If it weren’t for two gopher balls to David Dellucci and a wild pitch, Scott Proctor might’ve had a scoreless outing.
As it was, he walked off the Yankee Stadium mound to a deserved ovation last night.
Making an emergency start in place of Randy Johnson, who’s been bothered by a bad back, Proctor allowed just three hits over five-plus innings against a dangerous Texas lineup.
“Without Proctor, we’re sucking for air somewhere,” Joe Torre said, adding later, “He was the star of the night for me.”
Proctor exited with a 6-2 lead, which allowed press-box wags to joke a “Proc-tologist” had cured what was ailing the Yanks. However, the bullpen flushed a “W” for him before the Bombers pulled out a 9-8 victory.
“That’s no big deal to me,” he said. “As long as we get it at the end of the day and hear the right ‘New York, New York,’ that’s what matters.”
Dellucci, who tied a career high with four hits, smashed a leadoff homer on the seventh pitch of the game. Proctor’s 96-mph fastball ended up in the familiar environs of the home bullpen.
The former Yankee tagged Proctor again in the third, hitting the ball a few feet beyond Hideki Matsui’s leap in left. The shot gave Texas a 2-0 lead, but the Yankees scored the next six runs while Proctor settled down and retired the next seven hitters.
“You can’t be upset with a guy when he takes advantage of a mistake, but you just get ticked off with yourself and it forces you to execute that much more the next time,” Proctor said. “I wanted a third shot at him, but that’s all right.”
In the sixth, he whiffed Rod Barajas on three pitches, but the last one eluded Jorge Posada, allowing Barajas to reached base. With Dellucci looming, Torre pulled Proctor after 76 pitches (50 strikes).
A sellout crowd of 54,283 stood to cheer the 28-year-old righty’s performance, but he didn’t tip his cap.
“That was really the first-time butterflies hit me,” Proctor said. “I just tried to take it all in and just enjoy it.
“I was trying not to trip on the way off, actually.”
Alan Embree relieved and quickly allowed the inherited runner to score, and the Yankee bullpen turned the game into an 8-8 nail-biter by the seventh.
“You can’t talk about the game without talking about Proctor,” Torre said. “He did a magnificent job.
“He gave us five innings. Without that, there’s no way the game’s even close, probably.”