Sheffield Blames Torre For 2004 ALCS Loss

But, with a three-game lead, you don’t expect to lose — and you don’t expect your manager, especially one as experienced as Hall of Fame Yankees skipper Joe Torre — to not go for the jugular.

But Sheffield believes that’s what Torre failed to do, and he set himself up for that failure before the game started.

“Joe Torre made a decision that always haunts us in that series,” Sheffield said. “He said that he wasn't going to pitch Mariano Rivera, I think Game 4. He wasn't going to pitch him.”

Rivera claimed the saves in each of the first two games of the series but didn’t pitch in Game 3 as the Yankees won, 19-8.

The Red Sox won Game 4, 6-4, in 12 innings. Rivera pitched the eighth and ninth innings with the Yankees up 4-3. The Red Sox were able to tie the game up in the bottom of the ninth, starting the series’ epic comeback.

Sheffield believes that Rivera knew he wasn’t supposed to pitch that night, thereby he wasn’t totally prepared.

“He waited too late,” Sheffield said of Torre. “And when he (Torre) brought him in Mariano wasn't right.”

Rivera gave up two hits and a walk in his two innings, along with the tying run.

For his part, Torre told Boston.com in 2019 that is only regret from that series was in Game 4 — but it wasn’t about telling Rivera he wasn’t pitching earlier that day.

“I think the only thing I could’ve questioned myself about – and really I’m not totally sold on it – was before (Mariano) Rivera went out for the ninth inning, knowing that (Kevin) Millar was the first hitter, I was going to tell him not to get too fancy,” Torre said. “It was just a sense, to go after him. I just changed my mind because the last time he’d faced Millar, he’d struck him out I think on four or five pitches at Yankee Stadium, so I stayed away.”

Sheffield said it took him a long time to let it all go. Sheffield already had a World Series ring, thanks to his time with the Marlins in 1997. But it still stung.

“That eighth and ninth inning is what causes it and I blamed Joe Torre for a long time,” Sheffield said. “And then I finally let it go.”