After a tough loss in Game 3, the Blue Jays decided to bypass scheduled starter Juan Guzman in Game 4 and come back with ace Roger Clemens, who pitched brilliantly in defeat in the series opener. "Good idea, huh?" smiled pitching coach Jack Morris after the game.
Yes, good idea. Though Clemens surrendered two earned runs in his eight innings pitched, they came on just the one hit and two walks, while the man nicknamed Rocket struck out 16 Yankees, including helpless second baseman Alfonso Soriano four times in four at-bats, on his way to leading the Jays to an 11-2 victory.
Clemens has now punched out 28 Yankees in 16 innings, again stoking rumors that the Bronx Bombers may make a play to acquire the veteran right-hander in the off-season.
On the other side of the diamond, New York starter Andy Pettitte has a history of success in post-season play, but lasted just 2.1 innings in his Ultimate Series debut, allowing six runs on six hits, including three Blue Jay home runs, hit by Carlos Delgado, Jesse Barfield and Pat Borders. The latter two were both late insertions into the Jay lineup.
"What a shock," complained a frustrated Paul O'Neill who was 0-for-1 as a late inning defensive replacement for Rickey Henderson. "Delgado homered. What’s he hitting in this series, .989?"
Actually, following his 3-for-4 Game 4 performance, Delgado is hitting "merely" .692 in the Series with three homers and eight RBI. And while the powerful first baseman once again got things started for the Toronto squad, this time he got some long overdue help from his mates.
Roberto Alomar led off the game against Pettitte with a triple that skipped past Reggie Jackson. Then after Tony Fernandez hit a wicked line drive speared by Derek Jeter, Delgado homered to put the Jays on the board. George Bell struck out as Pettitte appeared to settle down, but Barfield crushed a long home run with two outs and Lloyd Moseby hit a ball to the deepest part of center field that Bernie Williams was barely able to track down to end the frame.
While Clemens was retiring the first 13 men he faced, the Jays added a run in the second on the Borders solo shot, then chased Pettitte in the fourth when Barfield rocketed a two-run double that Williams couldn't reach this time, scoring Fernandez and Delgado.
The Yankees went to veteran lefty and former starting pitcher Dave Righetti to keep them in the game, and "Rags" held the Blue Jays to just two more runs over his first 4.1 innings. But New York once again stayed with a reliever too long and it cost them when the Jays strung together their final three runs, all charged to Righetti, in the eighth.
But the Yankees seemed to have conceded the game at that point anyway, as they started the eighth by sitting half of their starting lineup, sending O'Neil, Dave Winfield, Thurman Munson and Roy Smalley out to replace Henderson, Jackson, Jorge Posada and Jeter.
John Wetteland finished up for New York while David Wells came on to pitch a scoreless ninth for the Blue Jays.
Jeter's two-run single in the fifth was the sole Yankee hit; in fact, Williams and Graig Nettles, who walked and scored on the hit, were the only other Yankees to reach base. Every Toronto starter except Kelly Gruber had at least one knock, while every Blue Jay starter except Gruber and Bell reached base at least twice.
As the Series returns to Toronto for Game 5, the Blue Jays have not determined if they will start Jimmy Key, who beat the Yankees in Game 2, on short rest as they did Clemens, or if Guzman -- a hard-throwing righty like Clemens -- will finally take his turn. Ron Guidry, who tossed a complete-game three-hit shutout and struck out 13 Jays in Game 1, is expected to get the nod for New York.
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