YANK NOTES
Paul O’Neill is hot. Hot at the plate and now hot at recent reports that manager Joe Torre was considering dropping him from third to sixth in the batting order because of his slump. It never happened.
Well, O’Neill had his say after collecting five hits the past two days to raise his average nearly 20 points, to .262.
When asked about his emergence, O’Neill, who had two hits in yesterday’s 8-3 win, appeared offended by the speculation. He fumed: “It was a good game for us, period. I’m not getting into my hitting. I’ve had enough of it the last couple of days with all the rumors about me in the lineup. You guys had me being changed in the lineups. I’m sick of hearing about it.
“Joe talks to a lot of players a lot of times when they’re struggling. We won a game today and hopefully the lineup will stay the same way, the same one we had last year. We’ve got to turn our offense around period.”
Although reporters can’t see it, Torre says O’Neill has adopted a calmer demeanor.
“It’s nice in 48 hours to see his personality take the turn for the better and be a little more relaxed,” Torre said. “That’s all it takes. It’s easy to know the remedy. It’s not easy to apply it. He puts a lot of pressure on himself. Every single at-bat is a monster for him. I just let him know I didn’t think he needed a day off or move anywhere in the batting order.”
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Torre admitted yesterday he held Roger Clemens out of last Thursday’s start at Fenway Park because of the combination of returning from the 15-day DL and facing his old mates was too much emotion for “The Rocket.”
Torre originally said it was due to the chance of wet weather. Clemens, who pitched beautifully in his return the next day in Chicago, closes out the three-game series vs. Boston tonight.
“I think he’ll be fine,” Torre said. “That one start he had in Chicago helped him. That was part of the reluctance of pitching him in Boston. I didn’t want his first start back to be something that he’s going to try to get out of his body to have. He’s such an energetic competitor. I didn’t want to do that.”
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Bosox SS Nomar Garciaparra was scratched with a bruised right index finger. Jeff Frye made his first career start at short .. Tino Martinez’ grand slam was his seventh career.
Pat Rapp faces Clemens tonight, which is makeup of Tuesday rainout … Torre expects the Sox to be there during the stretch run. “I don’t anticipate this club going away at all,” Torre said. “They’re legitimate. They have a number of starters, and have Ramon Martinez coming soon.”