Perez can't Buc Yanks, Johnson

NEW YORK -- For three days, the anticipation built for Thursday's pitching matchup between Randy Johnson and Oliver Perez.
Perez and Pirates manager Lloyd McClendon fielded comparisons and questions in the clubhouse before and after the first two games of the series.

When Thursday finally arrived, 54,734 fans were stoked for a pitching duel between a legend and a fourth-year player who has heard repeatedly that he has similar stuff.

But similar wasn't enough.

The Yankees battered Perez for seven hits and six runs in five innings, while Johnson dominated the Pirates' offense -- striking out a season-high 11 -- and the Pirates lost to the Yankees, 6-1. Johnson had lost his three previous games against the Pirates despite pitching well, mainly because his team scored a total of three runs in those games.

"[Johnson] was dominant from the start, and he pumped up with his fastball whenever he needed to," Daryle Ward said. "But he wore us out with his breaking ball, which is a very effective pitch, and we knew that coming into the ballgame.

"He can tell you that it's coming, but you don't know where it's going to end up. You're battling every at-bat. The guys battled hard, and we knocked him around a little bit, but obviously not enough."

Any thought that this game would be decided by the pitchers disappeared by the Yankees' second batter. Derek Jeter led off and one-hopped Perez's first pitch over the fence in left-center field for a ground-rule double. Hideki Matsui followed with a home run to the bleachers in right-center.

After that first inning, McClendon couldn't be certain of the game's outcome, but he had an idea of where it was headed.

"I'm not a mind reader, but I knew Randy Johnson was going to be good," McClendon said. "But I certainly didn't think that Ollie [Perez] would come out and elevate the ball the way he did. He just didn't have it tonight."

"That's part of the game," Perez said of the early deficit. "You just have to focus on the next batter and prevent them from scoring any more runs."

Perez couldn't contain the Yankees' offense and allowed two runs in the second and fourth innings. However, he somewhat limited the damage -- with the bases loaded and two outs in the fourth, he induced Ruben Sierra to pop up and end the inning.

Perez struggled with his control, walking five and hitting one batter. There were shades of a young Johnson in the performance, a comparison that came directly from the Yankees' left-hander.

"It's too bad it's getaway day, because I'd like to sit down and talk to him," Johnson said. "He has a lot of me in him -- when I was young. You can see he's on the edge of becoming a really good pitcher. He had a great year last year, but we all have to be consistent and throw strikes."

The Bucs' starter gutted out another inning before giving way to three Pirates relievers, each of whom pitched a scoreless inning.

"The guys that came in today did a nice job," McClendon said. "It was really encouraging the way [Salomon] Torres threw the ball. He had good sink, and we're going to need him to really get back on track. He's part of that equation, as far as winning games is concerned, and it was good to see a solid day from him."

Michael Restovich's solo home run in the fourth broke up the shutout and kept alive the Pirates' streak of consecutive games with an extra-base hit. The Bucs are the only team in the Majors to produce at least one extra-base hit in every game this season.

But Restovich had no secrets to pass on to the other hitters -- he struck out twice against Johnson.

"I didn't get him figured out or anything," Restovich said. "I got lucky with the home run, and obviously I was happy about it, but he pitched me well. Those at-bats I struck out, I kind of shook my head and said, 'Wow. That's impressive.'

"With his slider and [ability to] paint 96 [mph] on the corners, when he's pitching the way he can, there are not a lot of teams -- or a lot of players -- that are going to hit well off him."

The Pirates entered this three-game set as winners of nine of 14 games, hoping test themselves with a Yankees team they saw as superior. But they will head to Boston losers of four in a row.

"We wanted to come in and play better," McClendon said. "We didn't pitch well, and when you don't pitch well, you don't look good when you lose, and that's the way it is."

Source: http://pittsburgh.pirates.mlb.com/