Don’t mistake the Yankees’ constant state of flux as chaos. It’s their winning ingredient.
About a half-hour after right-handed reliever Mark Wohlers declared he couldn’t wait to get to New York in a speaker-phone press conference, Bernie Williams slugged a game-winning, two-run homer, his second of the day, in a 5-4 victory over Tampa Bay. The foundation and the reinforcements always seem to dove-tail, never seeming to clash.
“We’ve managed to change every year, even though we’ve been successful,” Joe Torre said. “Which to me, it keeps people from getting stale. The players who remain here do recognize how we go about that.”
Yankees GM Brian Cashman may have been wearing a yellow Hawaiian shirt yesterday, but there’s no such thing as a casual day in The Bronx. The restless Cashman was working all week to get Wohlers, simultaneous with his acquisitions of reliever Jay Witasick and outfielder Gerald Williams.
The latter made his debut in a second stint in New York, pinch-hitting for Paul O’Neill with one out in the eighth of a game the Yankees trailed, 4-3, and kick-starting the rally with a walk.
“We have a very easy group of people that makes it easy for other people to slide in with,” Cashman said.
At the foundation of the success was Bernie Williams, who belted two-run bombs from both sides of the plate in the sixth and the eighth to lead the Bombers (45-33) to their third straight victory, one that pushed them a season-high 12 games over .500. Williams is carrying the team offensively, raising his average to .326 with a 2-for-3 day.
His current streak of reaching base for 34 straight games is the longest of his career and longest in the majors this year. Batting right-handed against lefty reliever Doug Creek (2-2) with one on and one out in the eighth, Williams said he didn’t feel comfortable. But he launched a 2-2 pitch onto the netting over the left-field fence for his first two-homer game of the year. Afterward, he was optimistic of the club’s direction.
“I think everybody has to step up, not only us,” Williams said. “We have been able to surround ourselves with people in years past who have been able to step up with us and help us win.”
Tampa Bay coughed up most of a 4-0 edge in the sixth when starting right-hander Ryan Rupe gave up back-to-back jacks to Williams and Tino Martinez, the latter an upper deck shot that cut the lead to 4-3. Williams’ homer was an opposite-field line drive that tailed toward the left-field line and carried in the hot, dry air.
That was good news for Yankees starter Ted Lilly, who was on the hook after lasting just 32/3 innings and failing to locate his fastball. Ramiro Mendoza pitched 31/3 scoreless innings, and Stanton (6-2) bolstered his case for the All-Star Game with a scoreless eighth.
In the ninth, Mariano Rivera worked out of a self-induced jam of first-and-third with one out by striking out Russ Johnson and getting Ben Grieve to fly out. For Rivera, it was save No. 26.
“We’re playing well,” said Martinez, who hit his fourth homer in the last five games. “We said on this homestand, have a good homestand, push it hard all the way to the All-Star break.”
They’re doing it at a time when even the foundation is shifting. Chuck Knoblauch sat out after hearing trade rumors from earlier in the week, and Derek Jeter batted leadoff. David Justice returned from the DL.
Gerald Williams, Jay Witasick and now Wohlers are added to the mix. Torre said the pressure and the minor roster shakeup has help created “stimulation.”
“Most years, I sense it comes to this time of year and we seem to start gelling and we seem to be more comfortable,” Torre said.