Hutton Has a Fast Trip to Victory : Baseball: Rookie from Australia makes his debut with Yankees and wins, 5-2, handing the Angels seventh loss in a row.

Pitcher Mark Hutton dropped off his bags in the Yankee Stadium clubhouse Friday afternoon, took a stroll out to the monuments in center field, scanned the stands for George Steinbrenner’s private box and then kicked back while being briefed on the Angel lineup.

This was a 23-year-old making his major league debut, and he looked as if he was dropping in for a weekend rugby game. He not only was being judged by the Yankees to determine whether he belonged in a pennant race, he had an entire country watching him back home in Australia.

Pressure? Hutton was more worried about the beer the Yankees were serving in the clubhouse after their 5-2 victory over the Angels than pitching in front of more fans than he ever had seen.

“Could you get me a beer?” Hutton requested of Yankee officials in the post-game news conference. “A guy can get pretty thirsty out there, you know.”

Angel first baseman J.T. Snow, Hutton’s teammate two years ago at Ft. Lauderdale, Fla., giggled upon hearing the story. Hutton, the 6-foot-6, 240-pound kid they called “Mate,” hasn’t changed.

“We couldn’t believe it when we first met him,” Snow said. “We’d go out and have our beer, and he’d have a 12-pack. He told us that in Australia they drink beer like it’s water.

“I think he was surprised we didn’t have it in our clubhouse.”

The Yankees, 54-44 and starving for the playoffs after a 12-year drought, will throw the kid his own parade if he keeps pitching the way he did Friday. Hutton, relying primarily on his 93-m.p.h. fastball and slider, yielded only three hits in eight innings, leaving the crowd of 25,989 at Yankee Stadium screaming for a curtain call.

“There’s not a word to describe it, but I can tell you it was totally incredible,” Hutton said with a thick Australian accent. “This is a dream come true.”

Hutton, whom the Angels talked about during the Jim Abbott trade negotiations, became the first Australian to wear a Yankee uniform and the fifth to appear in a major league game, first as a starting pitcher.

He also became the fourth rookie pitcher to beat the Angels in a week.

“I wish he didn’t do it against us,” Snow said, “but he’s a great guy. It’s weird. It didn’t seem like he took the game as seriously as the rest of us coming up. He was just having fun while we were all stressing out trying to make it to the big leagues.

“It looked like he was having all the fun again tonight.”

The Angels have been more than hospitable to rookie pitchers during this trip, providing three their first major league victories.

“I would love to pitch against us right now,” Angel Manager Buck Rodgers said. “Those guys in the Yankee clubhouse are probably clawing all over each other to get to us.

“I mean, we’re making stars out of some of these first-time pitchers. I’ll be watching the box scores to see if these (players) are really as good as we make them.”

The Angels (44-51), who are making everyone look like the second coming of Whitey Ford during their skid, have lost seven consecutive games for the worst second-half start in franchise history. They also have assured themselves of their worst trip of at least 10 games in 24 years.

“It’s just a mess right now,” Angel reliever Steve Frey said. “I don’t know how else to put it.”

Starter Mark Langston (9-5) was the latest victim of the Angels’ disappearing offensive act and had difficulty disguising his contempt. He had said during the winter that the Angels would have difficulty matching up against the triple-A Albuquerque Dukes. Considering the Angels have scored only 17 runs in nine games this trip and are batting .223, perhaps he was too kind.

“I’m just extremely frustrated with losing,” said Langston, winless in his last six starts. “Everything’s going bad, and I’m as frustrated as anybody right now.”