New York 100 000 000--1 4 0 Cleveland 020 040 00x--6 12 0COMPLETE BOX SCORE
CLEVELAND (Oct 9, 1998 - 23:38 EDT) -- Chuck Knoblauch stood with his hands on his hips and watched the Indians circle the bases again. This one wasn't his fault, and the Yankees couldn't argue about anything.
After winning Game 2 with a freaky gift courtesy of Knoblauch, Cleveland needed no assistance Friday night.
Jim Thome homered twice and Cleveland pounded Andy Pettitte for four homers -- three in a 13-pitch sequence in the fifth inning -- and Bartolo Colon pitched a four-hitter for a 6-1 win over the Yankees in Game 3 of the American League Championship Series.
Cleveland, given little chance to stay with the powerful Yankees before the series started and even less after New York won the opener in a rout, is doing what many thought was impossible.
Manny Ramirez and Mark Whiten also homered for the defending AL champs.
Meanwhile, the Yankees' storybook regular season, which included 114 wins, an AL East title and comparisons to the great teams in baseball history, seems like ancient history.
Whatever went right for New York from April through September has disappeared in October. The Yankees aren't hitting in the clutch. Their owner, who stayed in the shadows all year when things were going well, is now everywhere. And for the first time since the first week of the season, New York is trailing another team.
Manager Joe Torre had held a pregame meeting to focus his club after the events of Game 2, but even that didn't seem to help. And now Dwight Gooden, one of the most popular players ever in New York, will start Game 4 Saturday night against rookie Orlando "El Duque" Hernandez with a chance to push the Yankees a little closer to elimination.
Pettitte, who lost twice to Cleveland in last year's postseason, got rocked so badly in the fifth he appeared to be on the verge of tears as he staggered to the Yankees' dugout after the Indians were done with him.
Cleveland was leading 2-1 at the time on the strength of Thome's second-inning homer and rookie Enrique Wilson's RBI single when the Indians started taking some in-game batting practice with two outs.
After Ramirez hit his fourth homer this postseason and 13th of his career into the Yankees' bullpen, Travis Fryman walked. Thome then skied a ball toward right that finally came down over the wall in right.
Whiten, a former Yankee playing in his first playoff game this year, followed with a liner that scattered fans on the left-field porch and sent the 44,904 at Jacobs Field into a frenzy.
When he was finally pulled, Pettitte walked slowly toward the bench, and after setting down his glove, rubbed his hands on his head trying to figure out what went wrong.
Yankee fans everywhere were probably doing the same.
Knoblauch, the Game 2 goat for failing to pick up a ball that got away on a controversial call at first base in the 12th inning, wasted no time in putting Wednesday's events behind him.
He was greeted with a sarcastic standing ovation in pregame introductions and before his at-bat in the first, but his single to left quickly quieted the crowd.
Derek Jeter sacrificed and Paul O'Neill's groundout moved Knoblauch to third where he briefly chatted with Fryman, whose bunt single led to Knoblauch's 12th-inning blunder.
Bernie Williams then slapped a single to score Knoblauch, who received a warm greeting when he got to the dugout.
The Indians stranded two runners in the bottom of the first against Pettitte, who was continually high in the strike zone and behind in the count.
Thome made him pay for just that in the second, driving a 3-1 pitch into the Indians' bullpen to tie it 1-all. Whiten didn't give the left-hander any chance to relax by following with a double.
Whiten moved up on Sandy Alomar's grounder to the right side, and with the infield in, Wilson, who scored on a mad dash around the bases when Knoblauch decided to argue with the umpires, bounced an RBI single through the middle.
Colon pitched the first complete game in the ALCS since Wilson Alvarez for the White Sox in 1993, and the first for a Cleveland pitcher in the postseason since Bob Lemon in Game 1 of the 1954 World Series.
Notes: Cleveland Hall of Famer Bob Feller threw out the ceremonial first pitch. ... Williams has hit safely in eight straight ALCS games. ... Gooden will be seeking his first postseason win. He lasted just 22 pitches before being ejected in his Game 2 start against Boston in the division series. ... Cleveland manager Mike Hargrove hadn't decided on a Game 5 starter by gametime, saying he was still checking his options. They include: Chad Ogea, Dave Burba and Jaret Wright, who didn't get out of the first inning in Game 1. ... New York starting pitchers entered the game 4-0 this postseason with a 0.97 ERA. ... Tino Martinez went 0-for-4 and is now seven-for-57 (.123) with zero RBI in his last 14 career ALCS games. He is hitless in his last 18 ALCS at-bats.
