It may or may not have been Jeffrey Maier out in the right field stands Sunday at the series finale between the Indians and Yankees, but the results were still the same.
This time though, there was replay to save the day make it more confusing in the Indians 7-3 loss.
Stepping in as a pinch hitter in the seventh inning, Yankee catcher Jorge Posada lifted a Jensen Lewis offering to rightfield. Trevor Crowe leaped. A fan reached.
The umpires called it a home run. Then looked at the instant replay, for the first time this season and the first in Indians history, before sticking to the original ruling.
The two-run home run gave the Yankees a 4-3 lead.
At least the players were able to decide who won Satuday’s rout. That was not the case Sunday, according to Sheldon Ocker.
The fan in question isn’t Maier, but none other than Brian Doyle, 33, of Scotch Plains, N.J. per the New York Post:
“I thought it was going to be short but it was definitely over the wall, definitely past the yellow [W.B. Mason sign],” (Doyle) said. “Definitely a home run, no question. . . . I know I hit a glove. I don’t know if it was [Crowe's] or the guy next to me.”
Crowe said there is no doubt he would have caught it.
Lost in the home run hoopla was how well Carl Pavano pitched. The man known as the “American Idle” among the ever so kind New York fans worked through six innings, allowing one run and four hits, per MLB.com’s Anthony Castrovince.
Ocker’s story also focuses on the troubles Jensen Lewis has had this weekend at the New Yankee Stadium:
He gave up the game winner on a ninth-inning home run to right on Friday. That ball might have carried 340 feet. Posada’s disputed homer was probably a 330-footer.
”It was a pop fly,” Lewis said. ”In any other ballpark in the country, that’s an out. It was a good pitch, and he just got it up in the jet stream. I don’t think numbers lie. Balls that are mis-hit go out, and balls that are hit hard go out.”
Lewis was glad the series is over.
”I’m ready to leave here,” he said. ”I don’t think it’s a question of [my] stuff. I feel strong. I’m throwing the ball where I want to. One day, I don’t hit my spot [Friday], today I do hit my spot, and it still goes out.”
Columbus Clippings
Michael Aubrey leads the Clippers in most hitting categories and his ready for another major league look, according to Stephanie Storm.
The Clippers beat the Mud Hens 7-5 Sunday. Matt LaPorta had a two-run home run in the seventh inning.
What’s happenin’ in Akron
the rest…
– Pete Abraham wonders why the New Yankee Stadium didn’t learn from the Jeffrey Maier incident.
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This is how Eric Wedge is costing the Tribe wins in tight games:
His closer, Kerry Wood, is unscored upon and has dominated in every appearance, striking out the side, etc. He had not pitched for four days going into yesterday’s game, so he wasn’t overworked.
8th inning…bases now loaded…and Wedge refuses to bring in his BEST relief pitcher—at the game’s most-crucial point, the “save” situation, if you will. There were two outs. Wood would’ve had to pitch only 1-1/3 innings, instead of his “usual” (ridiculous) one inning.
WHAT is Wedge waiting for?? Does he intent to ONLY use Wood in a “save” situation in the 9th inning? This is flawed thinking, buddy. The rest of the bullpen is imploding, and Wood is the ONE sure-thing. Don’t think for a minute that Shapiro didn’t want Wood in the game in the 8th! We were already down one run, and it was ESSENTIAL that it be kept at one run, with Mariano coming in.
We then could’ve played small ball to try and push across a tying run in the 9th (which, I know, is next to impossible for this team). But it was our BEST CHANCE of winning. Wedge, alone, blew it with his staunch stupidity that Wood can only pitch in the 9th inning.