David Dellucci is a clown. I watched the game with a couple Indians fans today and even they think he is "bush". What do you think...
Cleveland was trying to sweep the Yankees in a series of three or more games for the first time in nearly two decades. The last time the Indians did, they completed it bybeating Tommy John on April 9, 1989 — John, by the way, turns 65 in two weeks.
Mike Mussina (5-3) won his fourth straight start and earned his 255th career victory, holding on for five innings. Setup man Joba Chamberlain won his rematch with David Dellucci and Mariano Rivera closed for his ninth save.
Cano’s homer finished Paul Byrd (1-3) in the seventh and Betemit, subbing for Rodriguez, met reliever Masa Kobayashi with a drive over the center-field fence.
The only drama after that came in the eighth when Chamberlain faced Dellucci. On Tuesday night, Dellucci rocked the hard-throwing reliever with a pinch-hit, three-run homer.
Girardi later talked to Chamberlain about his penchant for shaking off his catcher’s signs. This time, Chamberlain again shook off Jose Molina, then got Dellucci to swing over a slider for strike three.
Chamberlain, as usual, gave an exaggerated fist pump and hollered after fanning Dellucci to end the inning.
“That’s who he is. He’s not showing anyone up. He’s going to show emotion,” Girardi said. “He didn’t look at Dellucci. He looked into our dugout.”
That’s not exactly how Dellucci saw Chamberlain’s celebration.
“It is what it is. If he wants to yell and scream after a strikeout, I guess that’s what gets him going,” he said. “It’s May baseball. The home run was in a much bigger situation. I didn’t dance and scream.
“If a hitter did something like that, it would be bush. It’s kind of interesting how a pitcher gets away with it.”
Said Chamberlain: “It didn’t matter who it was, I just wanted to get them out.”
