New York – Randy Johnson knows his mission: Win.
The Yankees imported the left-hander last winter to be their ace, snuff out opponents and get New York its first World Series title since 2000.
With the best-of-five AL playoff series against the Los Angeles Angels tied at one game apiece going into Game 3, Johnson, 42, sounded determined as he prepared for his Yankees postseason debut.
“I understand that I am here to get this team over the top,” he said. “And with that, there’s no making mistakes. I made a few during the regular season, and unfortunately there’s no room to make a lot of mistakes during the postseason.”
It wasn’t clear whether the game would be played as scheduled tonight at Yankee Stadium or be pushed back by rain, which is forecast for three days.
Johnson has been the one constant in New York’s conveyor-belt pitching rotation, and Alex Rodriguez has said repeatedly the 6-foot-10 pitcher would be the difference in October.
After struggling with his mechanics for 4 1/2 months during his first season in the Bronx, Johnson found his form after discovering on video that he was rushing his delivery and dropping his arm. He went 6-0 with a 1.92 ERA in his final eight starts, and from July 26 on held left-handed batters to an .074 average (4-for-54) with one extra-base hit, a double by Boston’s David Ortiz in New York’s AL East clincher last Saturday.
That’s not good news for an Angels lineup that includes lefties Garret Anderson (3-for-18 vs. Johnson), Darin Erstad (5-for-20) and Adam Kennedy (0-for-2). Steve Finley (2-for-12) won’t start.
“The only thing we can do is probably pray a lot,” right-handed-hitting catcher Bengie Molina said. “Hopefully he makes a lot of pitches up the middle of the plate and he’s not on his game that day.”
After well-pitched games by Bartolo Colon and John Lackey, the Angels are depending on Paul Byrd’s brain and arm. Byrd (12-11, 3.74, 28 walks in 204 1/3 innings) said comparing himself with Johnson was like contrasting the speed of leadoff man Chone Figgins (major league-high 62 stolen bases this year) with Molina (zero).
“The big diesel freight train vs. the Little Engine That Could,” Byrd said.
Johnson, who didn’t get a decision against the Angels in his two starts against them this year (July 21, 31), has lost seven consecutive division series starts but is 5-1 in the league championship series and World Series. He found the Yankee Stadium atmosphere underwhelming this year, even though he went 11-2 with a 3.13 ERA at home and was 6-6 with a 4.64 ERA on the road.
“The crowd, and I don’t mean this in a disrespectful way, but in games that I’ve pitched in Arizona, the crowd was really more animated on the days that I pitched than probably any other day that I would witness. And I really fed off of that,” he said. “At times this year, I felt that with the Yankee crowd. But I think as a visiting player, I felt more hostility, and I fed off of that.”
That said, he expects the sellout crowd of 55,000-plus to be pumped for New York’s first home postseason appearance since losing ALCS Games 6 and 7 to Boston last October.
“I’m assuming that it will be a lot like opening day, and it was exciting,” he said, reflecting to the 9-2 win over the Red Sox.
Game 3: Angels at Yankees
6 p.m., ESPN
This matchup might have looked like a tossup at the all-star break, but Randy Johnson has found his form after struggling with his mechanics for most of the season. Johnson saw on tape that he was rushing his delivery and dropping his arm. After the adjustment, he went 6-0 with a 1.92 ERA in his final eight starts. But the 34-year old Byrd has also been hot, going 3-2 with a 2.25 ERA in September. He gave up three earned runs in a seven-inning no-decision in his lone start in the Bronx in 2005.
Schedule
Game 1: Tuesday: Yankees 4, Angels 2
Game 2: Wednesday: Angels 5, Yankees 3
Game 3: Today: Los Angeles’ Paul Byrd (12-11, 3.74) at New York’s Randy Johnson (17-8, 3.79), 6 p.m., ESPN
Game 4: Saturday: Los Angeles’ Jarrod Washburn (8-8, 3.20) at New York’s Shawn Chacon (7-3, 2.85), 2:30 p.m., KDVR-31
Game 5*: Sunday: New York at Los Angeles, 6 p.m., KDVR-31
*-If necessary
