MARLINS 3, YANKEES 2: Florida uses clutch hitting and defense, solid pitching to get edge on slovenly New York.
By MARC TOPKIN
Published October 19, 2003
[AP photo]
Juan Pierre drives in two runson a single against New York Yankees pitcher David Wells in the fifth inning.
NEW YORK - They looked unsettled, repeatedly failed to execute and made several costly mistakes in Saturday's World Series opener.
And those were the Yankees.
Those young, inexperienced, supposed-to-be-in-awe Marlins?
They looked very much like they belonged, scoring an impressive 3-2 victory.
"Should we have been awed? I mean, I don't know," Florida manager Jack McKeon said.
"We play them one night at a time whether we're playing in Woodbridge, N.J., or New York City or Chicago. It's one game at a time. They're not awed. These guys are a bunch of professionals that know their job, go out there on a daily basis, do the best they can and have fun."
The series has been billed as the small-market Marlins against the big-dollar Yankees, as the inexperienced bunch of kids against the seasoned professionals, as David vs. Goliath.
So what does it say that the Marlins won?
"I don't know," Florida's Jeff Conine said. "Maybe that speed, defense and pitching can win games?"
The Marlins showed all three.
Leadoff man Juan Pierre was on base four times, scoring one run, knocking in two and generally disrupting things. The Marlins turned two double plays and catcher Ivan Rodriguez picked Nick Johnson off third to kill a rally. Brad Penny, who'd struggled throughout the postseason, had a solid 51/3-innings start and rookie Dontrelle Willis was sensational in 21/3 innings of relief.
The Yankees can only hope they still were worn out from the emotional seven-game AL Championship Series with Boston. Playing before a subdued crowd of 55,769, their record 10-game World Series home winning streak, which dated to 1996, came to a disappointing end.
They left men on base in eight innings, five in scoring position. Johnson's careless baserunning, getting picked off when they had men on first and third and two outs, killed a rally. Aaron Boone, still being cheered for his 11th-inning home run that beat the Red Sox in Game 7, made a crucial bad decision, cutting off a throw to the plate that allowed the third Florida run to score.
About the only thing the Yankees could draw encouragement from was that they lost the first game at home to Minnesota in the division series and to Boston in the ALCS and came back to win.
"It's not something we planned," Yankees manager Joe Torre said. "I mean, it's nice that we've had this track record in these last two series, but we had so many opportunities tonight, it was certainly frustrating.
"But since we've done it the last couple times, it keeps us from getting to the point of, "We've got to, we've got to, we've got to.' "
Yankee Stadium is usually an electric place for the World Series, but the fans seemed as drained as the home team.
"Maybe they were tired," Derek Jeter said. "It's kind of hard to top Game 7 vs. the Boston Red Sox as far as atmosphere. But it's the World Series. We were up for the game as a team."
The Marlins' biggest advantage figured to be their speed, and they put it to use right away. Pierre led off with a bunt single by pushing the ball between the mound and first, went to third on Luis Castillo's bloop single to right and scored on Rodriguez's sac fly.
The Yankees tied it in the third on Jeter's single but lost a chance for more when Johnson, who is not fast, wandered too far off third and Rodriguez nailed him.
"That certainly wasn't good," Torre said. "That took momentum away from us, no question. Those things shouldn't happen."
The Yankees had a chance for more the next inning when their first two batters got on, but Jason Giambi grounded into a double play and Boone grounded out.
The Marlins pieced together a two-run rally in the fifth. A walk, a broken-bat single and a bunt put men on second and third. Pierre's sharp single through the drawn-in infield scored Conine easily, but the Yankees could have had a play at the plate on Juan Encarnacion.
Boone was between third and the mound when he cut off leftfielder Hideki Matsui's throw, then threw to first to keep Pierre from taking an extra base rather than throw home, where he could have made a play on Encarnacion.
"In hindsight, I probably should have let it go," Boone said. "We might have had a chance."
"I think it was a very good chance," catcher Jorge Posada.
But like other things for the Yankees on this night, it didn't work out.
