Yes, the Yankees are that good

Sporting News, The, Oct 12, 1998 by Steve Marantz

The Jake is beautiful and long-suffering Indians fans deserve a break, but this New York team is a sight to behold, too--and it will prolong the disappointment in Cleveland

If this is supposed to be baseball's greatest season, then why is the postseason seeming so ... routine? Yankees-Indians in the ALCS; Braves-Padres in the NLCS.

A great postseason would have provided one huge upset, if not two. The Cubs would have knocked off the Braves, or the flangers would have dispatched the Yankees. Sorry, sometimes fiction really is better than fact. Unless, of course, your name is Shane Spencer.

The Division Series merely confirmed our worst fear: The Yankees are that good. What they did to the Rangers falls under the category of cruel and unusual punishment. The worst part is we can't even bring ourselves to dislike the Yankees, because of Darryl Strawberry's sad absence, and because of Spencer's happy presence.

As for the Indians, let's just say they are back again, a nice occurrence for residents of Shaker Heights and Parma, but a somewhat dull prospect for the rest of us. A Yankees-Red Sox ALCS would have provided a great traditional rivalry, but pretty much the same result as the Yankees-Indians matchup.

This is the fourth consecutive postseason for the Indians, and by now we're all a bit inured to beautiful Jacobs Field, long-suffering Cleveland fans and a pitching staff lacking a genuine No. 1 starter. Only eight players remain from the 1995 club that lost the World Series to Atlanta, but the more things change, the more they stay the same. It has been 50 years since the Indians won a World Series, and unless the Yankees wander off to a biker convention with David Wells, it's going to be another year at least.

Not that lightning can't strike twice. Last year, the Indians prevailed over the Yankees in a five-game Division Series. But that was before the Yankees became the team that won an A.L.-record 114 games, before they had Chuck Knoblauch, Scott Brosius, El Duque Hernandez and, most of all, Spencer, the rookie who hit 12 home runs in his first 73 major league atbats, including two against the Rangers. That was before the Yankees took seven of 11 from Cleveland during the regular season.

"We're the underdogs, we know that," Indians catcher Sandy Alomar says. "They're going to be out to get us because we beat them last year. The only way we can win is to go out there and be aggressive. We can't be scared."

Says David Justice, Indians DH and left fielder: "We don't have any advantage over them. Not in any phase of the game. They're a great team top to bottom."

Yankees pitchers held Cleveland hitters to a .267 batting average this season and registered a 3.84 ERA against them. Lefthander David Wells is hard on the Indians; David Cone, Andy Pettitte and El Duque are less successful. Wells was 1-0, 2.25; Cone 1-1, 4.05; Pettitte 1-1, 2.81; and Hernandez 0-1, 3.77. Wells has an 8-3 career mark and Cone is 4-3. Pettitte lost twice to the Indians in the Division Series last October.

"Wells usually comes at us very aggressively," Indians hitting coach Charlie Manuel says. "He never backs away. To beat him, we've got to score early and get him out of his game. He doesn't try to strike us out, but he tries to get ahead of the hitter and throw his first and second pitch for a strike. He works the ball in and out, tight to righthanders, away from lefthanders. But he'll come in if he's ahead in the count. I saw him against the Rangers and he had a tremendous curve.

"Cone pitches us what I call backward. Once a hitter's ahead, he throws splitters and sliders. If he's ahead, he throws fastballs. He tries to show the fastball inside to keep us honest.

"For some reason we score runs on Pettitte. When we make him come over the plate is when we have success. If we don't chase balls out of the strike zone, we have a good chance.

"El Duque needs control, so we can't swing at bad balls. We have to make him bring the ball to the plate. Our lefthanded hitters should have good success. He throws a sinker, slider, change and curve. We can hit him. I like him, but at the same time I feel like our hitters can hit him.

"They've got (Jeff) Nelson in a setup role. He doesn't throw a lot of strikes. He's got a slider and good control and makes you hit the ball the other way. He's not going to give in.

"The closer, (Mariano) Rivera, is just overpowering. We have had some success. He's a hard fastball pitcher. If he gets in the habit of throwing back-to-back fastballs, sometimes you can hurt him.

"I would say that Wells and Cone are the big stepping-stones for them."

One key for the Indians is Justice, who hit just .171 against Yankees pitching. His home run in Game 2 and double in Game 4 sank the Red Sox in the Division Series, and he seems to be on every pitch. Kenny Lofton batted .367 (with three home runs) against the Yankees and figures to be on base enough to distract their pitchers. Third baseman Travis Fryman hit Yankees pitching at a .364 clip.

Pettitte is a pivotal figure, as well. His Game 2 effort against the Rangers (seven innings, three hits, one run) went against his second-half form (6-6, 4.67). When Pettitte struggles, it's because he lacks aggressiveness and falls apart in big innings.