From the New York Times
May 27, 2001
YANKEES 12, INDIANS 5
By BUSTER OLNEY
CLEVELAND, May 26 — Derek Jeter has access to volumes of bound scouting reports and stacks of videotapes to study whatever he needs to know about any pitcher the Yankees will face. He can draw from the knowledge of experienced coaches, and also successful and thoughtful teammates.
But hitting is uncomplicated work for Jeter, each at-bat and each hit passing with little recollection or anticipation.
He does not want to know about the pitchers' tendencies, he will not try to guess what they will throw him. It is see the ball, hit the ball, just as it was when he was playing Little League in Michigan.
Jeter cleared his mind in the fourth inning today and sparred with Cleveland's C. C. Sabathia through a 14-pitch plate appearance, the early turning point in the Yankees' 12-5 victory over the Indians.
Jeter and the leadoff batter, Chuck Knoblauch, combined for six hits, six runs and five runs batted in. Roger Clemens (5-1) struck out eight over seven innings to give him 3,575 strikeouts, one more than Don Sutton and good for fifth place on the career list.
The leader in the American League East changed for the third consecutive day, the Yankees (27-21) moving back into first place ahead of Boston (26-21).
Sabathia threw the game's first pitch at 1:08, Randy Choate the last pitch at 5:41. In the interim there was a 59-minute rain delay, 25 hits, 10 walks, 15 strikeouts and 5 homers among 13 extra-base hits. If the World Wrestling Federation tried a baseball league, this might have been what it came up with, a slogging, pounding affair.
Clemens struggled to keep loose during the delay after the first inning and never really had good stuff, and got pummeled early, surrendering four runs in the first four innings.
But in the spirit of this game, Clemens spoke with the Yankees' pitching coach, Mel Stottlemyre, and they agreed that Clemens needed to continue, with the Yankees' bullpen somewhat short-handed. "If I had to start inventing things, I would," Clemens said. "I had to give us innings."
Jacob Cruz hit a two-run homer in the third inning and Cleveland led, 3- 1. Jorge Posada hit a homer leading off the top of the fourth, on Sabathia's 60th pitch. There were two outs and a runner at second when Knoblauch came to bat, and he fouled off a pitch before hitting a single that tied the score at 3-3.
Jeter followed, taking two practice swings before stepping to the plate. The Yankees' hitting coach, Gary Denbo, posted the latest intelligence on Sabathia on the lineup card, highlighting in yellow his radar gun times: Fastball, 93-95. Curve, 77-82. Change, 85-86. Before every series, Denbo will give a presentation on the opposing pitchers, based on the reports forwarded to him by the Yankees' advance scouts.
Little of this appeals to Jeter, who watches videotape of his own swing. As he stretches in the on-deck circle, he looks into the scouts' section in the stands, where the Yankees have someone stationed with a radar gun.
Jeter will hold up fingers, guessing how fast the pitcher is throwing — four fingers, for instance, for 94 miles an hour, three fingers for 93 m.p.h. The specific information is relayed back to Jeter, who nods. This is all he wants to know.
Jeter fouled off the first pitch Sabathia threw him, then took a curveball for a ball, fouled off another for a strike, and when the count reached two balls and two strikes, the right- handed-hitting Jeter began slapping foul balls into the stands along the first-base side. His whole approach, he said later, "was to put the ball in play; that's the main thing."
Jeter fouled off the ninth pitch of the at-bat and Sabathia wanted to end the duel, with the same objective as Jeter. "I threw him outside, inside, curveball, fastball," Sabathia said. "I just wanted to make him put the ball in play."
But Jeter took a ball — the count was full — and fouled off three more pitches. Two fans who had been struck were being tended to in the stands.
Finally, on the 14th pitch of the at- bat, Jeter took a ball low, drawing the walk on Sabathia's 36th pitch of the inning, his 94th pitch of the game.
Sabathia was ready to be finished, and when he threw a fastball to Paul O'Neill with his next pitch, O'Neill ripped a double into left-center field, two runs scoring.
Lots more offense followed in subsequent innings, the Indians scoring a run off Clemens to cut the lead to 5- 4, before the Yankees picked on Roy Smith in his major league debut.
They scored three in the sixth inning against the side-arming Smith and another in the seventh, and when the veteran Rich Rodriguez came out of the beleaguered Cleveland bullpen to pitch the eighth, the Yankees scored three more.
Scott Brosius scored three runs, Posada had three hits, just about everybody in the starting lineup other than Alfonso Soriano (0 for 5) joined into the offensive parade that turned the corner on Jeter's 14-pitch at-bat in the fourth.
INSIDE PITCH
ROGER CLEMENS has 265 career victories, tied for 32nd place on the career list with JIM McCORMICK. With his next victory, Clemens will tie BOB FELLER and EPPA RIXEY; three more victories and he'll match JIM PALMER. . . . TODD WILLIAMS strained an oblique muscle warming up in the bullpen Saturday and it is very likely the Yankees will call up the right-hander CARLOS ALMANZAR from Class AAA Columbus. The Yankees still don't know whether BRIAN BOEHRINGER's groin strain will force them to place him on the 15-day disabled list. Boehringer threw two and two-thirds innings before getting hurt in Friday's game, so he probably would not have been able to pitch in the last two games of this series.
