It All Comes Down to Brown
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.

It’s easy to forget that Kevin Brown was at one time the highest-paid player in the history of baseball. It’s easy to forget that he maintained a 2.39 ERA in 211 innings last year, and easy to forget that he pitched two flawed teams, the 1997 Marlins and 1998 Padres, to the National League pennant. In neither case did he do much once his team got to the World Series, but with the Yankees’ staff in the shape it’s in, they’ll be more than happy to get an ace performance from Brown tonight, and to worry about the World Series when they get there.
That a player of Brown’s achievement could go relatively unnoticed in the Bronx this year is testimony to the gluttony the Yankees displayed last winter. He seems, to this day, something of an afterthought, a reminder of the spectacular failure of the Jeff Weaver experiment, a man most notable for the absurd perks in his contract and for putting the team’s championship hopes in grave doubt by punching a wall in the last month of the season.
The lack of attention paid Brown is, however, completely incommensurate with his importance to the team. He was acquired with the memory of his past postseason performances in mind (he has posted a 0.83 ERA in 21 2 /3 innings of Division Series play), and the Yankees hoped that he would do what Jeff Nelson used to do – miss half the season with various aches and pains, tune up in September, and dominate in October. The first part of the Nelson plan went fine, as Brown pitched only 132 innings this year; the second part went poorly; and the most important part is in doubt.
Little could matter more to the Yankees than whether Brown is ready, because this game is the most important they have played all year and will probably decide this series. If Brown loses tonight, the Yankees will be in the position of having to defeat Johan Santana on Saturday just to stay alive in the series; they couldn’t even score on the Twins ace when he pitched his worst game in months Tuesday night at Yankee Stadium, so they’re not going to beat him in the Metrodome.
For the Yankees, the key player in tonight’s game might not be Brown, but Derek Jeter. These are the relevant factors in play: Brown is a power sinkerballer, and the Twins’ style is to chop and slash at the ball on their artificial surface and attempt to beat out hits. The Twins also have new turf this year, spongy, injury-promoting stuff that plays differently than the old surface, which was said to resemble a billiards table more than anything else.
When you add this up it’s clear that even if Brown is on his game – a dubious assumption given his inconsistency and injury this season – there will be balls in play all over the infield.
Jeter, for many years a remarkably immobile defender for someone of his athletic gifts, has seemed to cover a great deal more ground this year. One suspects this is because he has a Gold Glove shortstop playing to his right, but the cause is irrelevant.
What matters is that if Jeter doesn’t let the unfamiliar playing surface distract him and doesn’t let the ball get by him, Brown will have a chance to go deep into the game, as the aggressive Twins will be getting themselves out on a lot of first pitch groundouts to short. Should Brown come out well but have to pitch too many four-out innings early in the game, the terrifying specter of Esteban Loaiza will loom.
Twins starting pitcher Carlos Silva is coming off one of the weirdest seasons in recent memory. His 4.21 ERA was lower than that of any Yankee who qualified for the ERA title, though he gave up a hefty .310 batting average and struck out a ridiculously low 3.37 batters per nine innings.
He did it all with good defense, a refusal to walk anyone, and a low home run rate, and given how the Yankees handled Brad Radke – a more savvy, more talented version of Silva – he’s almost certainly going to get pasted. Look for the Bombers to employ the same strategy they did in Wednesday night’s game, waiting out Silva early to get a look at his pitches and then swinging hard at his first-pitch strikes.
Ron Gardenhire had a quick hook on Silva all year and he’s going to have one tonight. If Brown’s groundballs become outs, the Yankees will romp; if the Yankee infielders muff them and this becomes a battle of middle relievers, they’ll be at a real disadvantage. I suspect Jeter will do well and Brown will hold the Twins down, but the second you see Loaiza warming up it will be time to panic.
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The playoffs are about more than the games. They’re also about promoting Major League Baseball, which is why I find the Budweiser ads that have been running at a rate, seemingly, of two per minute, so disturbing.
In these ads, Joe Buck, the Fox play-by-play man who calls all the sport’s biggest games, is depicted as a shameless huckster eager to sell his integrity to a sleazy pitchman for quick cash. Budweiser is an official MLB sponsor; has no one realized that having the voice of the sport play to the people’s worst suspicions for quick, cynical laughs is a horrendous idea? Shame on whoever approved these ads.