Damon's Bat Delivers Loud Message for Yankees

Oct 08, 06:19 AM

Current Headlines: By Anthony Rieber, Newsday, Melville, N.Y.

Oct. 8--Of all the Yankees in the quiet postgame locker room at Jacobs Field on Friday night, the first one to speak -- and speak up -- was Johnny Damon.

While not taking away credit from the Indians' pitchers for the Yankees' poor offensive showing in the first two games of the American League Division Series, Damon said the Yankees needed to do better.

"We definitely squandered an opportunity to go home 1-1," he said.

Damon put his bat where his mouth is last night. Usually it's his job to start rallies, but in the Yankees' season-saving 8-4 win, Damon was the one to finish them.

Trailing 3-0, Damon drove in the Yankees' first run with a ground single to right in the third inning. Then he capped a four-run fifth off Jake Westbrook with a go-ahead three-run home run to rightfield.

Damon has been here before. It was Damon whose grand slam off Javier Vazquez in Game 7 of the 2004 ALCS at Yankee Stadium sent the Red Sox on their way to an unprecedented comeback from 3-0 down in games.

No baseball team had ever come back from 3-0 down in a postseason series. The Yankees are attempting a lesser feat after they spotted the Indians the first two games in the best-of-five ALDS.

Damon got the Yankees started in this series with a leadoff home run off C.C. Sabathia in Game 1. That 1-0 lead was the Yankees' last before Damon's three-run homer in the fifth last night.

It was the big hit the Yankees had been waiting for all series. Manager Joe Torre tried to go for more offense last night by starting Jason Giambi at first base instead of Doug Mientkiewicz.

"We really haven't done anything offensively," Torre said. "Our ballclub scoring four runs and three of them on home runs is not our identity. I know we have some guys that can hit balls a long way. We know Alex [Rodriguez] hit 50-plus and did all those things.

"But our job and really our signature has been to put pressure on the opposition. We came close to doing it to Sabathia in Game 1, running his pitch count up in the fifth inning. But we need to put men on base. Get them in the stretch, you know, make them think about what we're going to do. But right now, we haven't been that team."

They were last night, even though they fell behind 3-0 as a hurting Roger Clemens could last only 2 1/3 innings. But the Yankees kept pecking away at Westbrook, putting runners on base in the first three innings, only to have each inning ruined by a double play.

After a 1-2-3 fourth through the heart of the Yankees' order, Westbrook faltered in the fifth. A single by Hideki Matsui, a double by Robinson Cano and an RBI single by Melky Cabrera set the stage for Damon's dramatic home run.

His grand slam in 2004 went into the upper deck. This one made it only into the tunnel where the old Yankees bullpen used to be. But the Yankees will take it.

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