APRIL 13, 1999
By GREGORY SCHUTTA, Staff Writer
The Record Online,
Monday, April 12, 1999
NEW YORK -- Just a year removed from his dramatic defection from Cuba, Orlando Hernandez is still getting the hang of the English language. But the sound of wild cheering and chants of "Du-que, Du-que" are universal.
Those chants helped the Cuban phenom come within eight outs of the first perfect game of his career Sunday and the second for the Yankees in less than a year, as he retired the first 19 batters in the Bombers' 11-2 victory over the Detroit Tigers.
Gregg Jefferies broke up the perfect game with a one-out walk in the seventh, and Tony Clark ended the no-hitter two batters later on a clean single off an 0-2 pitch.
"I saw the crowd getting up," El Duque said through designated translator Jorge Posada. "They were getting me charged up. I wanted to do it for them."
And the crowd tried its best to get him through it, giving the right-hander with the big leg kick a standing ovation with every two-strike count from the fifth inning on. El Duque baffled the Detroit hitters with a remarkable mix of fastballs, curveballs, and screwballs from nearly every angle.
"I was reminded of David Wells' perfect game last year," David Cone said. "I thought he was that good."
"I thought it was amazing that I was catching another one," said Posada, a third-year catcher who caught Wells' perfect game against the Minnesota Twins last May. "He had a very good fastball, the hardest I've seen him throw since he got here, and it was very heavy. And he had good control like always. I just wanted to call the right pitches so he would get it."
But after Juan Encarnacion struck out leading off the seventh, the 19th straight batter to go down and the eighth of El Duque's nine strikeouts in seven innings, the Tigers finally managed to get a piece of Hernandez. Jefferies worked the count to 3-1 before drawing a walk to give the Tigers their first baserunner. That resulted in a long, standing ovation for El Duque from the crowd.
Damion Easley struck out for the third time in three trips and Clark fell behind 0-2 before sending a clean single into right field. Hernandez lost the shutout when the next batter, Dean Palmer, doubled to score Jefferies. Hernandez ended his day by getting Bobby Higginson to ground to first.
"I wanted to throw the no-hitter, but it wasn't my first priority," Hernandez said when asked if he was disappointed. "It was more important to get the win for the team. I wanted to go out and give the team a chance."
"I think falling behind Jefferies like that got to him," Posada said. "It affected his concentration, especially on the hit by Clark."
But until then, Hernandez was in control, making the Tigers chase his pitches rather than trying to overpower them.
"I was with Roger Craig in 1987 and he would say that this guy or that guy had a feel for pitching," said interim manager Don Zimmer, who coached alongside Craig with the Giants that year. "Then you'd see another guy come in and throw twice as hard and he would say that guy has no feel for pitching. I would put El Duque in with the guys who have a feel for pitching. He knows what he's doing all the time."
"It's always a battle between the pitcher and the hitter," said Hernandez, who threw two no-hitters while in Cuba but never a perfect game. "When you pitch so long, you get that sense of the weakness of hitters. You try to outguess the hitters. It comes with experience."
"I think he's blessed with it," Posada added.
Hernandez was also blessed with an 11-0 lead. The Yankees took advantage of four walks and a Detroit error to score eight runs in the third inning. Derek Jeter, who had a two-run homer later in the game, doubled and scored to lead off the inning and also drove in a run with a bases-loaded walk. Paul O'Neill also drove in three runs in the game with a first-inning sacrifice fly and a two-run single in the third.
* * *
Andy Pettitte's next minor league start has been moved from Norwich to Sarasota today because of better weather in Florida. The Yankees' only left-handed starter, out since early in spring training with a sore elbow, will join the Class A Tampa Yankees against the Sarasota Red Sox before joining the Bombers for his scheduled debut at Detroit on Saturday. . . . Hideki Irabu warmed up before the ninth inning Sunday, but didn't see any action. Right-hander Dan Naulty went two innings in his Yankee debut, allowing three hits and one run, a homer by Bill Haselman.
Copyright © 1999 Bergen Record Corp.
[ BACK TO THE NEWS ]