‘98 Bombers take 2 of 3 from ‘02 Halos

9/10-9/11 - Edison Field
GAME 1 - Yankees 12, Angels 4
Aaron Sele was struggling until the Bombers blew it open with a 6th run 4th inning.  Boomer Wells was cruising until the 8th when the big man just flat out lost interest in this blowout and gave up back to back homers.  The only damage it did was to Wells' (4-1, 3.89) ERA.  "Burn baby Burn", was all John Sterling could say to the fans on 770 WABC in New York as the quiet man from Puerto Rico, Bernie Williams went 5 for 5 with 4 RBI's.  Williams also hit his 4th homer of the season.  DH Darryl Strawberry went 4 for 5 as the Bombers launched 20 hits in this walk over.

GAME 2 - Angels 5, Yankees 0
"Big Game" John Lackey shut down Murders Row Junior for six  innings before yielding to the pen.  Pote, Schoeneweis and Percival kept the shutout in tact as the Halos got to David Cone early.  Garret Anderson broke the ice with a solo shot to lead off the 2nd.  A 3 run shot by Brad Fullmer in the bottom of the 3rd made it 4-0.  An insurance run in the 8th upped the score to 5-0 as the Halos cruised to victory.

9/12- Yankee Stadium
GAME 3 - Yankees 5, Angels 4
Jarrod Washburn and "El Duque'" matched each other with almost identical linescores.  Both starters gave up 4 runs in 7 innings of work.  Washburn was in and out of trouble and found a way to make the right pitch most of the time as evidenced by the 13 hits he allowed in his 7 innings of duty.  El Duque only allowed 4 hits, but uncharacteristically walked 5, which in the end hurt him.  The Bombers took a 2-0 lead in the 1st when Chuck Knoblauch scored on a sac fly by Bernie Williams.  Chili Davis then doubled home Derek Jeter, but got thrown out trying to stretch it into a triple to end the inning.  The Angels got 1 back in the top of the 2nd when Troy Glaus singled and stole second, then scored on a ground out by Benji Gil.  New York bumped their lead up to 4-1 in the bottom of the inning when Jorge Posada led off with a single and moved to third on a Chad Curtis double.  Tino Martinez hit one to the warning track to easily score the lead footed Posada.  Paul O'Neill singled up the middle to score Curtis.  El Duque' walked 2 and gave up a single to Glaus to load the bases with nobody out in the top of the 4th.  Anaheim looked poised to have a big inning, but Benji Molina grounded in to a 5-4-3 around the horn DP, which did score Fullmer, but also took away any chance for a big inning.  The top of the 6th saw El Duque get the first 2 outs, but then walk Glaus.  Scott Spiezio came to the plate knowing that Hernandez needed to throw a strike, so he sat on dead read and dropped it neatly into the right field porch to tie the game at 4 all.  Fast forward to the bottom of the 9th when Knoblauch led off the inning with a single off of reliever Scott Schoeneweis.  Scott Shields was summoned in from the pen to give the Angels a righty on righty match up.  Of course that righty that they were trying to match up with was none other than Mr. Clutch, Derek Jeter.  You didn't need a Hollywood script writer to pen the plot as "Jeets" did exactly what he always does in these situations: dive into the ball and line a single to right.  Anaheim brought in the corners anticipating a bunt by Scott Brosius.  That bunt didn't work and with 2 strikes Brosius lined a one hop grounder to third, which Glaus had to go to first with.  The runners advanced 90 feet as if it was a well executed bunt.  Bernie Williams received an intentional pass to create a force on all the bases.  DH Tim Raines stepped to the plate needing to lift the ball deep enough for Jeter to score.  Raines never got the opportunity to use his bat as Shields walked him on 5 pitches to allow the winning run to score.