Yankees can't expect to coast in Anaheim
ANAHEIM, Calif. -- This was their reward for winning the AL East? A night flight to the Left Coast? A best-of-five with the club that busted them out in 2002 and beat them in this year's season series? Three games in a ballpark with a rock formation (as distinct from monuments) in center field? If the Red Sox got the wild card, the Yankees drew the joker.
''You have to come out here sooner or later," said manager Joe Torre as his club prepared for tonight's Division Series (8:19, Fox) with the Angels, who are tanned, rested, and more than ready for them. ''You either come out here to start or come out here in the middle. Only difference is, if there's a Game 5, we have to come back here again."
After coming back from the near dead -- nine games out in May and four back with 21 to go -- the Yankees are delighted to be playing in the postseason at all. ''It's been a tough year," conceded catcher Jorge Posada. ''We're happy to be here. Right now, we are where we're supposed to be."
The Yankees, who are making their 11th straight playoff appearance, expect to be autumn perennials. Not so the Angels, who made it back-to-back for the first time, winning the West by seven games over Oakland after spending all but 12 days in first place. ''I think you can characterize it as a mild surprise that we are here," said manager Mike Scioscia, whose club won 14 of its final 16.
Last year, the Angels came to the playoffs with battered halos, struggling merely to make it to October, and were pounded by the Red Sox. ''A perfect example of us being a little bit banged up facing a club that was very, very tough offensively," says Scioscia. ''And they took it to us and they swept us."
This time, after clinching a week ago, Los Angeles had the luxury of resting regulars and setting the rotation, meaning that righthanded ace Bartolo Colon (21-8, 3.48 ERA) starts off against New York righthander Mike Mussina (13-8, 4.41), who is coming off his shortest non-injury-related outing in 10 years (1 2/3 IP, 5 R, 7 H) in last week's 17-9 loss at Baltimore.
''I'm not worried about it," said Mussina, who missed 21 days last month with an inflamed elbow. ''I can't worry about it. I'll just go out and pitch with whatever I have."
Pitching has been New York's albatross all season, with starters Kevin Brown and Carl Pavano out since July, tomorrow's starter Chien-Ming Wang spending nearly two months on the disabled list, and the middle relievers iffy at best. If it weren't for unlikely saviors Aaron Small (10-0) and Shawn Chacon (7-3), the Yankees would be watching this series from their sofas.
With the Angels sending out Colon, John Lackey (14-5, 3.44), Paul Byrd (12-11, 3.74) and Jarrod Washburn (8-8, 3.20) to face Mussina, Wang (8-5, 4.02), Randy Johnson (17-8. 3.79), and Chacon, the Yankees badly want quality starts to make the ''Bridge To Mo" (closer Mariano Rivera) shorter than the one across the Verrazano Narrows. ''We've got to pitch better than them," says Posada. ''That's the bottom line."
In Fenway last weekend, the challenge for the Yankee hurlers was to keep the ball in the park. This week, it's to keep the Angel mischief-makers off the bases. ''They don't strike out very much, they put the ball in play, they use the field," says Mussina, who is 14-8 lifetime against the Angels, 1-2 this year. ''We have to do our best to hold them down and keep them off base and try not to let them get any big innings going on us."
If the Angels play their small-ball game -- pitching, defense, execution, and opportunism -- they can win, as they did in six of their 10 meetings with New York during the season, including three of four here. ''We can't get into a slugfest with these guys," says Scioscia, whose club lost its last two games by 8-7 scores at New York after being up by four runs each time going into the bottom of the eighth. ''We have to manufacture. We have to run the bases hard, we have to run them well."
That was the combination that brought Los Angeles its first championship three years ago, when New York also was the first obstacle in the road. Now, the Yankees are back in town, yawning, resetting their watches, and squinting through the smog. By the time they get back to the Bronx after 10 days on the road, they'll be ready to hock their pinstripes for a one-hour laundry.
