Imagine holding a full house and getting beaten by a royal flush. Imagine having a sure thing at the race track, only to watch your horse pull up lame just before the finish line.
Now you know how David Cone felt last night after he got beaten by a pair of players who hadn’t been able to get a hit off him all year, much less one that mattered.
Cone had shaken off whatever doldrums had plagued him since his perfect game. He’d handled Toronto’s big bats of Shawn Green and Carlos Delgado.
But in the end, it was ex-Yankee Homer Bush and shortstop Tony Batista who manufactured the winning and insurance runs in the Blue Jays’ 3-1 win at the Stadium last night – Toronto’s first victory over the Yanks all year.
Cone, seeking his first win since his perfect game, had given up just one run through six innings and was locked in a 1-1 pitcher’s duel with Toronto’s Joey Hamilton. But in the seventh, Bush and Batista, who had combined to go 0-for-15 with eight strikeouts against Cone all year, promptly scuttled the Yank righty’s bid for a victory.
Bush hit a ball down the right-field line that Paul O’Neill misplayed into a double. And Batista – who had already struck out three times last night – slapped Cone’s low splitter through the hole at second to plate Bush with what proved to be the game-winner.
Batista also drove home Bush with another RBI single for an encore in the ninth.
“I’d struck out [Jose] Cruz [Jr.] to lead off the seventh, and up until that point I’d had good success against Homer Bush and Batista, and I thought I’d get through this,” said Cone (10-6).
“But it was a good piece of hitting [by Bush]. He kinda dunked it down the line. We bobbled it, he made a good base-running play to get to second. And I’d struck Batista out three times, and had a good chance to get him out. I have to give him credit. I made a good pitch, and he just punched it through the hole. That was my night.”
After losing all seven of their previous games to the Yanks this year, Toronto finally won one to cut the Bombers’ lead to five in the AL East and drop the Yanks (63-42) behind the Mets in the race for New York.
Cone, who gave up just two runs and struck out seven in 62/3 innings, still is searching for his first win since tossing his perfect game against Montreal on July 18. He bristled at the notion of any letdown or jinx – “No, I don’t believe in jinxes,” he snapped – but he had given up 10 runs and 14 hits over 11 innings since his perfecto before last night.
Even without his best command he got back on track and pitched well. But Hamilton (4-6) was better.
He held the Yanks scoreless until Joe Girardi’s sixth-inning homer. But that’s all he would give up in six innings of work.
Cone was almost as good, giving up just a David Segui solo homer in the second. Segui golfed Cone’s knee-high, 0-2 pitch over the wall in right.
Cone was shaky in the third when Delgado just missed in a bid for a three-run homer, driving O’Neill to the wall for the final out of the inning.
Meanwhile, Hamilton’s only mistake in his six sterling innings was hanging a belt-high pitch to Girardi, who smacked it into the visiting bullpen for a solo home run – his first homer since last July 9.
But the tie was short-lived, as Bush and Batista went to work in the seventh.
“It’s not like they’re trying to intimidate me, or I’m trying to dominate them,” said Bush, who was dealt to Toronto this past offseason in the Roger Clemens/David Wells deal.
“At this point I’m not caught up in who I’m playing against. I’m just worried about doing things to help my team win.”
The Yanks’ last best chance came in the eighth, when Scott Brosius led off with a double to left, and Girardi bunted him to third. But Chuck Knoblauch’s fly to center was too shallow to tag up on, and reliever John Frascatore fanned Derek Jeter to end the threat.
“[Cone] sure as hell pitched well enough to win,” manager Joe Torre said. “He was doing his job. We just couldn’t mount anything.”