Loss in Motown leaves playoffJoe Torre chewed his gum. It was all he could do, really, as he sat in the Yankee dugout here last night. Chew his gum while watching the season - and perhaps his tenure as Yankee manager - come crashing down around him.
Suddenly, the future of the Bombers is gloomy, and a virtual demolition of the franchise may not be far off. Torre's 11-year run as Yankee manager could end within days. Alex Rodriguez figures to be shopped on the trade market. An overhaul of the pitching staff is needed, and if the last few days are any indication, so is an infusion of energy.
The end came at 7:24 p.m., 187 days after it began with so much promise in Oakland. Robinson Cano grounded out to complete an 8-3 loss to the Tigers, knocking the Bombers out in the first round of the playoffs for the second straight year and sending them into a winter during which the wrath of George Steinbrenner almost certainly will be felt.
As Detroit reliever Jamie Walker was enveloped on the mound by his teammates, A-Rod stood in the on-deck circle, bat held limply at his side while the histrionics unfolded around him.
"Plain and simple they dominated us," he said. "They absolutely kicked our ass."
That point couldn't be argued. The Yankees won the first game of this division series and were seen by many to be rolling toward a World Series. However, it all unraveled in the next three days, as if their dominance had been washed away by Wednesday's rainout. They did not score from the fourth inning Thursday until the seventh last night, a span of 20 innings that led to three straight losses and torpedoed the season.
Afterward, Torre choked up on the interview room podium before composing himself. Like others, he seemed stunned. Critics wondered why he did not play Melky Cabrera earlier in the series or how he could use a neophyte first baseman such as Gary Sheffield in the playoffs, but the overriding fact was that the $200 million Yankees were overflowing with talent and it still wasn't even close to enough.
"I'm stunned," GM Brian Cashman said. "This team fooled me, to some degree."
That could be taken as a sign that changes are imminent, but Cashman gave no sign that Torre's situation was tenuous and the Yankee skipper did not offer any indication that he was concerned about his fate.
"What can the manager do? It is not his job to play the game for us," Mariano Rivera said. "It is the players who play."
In the Yankees' case, however, they played horribly at the worst time. Most of the hitters were abysmal (Cano was 2-for-15, Johnny Damon was 4-for-17, among others) but Rodriguez took the brunt of the criticism.
It has been that way all season, of course, and calls for Rodriguez to be traded are already swirling with ferocity. But A-Rod, who has a no-trade clause in his monstrous $252 million contract, reiterated yesterday that he has no plans to waive it.
"No, never," he said. "I don't want out. If they would want to get rid of me, I hope that's not the case . . . because I don't want to go anywhere."
However, whether A-Rod stays with the Bombers remains to be seen, considering the fact that there are many within the Yankee organization who believe Rodriguez's erratic play showed that he'd be better off somewhere else.
Torre dropped him to eighth in the lineup yesterday - the first time he hit that low since 1996 - and he was 0-for-3 to finish the four games batting .071 (1-for-14). For the second straight postseason he did not have a single RBI.
He also concluded a difficult season defensively with a critical error, muffing Magglio Ordoñez's grounder and then throwing wildly in the third inning. That led to an unearned run and put the Yanks in a 4-0 hole, the rest of which they owed to Jaret Wright's woeful outing. Wright, who lasted just 22/3 innings, surrendered homers to Ordoñez and Craig Monroe.
Then again, it would have taken virtual perfection for him to match Tigers righthander Jeremy Bonderman, who retired 15 in a row to start the game and allowed just two runs in 81/3 magical innings.
"They outplayed us in every facet of the game," Derek Jeter said.
Torre watched the final outs from the bench, still working the gum over in his mouth. It may have been his last game with the Yankees, just like it may have been Mike Mussina's or Bernie Williams' or Sheffield's.
A-Rod watched, too. Then, once the Tigers' celebration had begun in full, he turned away and trudged down the dugout steps. He was heading toward the clubhouse, headed toward a winter that is clouded by the unknown. skid marks
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