Fall Fashion: Pinstripes In, Red Sox Out

By MIKE DiGIOVANNA

Oct. 19, 1999 12 AM PT

TIMES STAFF WRITER

BOSTON —

Whether he is 30 or 34 or 44 years old, whether he escaped Cuba rowing a leaky wooden raft or a having mai-tais served to him on the deck of a 78-foot luxury yacht, none of this matters to the New York Yankees.

All they care about is that Orlando “El Duque” Hernandez is wearing a Yankee uniform and a navy blue cap with the interlocking “NY” insignia, and not a uniform that says Indians, Mariners or Angels across the chest.

The Yankees won a bidding war for the crafty right-hander with the outrageously high leg kick before the 1998 season, and they continued to reap the benefits of that investment when Hernandez pitched them to their 36th American League pennant Monday night.

Braving chilly temperatures and a biting New England wind, Hernandez gave up one run on five hits and struck out nine in seven innings Monday night in a 6-1 AL championship series-clinching Game 5 victory over the Boston Red Sox before 33,589 in Fenway Park.

The Yankees drove yet another dagger into the hearts of Red Sox fans--on top of eliminating the Sox in their home park, they did it with 1978 playoff hero and Fenway villain Bucky Dent watching from the stands--and they’ll go for their 25th World Series title, and second in a row, against either the New York Mets or Atlanta Braves beginning Saturday. It may take them a day or two to shake the Red Sox from their memories, though, especially after Boston gave the Yankees a major scare in the bottom of the eighth of a marathon that took 4 hours 9 minutes to complete.

Jason Varitek started things with a homer off Hernandez, and Boston, trailing, 4-1, loaded the bases with one out against a trio of Yankee relievers, Mike Stanton, Jeff Nelson and Allen Watson.

Manager Joe Torre summoned Game 2 hero Ramiro Mendoza, who escaped a bases-loaded, one-out jam in the eighth inning of a 3-2 Yankee victory Thursday night, and the right-hander pulled off Houdini II, striking out pinch-hitter Scott Hatteberg on a full-count pitch in the dirt and getting Trot Nixon to hit a pop foul to third.

Jorge Posada then gave the Yankees some breathing room in the ninth, blasting a two-run homer to right for a 6-1 lead, and Mendoza retired the side in order in the bottom of the ninth, touching off yet another pennant-clinching Yankee celebration.

“I can’t say enough about what Mendoza has meant to this team,” Torre said. “We call him the Ice Man. He has saved our you-know-whats a number of times.”

Torre thought it interesting that Mendoza got the save for Hernandez on Monday night, because it was Mendoza who had to yield his spot in the rotation to Hernandez last season.

A No. 4 starter in 1998, his first season in New York, Hernandez emerged as the Yankees’ ace this past June. He now has a career 4-0 record and 0.97 earned run average in five playoff starts, and he earned ALCS most valuable player honors Monday night.

“It seems like 100 years ago when I saw him throw on the side in spring training in 1998,” Torre said. “I thought, ‘Wow, this big leg kick, I don’t know if he can do this.’ Then you watch him grow. Ever since Game 4 [of the 1998 ALCS against Cleveland, a 4-0 win] he has dared people to beat them. That first inning tonight was phenomenal.”

Hernandez, the Man With a Thousand Arm Angles, was an escape artist Monday night, pitching his way out of a first-and-third, no-out jam in the first, a first-and-second, two-out jam in the second, and a runner-on-third, one-out jam in the sixth.

After Chuck Knoblauch opened the game with a single and Derek Jeter homered off Red Sox starter Kent Mercker for a 2-0 lead in the top of the first, it appeared Boston would rebound quickly in the bottom of the first, when Jose Offerman singled and took third on John Valentin’s hit-and-run single.

But Hernandez struck out Varitek, got Nomar Garciaparra--who admitted to having five cortisone shots in his right wrist since getting hit with a pitch on Sept. 25--to pop to third and Troy O’Leary to fly to left, snuffing out the rally.

Hernandez struck out Offerman to end the second, and after Garciaparra reached third with one out in the sixth, he retired Mike Stanley on a fly to shallow right and Brian Daubach on a grounder to first.

“He has no fear,” Yankee pitching coach Mel Stottlemyre said of Hernandez. “He’s been through a lot of things to get to this point, and he really enjoys these big pressure situations. It’s a great trait to have. He’s been under pressure his whole life. He thrives on it.”

Jeter’s homer gave Hernandez an early cushion in the first, and the Yankees took advantage of two Red Sox errors in the seventh, by Stanley at first base and Offerman at second, to score two unearned runs. Those were Boston’s ninth and 10th errors of the series, which set a league championship series record.

The Yankees now will have four days to rest and set up their rotation for the World Series, and Hernandez is in line to start Game 1.

“We wanted to finish this here,” Jeter said. “We didn’t want to give them any life, any confidence.”

The Red Sox got a momentum surge in the eighth. After Varitek’s homer and Garciaparra’s double, ace Pedro Martinez jogged out to the bullpen and began warming up, stirring the crowd into a frenzy.

But Mendoza doused the Red Sox rally to end Boston’s Magic Carpet Ride through the playoffs, and now the Yankees, who won 125 total games in 1998 and were compared with the best teams in baseball history, have a chance to repeat.

“You know, we’ve been measured against ourselves, I guess, all year,” Torre said. “I tried to warn our club in spring training that we cannot compete against ourselves, because that was a once-in-a-lifetime type team.

“Last year, when we won so many games, a lot of teams felt they didn’t have a chance against us. This year, they had a better shot, so this is a little more satisfying. We had to earn it more this year.”

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

World Series

NEW YORK YANKEES vs.

NATIONAL LEAGUE WINNER

Best-of-seven series;

All games on Channel 4

Game 1 Saturday at National League, 5 p.m.

Game 2 Sunday at National League, 5 p.m.

Game 3 Oct. 26 at Yankees, 5:15 p.m.

Game 4 Oct. 27 at Yankees, 5:15 p.m.

*Game 5 Oct. 28 at Yankees, 5:15 p.m.

*Game 6 Oct. 30 at National League, 5 p.m.