| | ATLANTA -- There's an ironclad axiom among baseball people: when it comes to pitching,
movement and late life beats velocity every time. If you ever needed a
receipt, all you had to do was watch David Cone outperform Kevin Millwood in
Game 2 of the World Series on Sunday night.
The matchup was the cha-cha-cha of Cone's sinking,
two-seam fastball and splitter against the hiss of Millwood's 93-mph heat. On
paper, the night should have belonged to the Braves, since Millwood is younger,
throws harder and kept National League hitters to a .202 average this year,
the lowest in the majors for a starting pitcher.
|  | | David Cone allowed one hit and struck out four as he improved to 8-3 in postseason play.
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So how did Cone make the Braves look so helpless? How did the Yankees
pummel Millwood and, after a one-sided 7-2 win over Atlanta, take a 2-0
World Series lead?
The answer is simple, actually: magic beats muscle. Every single time.
"David kept the ball down really good tonight," Bobby Cox said. "He had
breaking stuff. He wasn't overpowering at all. He didn't throw that hard, but
his ball was sinking like crazy. He had great movement. I still think the
best pitch in baseball is a good moving fastball, and he had that moving
tonight."
Cone allowed just one hit in seven innings, which means Atlanta has
totaled just two hits in 14 innings against Yankee starters in this Series.
On Saturday night, the Braves were rendered helpless by Orlando Hernandez's
freakishly high leg kick, and just 24 hours later, they were just as
invisible against arsenal of splitters and sliders.
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DOMINANCE ON THE MOUND
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The Yankees are 20-3 over the past two postseasons. Below is a rundown of each game and how many innings the starting pitcher threw in that corresponding game:
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Score
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SP (IP)
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N.Y. 2, Texas 0
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Wells (8)
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N.Y. 3, Texas 1
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Pettitte (7)
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N.Y. 4, Texas 0
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Cone (5.2)
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N.Y. 7, Cleve. 2
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Wells (8)
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Cleve. 4, N.Y. 1
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Cone (8)
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Cleve. 6, N.Y. 1
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Pettitte (4.2)
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N.Y. 4, Cleve. 0
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Hernandez (7)
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N.Y. 5, Cleve. 3
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Wells (7.2)
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N.Y. 9, Cleve. 5
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Cone (5)
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N.Y. 9, S.D. 6
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Wells (7)
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N.Y. 9, S.D. 3
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Hernandez (7)
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N.Y. 5, S.D. 4
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Cone (6)
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N.Y. 3, S.D. 0
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Pettitte (7.1)
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N.Y. 8, Texas 0
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Hernandez (8)
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N.Y. 3, Texas 1
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Pettitte (7.1)
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N.Y. 3, Texas 0
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Clemens (7)
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N.Y. 4, Boston 3
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Hernandez (8)
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N.Y. 3, Boston 2
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Cone (7)
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Boston 13, N.Y. 1
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Clemens (2)
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N.Y. 9, Boston 2
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Pettitte (7.1)
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N.Y. 6, Boston 1
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Hernandez (7)
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N.Y. 4, Atl. 1
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Hernandez (7)
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N.Y. 7, Atl. 2
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Cone (7)
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Cox is right. Cone doesn't throw very hard any more. Even Cone won't
argue that. In fact, there's talk in the Yankees' front office of cutting ties
with Cone after this season. He's 36, and despite that July 18 perfect game against the Expos, showed his age by winning only twice in his final 13 starts, posting a 4.82 earned-run average.
Cone, no dummy, is aware the Yankees might be turning their gaze to
Ramiro Mendoza next season. He's younger, cheaper and undoubtedly more durable. If that's the case, Cone's friends are saying he could still have the last word, signing a free-agent deal with the Mets and further intensifying an already overheated baseball civil war in New York.
Then again, George Steinbrenner would have to be blind to ignore what
Cone did for the Yankees on Sunday. After the Yankees had taken a 3-0 lead against Millwood in the first inning, Cone calmly went about the business of
smothering the Braves, allowing only four balls out of the infield, and only
twice putting runners in scoring position.
Cone's finest moment? It came in the seventh inning, when he was starting
to run out of gas, giving the fans at Turner Field a reason to finally
start breathing again. The Yankees were leading 7-0, but who couldn't feel
the Braves stirring after a leadoff walk to Brian Jordan, and one out later,
a four-pitch walk to Keith Lockhart?
Greg Myers' long fly ball to center allowed Jordan to take third, which
means, with Andruw Jones at the plate, Cone was in a small state of crisis.
That's why he stepped off the mound and took a deep, long breath. He admitted he was counseling himself through the turbulence.
"I did kind of try to step back and say, 'Even if I give up a home run
right here, we still have a pretty good lead,' " Cone said. "I just wanted to
stop it right there."
Cone's confidence came from a vault of experience, even in this game.
Every time he was in trouble, there'd be a two-seamer or a splitter --
something, anything -- that came to his rescue. In this case, with the count
3-2 on Jones, Cone threw a mean, late-breaking slider that froze the Braves'
center fielder.
And even though Jones pounded the plate in frustration,
arguing with home plate umpire Rocky Roe that the pitch was low, Jones' fury
was self-directed. He was simply mad at himself for being outsmarted.
So where does this leave the Braves? They swear they'll regroup by
Tuesday's Game 3, even though they'll be facing a hostile Bronx crowd. Maybe by then Cox will have figured out a way to motivate his hitters, who look even more anemic in the Series than they did in the NL Championship Series with the Mets.
In fact, the Yankees should dash off a thank-you note to the Mets, who
apparently drained all the energy from the Braves in their titanic, six-game
war. And the Mets have every reason to play what-if, wondering what would have happened had Kenny Rogers not missed with that final, bases-loaded fastball
to Andruw Jones in the 11th inning of Game 6.
The Braves, won a major league-best 103 regular-season games in 1999, but look like they're ready to flip the calendar to the next millennium right now.
Bob Klapisch of the Bergen (N.J.) Record covers baseball for ESPN.com. | |
ALSO SEE
Game 2: Yankees cruise to 7-2 win behind Cone
Frozen moment: Glavine gets sick
Key at-bat: O'Neill singles in the first
Braves offense turns offensive
AUDIO/VIDEO
 Yankee starter David Cone knows he was fortunate to get out of the seventh inning.
avi: 753 k
RealVideo: 56.6 | ISDN | T1
 David Cone says the Yankees have to keep the pressure on the Braves.
wav: 96 k
RealAudio: 14.4 | 28.8 | 56.6
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