Japan's Hideki Matsui drove in the winning run with a 12-inning sacrifice fly here on Wednesday, giving the New York Yankees a 7-6 triumph over Minnesota that evened their Major League Baseball playoff series.
Alex Rodriguez leveled the game with his fourth hit of the game to set the stage for Matsui's critical fly ball as the Yankees equalized the American League best-of-five first round series and one victory each.
PHOTO: AFP
"It was a war out there," Rodriguez said. "It was a game we needed."
PHOTO: AFP
The series, matching a record US$183 million Yankees lineup against a Twins team with a US$53 million payroll, continues today and tomorrow at Minneapolis with a fifth game back here on Sunday if necessary.
Red Sox 8, Anaheim 3
The Yankees' arch rivals, the Boston Red Sox, reached the brink of advancing by routing host Anaheim 8-3 to seize a 2-0 series edge with a chance to sweep out the Angels today in game three at Boston's Fenway Park.
The Yankees were two outs away from trailing their series two games to none before Miguel Cairo and Derek Jeter drew walks off Twins relief pitcher Joe Nathan and "A-Rod" hit a ground-rule double to produce the tying run.
"Jete had a great at-bat and I wanted to make sure I forced [Nathan] to throw strikes," Rodriguez said. "I think he threw me a 1-ball, 1-strike slider and I hit it pretty well."
"This is obviously the biggest hit he has had for us so far, where it stood and where we stood in the series," Yankees manager Joe Torre said.
Rodriguez recorded the only hit allowed in 5 1/3 innings by four Minnesota relief pitchers.
"He hit a good pitch," Nathan said. "They were laying off pitches and were patient."
After Gary Sheffield was walked intentionally to load the bases, Matsui lined out to Twins rightfielder Jacque Jones. Jeter slid in ahead of the throw to home plate and the Yankees completed a dramatic comeback victory.
"They find a way to win in October. They found a way tonight," Jones said.
New York led the major leagues during the regular season with 61 come-from-behind victories. Torre rated the dramatic triumph above a game seven AL final victory over Boston that put the Yanks in last year's World Series.
"I don't think I want to watch it again," Torre said. "It was certainly one of the memorable games. We had one in game seven against the Red Sox last year and this was probably even more of a dramatic game because it was back and forth."
The Twins took the lead in the top of the 12th on Torii Hunter's two-out solo homer off tiring Yankees reliever Tanyon Sturtze.
"It was tough. They came back," Hunter said. "It's frustrating. We could have been up 2-0 [in the series]. It's tough. That's the playoffs. We have to forget about today and worry about Friday."
Kevin Brown of the Yankees will pitch Friday against Carlos Silva.
Rodriguez rescued Yankees reliever Mariano Rivera, the most successful closing relief pitcher in playoff history.
Panama's Rivera suffered only his third blown save in 35 chances by allowing run-scoring hits to Justin Morneau and Corey Koskie in the eighth as Minnesota erased a 5-3 deficit.
"He's been picking us up his whole career, so it was good for us to be able to pick him up for a change," Jeter said.
The Twins grabbed the lead in the top of the first, but Jeter tied the score with a leadoff homer in the bottom half of the inning.
The blast into the black seats beyond centerfield ended New York's 18-inning playoff scoring drought.
Sheffield and Rodriguez also homered for the Yankees.
At Anaheim, the Red Sox broke open a tight game with four runs in the ninth inning to put the Angels, 2002 World Series champions, on the brink of elimination. Boston scored 17 runs on 23 hits over two games in California.
Manny Ramirez hit a sacrifice fly that scored Johnny Damon from third base to give the Red Sox a 4-3 lead with two out in the seventh inning and scored on a Trot Nixon single in the ninth inning to give Boston an 5-3 edge.
Orlando Cabrera followed Nixon with a bases-loaded triple to score three runs, lift the Red Sox lead to 8-3 and end any dreams of an Angels rally.
Vladimir Guerrero's two-run single in the fifth gave the Angels a 3-1 edge but Jason Varitek blasted a two-run homer off Bartolo Colon with two out in the sixth inning to level the game 3-3.
Boston took a 1-0 lead when Ramirez was issued a bases-loaded walk to force home Bill Mueller in the second inning, but Anaheim leveled on Dallas McPherson's run-scoring single later in the inning.
A sumo star was born in Japan on Sunday when 24-year-old Takerufuji became the first wrestler in 110 years to win a top-division tournament on his debut, triumphing at the 15-day Spring Grand Sumo Tournament in Osaka despite injuring his ankle on the penultimate day. Takerufuji, whose injury had left him in a wheelchair outside the ring, shoved out the higher-ranked Gonoyama at the Edion Arena Osaka to the delight of the crowd, giving him an unassailable record of 13 wins and two losses to claim the Emperor’s Cup. “I did it just through willpower. I didn’t really know what was going
The US’ Ilia Malinin on Saturday produced six scintillating quadruple jumps, including a quadruple Axel, in the men’s free skate to capture his first figure skating world title. The 19-year-old nicknamed the “Quad god,” who is the only skater to land a quadruple Axel in competition, dazzled with an array of breathtakingly executed jumps starting with his quad Axel and including a quadruple Lutz in combination with a triple flip and a quadruple toe loop in combination with a triple toe. He added an unexpected triple-triple combination at the end to earn a world-record 227.79 in the free program for a championship
Shohei Ohtani’s interpreter is being criminally investigated by the IRS, and the attorney for his alleged bookmaker said Thursday that the ex-Los Angeles Dodgers employee placed bets on international soccer — but not baseball. The IRS confirmed Thursday that interpreter Ippei Mizuhara and Mathew Bowyer, the alleged illegal bookmaker, are under criminal investigation through the agency’s Los Angeles Field Office. IRS Criminal Investigation spokesperson Scott Villiard said he could not provide additional details. Mizuhara, 39, was fired by the Dodgers on Wednesday following reports from the Los Angeles Times and ESPN about his alleged ties to an illegal bookmaker and debts well
HSIEH MAKES QUARTERS: Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei and Elise Mertens of Belgium won in the women’s doubles and face Bethanie Mattek-Sands and Sofia Kenin of the US Top-ranked Iga Swiatek and US Open champion Coco Gauff were knocked out of the women’s singles at the Miami Open on Monday, while Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei advanced in the women’s doubles. Swiatek lost to Ekaterina Alexandrova 6-4, 6-2, hours after third seed Gauff fell in three sets to No. 23 Caroline Garcia 6-3, 1-6, 6-2. Alexandrova beat a top-ranked player for the first time and advanced to face Jessica Pegula, a 7-6 (7/1), 6-3 winner over Emma Navarro, in the quarter-finals. Alexandrova recorded her second win over Swiatek, following a 2021 victory in Melbourne. Swiatek had won their three matches since. “We played quite