Yates earns first majors win

By Adam Rubin
Special to The Advertiser

Mets pitcher Tyler Yates pitched 5 2/3 innings, allowing five hits, striking out one and walking three to improve his season record to 1-1. Associated Press

After Looper loaded the bases with two out in the ninth, he induced a game-ending groundout, as the New York Mets beat the Montreal Expos, 4-1, last night. The save preserved the first major-league win for Tyler Yates, a 1995 Kaua'i High School graduate.

Yates, who had watched the ninth inning from the dugout, joined his teammates on the field for a postgame handshake. When he passed Looper, the closer gave him the memento. Yates — who had played minor-league ball in the Oakland Athletics organization, where he didn't get to bat — also received the baseball from his first professional hit, which came in the fourth inning against Expos starter Tomo Ohka. The Mets also presented him with the scorecard that had been posted in the dugout, which Yates got the relievers to sign.

"It's over with after tonight," Yates said calmly about his first big-league win. "Starting tomorrow it's working toward Chicago."

Montreal, which tagged Yates for seven runs on the final day of spring training, lost its eighth straight and have become a familiar opponent for the hard-throwing righthander. Yates figured to get his first big-league win when he turned over a 2-0 lead to the bullpen in his major-league debut 10 days earlier against the Expos in San Juan, Puerto Rico, but Mike Stanton and Looper failed to hold it. Yates then allowed six runs in 2¡ innings against the Braves on a frigid, rainy night at Shea.

Since meeting Yates on the final day of spring training, the Expos have scored only 20 runs — tied with the 1968 White Sox for third-fewest in major-league history through 13 games, and better than only the 1907 Brooklyn Superbas (14) and 1972 Milwaukee Brewers (19). Not that Yates cared.

"It goes down as a major-league win," he said. "Honestly, I think they've got some pretty good hitters."

Yates, who played at the University of Hawai'i-Hilo (1996-98), took a scoreless effort into the fifth, when the defense faltered. After a leadoff walk, Brian Schneider rifled a grounder past second baseman Ricky Gutierrez for a single. Pinch-hitter Ron Calloway then sent a grounder to first baseman Todd Zeile, who fielded it cleanly but sailed a high throw to second and Juan Rivera scored.

Yates escaped with no further damage and exited with two out in the sixth after consecutive singles.

Afterward, Yates shook his father's hand in the Mets clubhouse, and the elder Yates asked him: "Am I touching the ground or what?"

Moments earlier, Gary Yates had been pacing the stands at Shea Stadium. "I just walked the aisles, couldn't stay in one place," he said.

Yates' mother, Janna, and girlfriend, Liezel (from Kapa'a), had extended their stay in New York to witness the milestone. Asked if he would have headed to Chicago for his son's next outing had Looper not held the lead, Gary Yates, who co-owns the Po'ipu Beach Broiler, said: "I'd have to call my partners and ask them if they still want me as a partner. I wanted to be there for the first one. I'm glad it happened tonight, so I didn't have to be in that position."