Timlin offers inside take on inside pitch
NEW YORK -- Derek Jeter wouldn't look at him until after he'd gotten to second base.
"I've known Jeter for a long time," said Red Sox reliever Mike Timlin. "I never played with him, but he's a class guy. He knows I don't head hunt. Obviously, I didn't do it on purpose."
Timlin was talking about the eighth-inning pitch that put the Yankees shortstop in the hospital yesterday afternoon, a fastball that got away and struck Jeter in the left shoulder and deflected off the left ear flap of his helmet, knocking it off his head.
"I mouthed the words, `Are you OK?' " Timlin said. "He said, `Yeah, I'm all right.' "
Jeter remained in the game until the end of the inning, when he was replaced by Rey Sanchez. A CAT scan at the hospital was negative, a Yankee official said after the game.
During the three-game series, Jason Giambi was hit by pitches three times and Jeter twice. No Sox players were hit, as the Yankees apparently eschewed retaliation.
"They'd be upset if they thought we were trying to hit them," Timlin said. "We hit Giambi, but the book on him is to pitch him high and tight, and his swing is better than it has been in a long time.
"You can't survive if you don't pitch inside. I'm sorry. That's part of the game. If you try not to demand the inside of the plate, you're going to die. Other guys may not say that verbally, but that's just the way it is."
Timlin, who said his pitches had too much movement yesterday, was concerned to see Jeter go down.
"I'm a human being," he said. "I was concerned. But I pitch inside. I pitch hard inside. I've hit guys in the knees, the ribs. But once you get above the shoulder, that's the danger zone."
Not a welcoming sign
David Wells won't admit that it hurt. But listen to him and you'll hear how much it bothered him to be booed Sunday in his Sox debut at Yankee Stadium.
"I figured it would happen, but not to that point," said Wells, who pitched four seasons in New York, as recently as 2002. "It's fine, they can boo me, they can do whatever they want. I had four good years here and they can't take that away from me.
"You know what? They cheered me for four years. They boo me now, God bless them. They call me a traitor and all that."
If he had his way, Wells would be a Yankee again. He asked New York general manager Brian Cashman to re-sign him during the offseason but was spurned.
"I offered my services," Wells said. "Obviously, 50-something thousand people didn't hear."
On second thought
The initial printing of Johnny Damon's book "Idiot: Beating `The Curse' and Enjoying the Game of Life," was 70,000. If there is a second printing Damon plans to change a line pertaining to Alex Rodriguez's slap of Bronson Arroyo's glove in Game 6 of last October's American League Championship Series. In the book, Damon says, "It was an unsportsmanlike act of cheating the likes of which none of us had ever seen." Damon sought out Rodriguez after Tuesday's game and apologized. "I pretty much got caught up in the team's feeling and the media's feeling about how we view A-Rod," Damon said. "I admit it. Those were harsh words. I just wanted to tell him I didn't know what I'd do if I was in that situation." . . . There's been a good deal of speculation that Damon, an impending free agent, could sign with the Yankees. On Monday's "Live with Regis and Kelly" Regis Philbin told Damon that Yankees owner George Steinbrenner was raving about the Sox center fielder. Could he envision himself in pinstripes? "I know what I mean to the Red Sox, and I would love to end my career here," Damon said. "I can't even think about it until I'm out of a Red Sox uniform." . . . The last time the Sox were managed by someone other than the manager was May 19-20, 2002, when Grady Little left the team following his mother's death. Bench coach Mike Stanley went 2-0 as the Sox beat Seattle, 3-2, and the White Sox, 9-0.
Knuckling down
Tim Wakefield was excellent in his debut, putting behind him an implosive spring training finale Friday in Arizona (two-thirds of an inning, 6 hits, 2 walks, 6 earned runs on 47 pitches). The Yankees managed just three hits off him yesterday, though two were home runs -- a Rodriguez solo blast to center in the fourth and a solo shot to right by Tino Martinez in the fifth. Wakefield held the Yankees' modern day Murderer's Row -- Jeter, Rodriguez, Gary Sheffield, and Hideki Matsui -- to two hits in 12 at-bats . . . Rodriguez's homer landed in the black seats in right-center, just the 27th ball hit into the unoccupied bleacher section since the Stadium was remodeled for the 1976 season. A-Rod also homered into the black seats Aug. 17, 1996 with Seattle . . . Damon took off for second on a 3-and-1 pitch to Trot Nixon in the seventh. The pitch was ball four, but Yankees catcher Jorge Posada threw to second anyhow. Jeter applied the tag and Damon's foot slipped off the bag. That's a 2-6 putout. "I didn't grab the bag as I should have," Damon said.
Bat breaks through
Eleven at-bats into his Red Sox career Edgar Renteria finally got a hit, a single in the sixth that eluded a diving Jeter. Then he delivered a two-run single in the ninth for a 6-3 lead. "Edgar is going to be so huge for us," Damon said. "We kept picking him up during the game. We had to keep telling him his time will come." . . . Yesterday's starting pitchers, Mike Mussina and Wakefield, are in line to pitch Monday's Fenway opener. Curt Schilling is expected to debut Wednesday vs. Jaret Wright. Randy Johnson is on schedule to appear in the series finale Thursday in Wells's first appearance in Boston as a Red Sox . . . Schilling will make his only rehab start today in Indianapolis for Triple A Pawtucket. He's expected to throw about 100 pitches.
