Yankees knock Twins out of the running
By Dave Campbell
Associated Press
Sports Writer
MINNEAPOLIS - A big home run
by Ruben Sierra, a clutch 11 th
inning hit by Alex Rodriguez and
the New York Yankees are head
ed right back where most people
figured - playing the Boston Red
Sox for the AL pennant.
Sierra’s three-run homer in the
eighth inning tied it. Rodriguez
doubled, alertly stole third base
and scored the go-ahead run on
a wild pitch by Kyle Lohse to lift
the Yankees over the Minnesota
Twins 6-5 on Saturday.
With this 3-1 win in the first
round playoff series, New York
returned to Yankee Stadium -
where the AL championship
series opens Tuesday. Curt
Schilling is likely to start for the
Red Sox against Mike Mussina,
both on ample rest.
The Twins led 5-1 behind ace
Johan Santana before another
New York rally. The Yankees
came from behind for all three
wins in this series after setting a
major league record with 61
comeback victories during the
regular season. Nine of those
were from deficits of four runs or
For the second straight year,
New York handed Minnesota a
first-round playoff elimination in
four games and advanced to the
AL championship series to face
Boston.
The Yankees won that matchup
with Red Sox last October on
Aaron Boone’s homer in the 11th
inning of Game 7. Boston was
11-8 against the Yankees this
Cap Times staff picks the big winners in NFL
Herb Smith, Staff Writer
Oct. 17
Carolina @
Philadelphia
Carolina
Denver @ Oakland
Denver
Whalen makes waves in the WNBA
By Donna Tommelleo
Associate Press
Sports Writer
UNCASVILLE, Conn. - The
Connecticut Sun spent the first
month of the WNBA season just
getting to know each other. With
five rookies and two offseason
acquisitions, coach Mike Thibault
had a team full of fresh faces.
The team has found some
chemistry now and is starting to
click.
Rookie guard Lindsay Whalen
set a team playoff mark with nine
assists and had 11 points, two
steals and two blocked shots to
lead the Sun to a 68-64 win
Friday night over the Seattle
Storm in the opening game of the
WNBA Finals.
“I think our team has felt all year
that they had chance to do this,”
Thibault said. “And inside our
locker room that’s all that
Winning pitcher Mariano
Rivera, who blew a rare postsea
son save chance in the eighth
inning of Game 2, retired all six
batters he faced to finish a sti
fling performance by the
Yankees bullpen. After Javier
Vazquez allowed five runs in five
innings, Esteban Loaiza and Tom
Gordon each threw two score
less innings.
Lohse pitched a perfect 10th
and started the 11th by handing
Derek Jeter his fourth strikeout of
the afternoon, but Rodriguez
laced a double down the left-field
line and stole third base on
unsuspecting catcher Pat
Borders - who didn’t throw.
Then Lohse bounced a pitch to
Gary Sheffield that skipped past
Borders, allowing Rodriguez to
race home with the winning run.
That wild pitch silenced the
Metrodome, where fans thought
their AL Central champions
would do better this year against
the AL East winners. The Twins
were on the verge of a two
games-to-none lead Wednesday
night when closer Joe Nathan
failed to hold a one-run lead in
the 12th inning.
The three-time champion Twins
missed several chances to score
in this game and head into
another winter unsure how many
players they’ll be able to afford
next year.
Light-hitting Henry Blanco’s
leadoff homer and Lew Ford’s
two-out, two-run double broke it
open against Vazquez in the fifth,
giving the Twins a four-run cush
ion.
Santana was in the same situa
tion last year, needing a strong
Seattle @ New
England
New England
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Oct. 24
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Tennessee
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Buffalo @ Baltimore
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Dallas @ Green Bay
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counts.”
Whalen helped shut down
Storm star Sue Bird, who fin
ished with six turnovers and had
12 points on 4-for-11 shooting.
“I think it took us time to gel and
time to get to know ourselves on
the court as well as off,” Whalen
said. “We know we’re a good
team, as long as we play the
right way and share the ball we
should be in position.”
Game 2 is at Seattle on Sunday,
and Game 3, if necessary, will
also be there Tuesday.
Many of the 9,341 fans in the
sellout crowd had watched Bird
star at UConn, where she won
two NCAA titles. She drew a
deafening roar during introduc
tions, but after the opening tip,
the Sun took her out of her com
fort zone.
“They forced us to do things that
we were not necessarily wanting
to do or used to doing,” Bird said.
“More than anything I thought
performance to keep the Twins’
season going. He gave up six
runs and failed to survive the
fourth inning, and the Yankees
won that series in four games to
advance to the ALCS.
Throwing on short rest for the
first time in his major league
career, Santana _ who put at
least one runner on in each of his
seven shutout innings against
New York in Game 1 _ clearly
wasn’t strong.
Seventeen of his first 34 pitches
were balls, and the veteran
Yankees smartly and patiently
worked the count deep against
the 25-year-old left-hander.
Santana, who went 13-0 in his
final 15 regular-season starts
and led the league in strikeouts
and ERA, did just what he was
asked to do: He left with the lead
and let the bullpen do the rest.
Grant Balfour pitched two perfect
innings, and Sierra’s homer was
New York’s first extra-base hit.
But the first three Yankees
reached against Juan Rincon in
the eighth, with Bernie Williams
driving in Gary Sheffield with a
single to make it 5-2.
One out later, Sierra crushed a
2-2 pitch into the folded-up seats
in right-center field as Jeter and
Rodriguez jumped up off the
bench in celebration. After John
Olerud’s double, Joe Nathan
replaced Rincon _ who slammed
his cap in disgust upon reaching
the dugout.
Notes:@ CF Torii Hunter made
it look like he lost Rodriguez’s
third-inning flyball in the
Metrodome ceiling before easily
catching it in medium center field
_ forcing Jeter back to first. Both
Hunter and Jeter flashed big
Christian Torres, Staff Writer
Oct. 17
Carolina @
Philadelphia
Philadelphia
Denver @ Oakland
Oakland
their transition killed us.”
Whalen, who led Minnesota to
its first Final Four appearance
last season, kept the Sun’s tran
sition game in high gear. She
also set the tone for the solid
Photo courtesy of Google Images
Lindsay Whalen moves around an opponent, heading
for the goal. The rookie player is making history for the
Connecticut Sun in the WNBA.
Sports
Photo by Mike Segar,Reuters. Courtesy of Yahoo Images
Japanese player Hideki Matsui of the New York Yankees hits the game-winning sacri
fice fly against the Minnesota Twins, in the 12th inning of Game 2 of their American
League Division Series, at Yankee Stadium in New York, October 6, 2004. Twins
catcher is Henry Blanco. The Yankees won 7-6 to tie the best-of-five series at one
game apiece.
grins as they retreated. ... In the
fourth, Sheffield searched for
Justin Morneau’s fly ball and
made the same arms-out, palms-
Seattle @ New
England
New England
Pittsburgh @ Dallas
Pittsburgh
Oct. 24
Tennessee @
Minnesota
Minnesota
NY Jets @ New
England
New England
Buffalo @ Baltimore
Baltimore
Dallas @ Green Bay
Green Bay
defense which kept Lauren
Jackson, the league’s leading
scorer, in check for most of the
night.
The Sun had a Finals-record 15
steals, blocked six shots and had
up motion Hunter did _ only this way from second base to pick it
was no decoy. Miguel Cairo spot- up as Hunter scored to put the
ted the ball sailing over Twins up 2-1.
Sheffield’s head and ran all the
Dan Berger, Business Manager
Oct. 17
Carolina @
Philadelphia
Philadelphia
Denver @ Oakland
Oakland
just enough of a cushion to hold
off Seattle’s late rally from a 16-
point deficit.
The Sun took advantage of their
only home game in the beat-of
three game series, drawing a
raucous sellout crowd that
included Connecticut Gov. M.
Jodi Rell.
“It was live today. It made it eas
ier to play,” Sun forward Nykesha
Sales said. “There was a lot of
energy, a lot of excitement.”
Katie Douglas led Connecticut
with 18 points on 6-of-11 shoot
ing and made two free throws
with 16 seconds left.
“This is such a huge game for
our franchise and our team,”
Douglas said. “We’re on a jour
ney to do something special.”
Betty Lennox had 17 points for
Seattle, and Jackson finished
with 16 - six in the closing min
utes.
The Sun harassed Jackson
throughout the first half, bumping
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Oct. 24
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her off her cuts and doubling up
when she got the ball. But
Jackson made the most of her
few free looks, draining both of
her 3-point attempts, and fin
ished with eight points at the half.
“(Jackson) got really involved in
the latter part of the game. She
got past our guards a little bit,”
Sun coach Mike Thibault said.
“We’re going to have to do a bet
ter job of that.”
Jackson said she’s used to
being roughed up by defenses
but was unable to counter the
Sun defenders.
“It was pretty frustrating. It did
n’t feel like I got involved at all.
But it doesn’t matter,” Jackson
said, “because the next game I’m
going off."
She has dedicated the finals to
the memory of her grandmother,
Irene, who died last month.
“I just have to focus on getting
in there and being tough inside,”
Jackson said.