooklyn's Jim Gilliam did it Oct.3, 1953 in Game4 against the Yankees. Frank Isbell of the Chicago White Sox set the record of four Oct.13, 1906 in Game5 against the Chicago Cubs.
Before Tuesday, the Braves had compiled a limp .176 average (36-for-204) since Game3 of the NLCS, including .121 (7-for-58) in the Series. But the Braves matched their Series hit total in the first three innings against Yankees starter Andy Pettitte, whose streak of 15ö consecutive scoreless Series innings evaporated immediately. Pettitte ultimately allowed all five Atlanta runs and 10 hits in 3ö innings.
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