BASEBALL PLAYOFFS : Yankees Top the Mariners in 15th, 7-5

Extra innings, dramatic home runs, great defensive plays, controversial calls, momentum swinging from side to side like a Ping-Pong game, the frenetic owner starring in a three-ring media circus. . . . Could you ask for anything more in a Yankee Stadium playoff game Wednesday night?

How about one that ended Thursday morning?

Yankee catcher Jim Leyritz gave an emotionally drained crowd of 57,126 a bonus gift for staying late, lining a two-run homer over the right-field fence in the bottom of the 15th to give the Yankees a 7-5 victory over the Seattle Mariners in Game 2 of the American League divisional playoff series.

Pat Kelly drew a two-out walk against Tim Belcher, and Leyritz, who hit only seven homers during the regular season, sent a 3-1 pitch toward right, where Jay Buhner made a run and leap at the wall but couldn’t come up with it, as the Yankees took a two-games-to-none lead in the best-of-five series.

Leyritz flew around the bases and was mobbed by teammates at the plate, as more than 100 police officers poured onto the field and the crowd burst into a frenzied celebration after the 5-hour 12-minute game, which topped the Boston-Cleveland marathon the day before by 11 minutes.

“I thought for a second Buhner caught the ball,” Leyritz said. “Besides being exhausted, I’m amazed at what I was able to do. Emotionally, it will take a while for this to set in.”

Seattle now must rely on ace Randy Johnson, who will start Friday against the Yankees’ Jack McDowell, to stay alive.

Ken Griffey Jr. had put the Mariners ahead, 5-4, in the top of the 12th with a solo home run off reliever John Wetteland, but the Yankees answered in the bottom of the 12th when Wade Boggs walked with one out off Jeff Nelson, and Bernie Williams walked off Belcher.

Belcher got Paul O’Neill to pop to shallow left on a 2-0 pitch, Alex Diaz making the catch after a long run, but Ruben Sierra followed with a double off the top of the left-field wall.

Pinch-runner Jorge Posada easily scored from second to make it 5-5, but the Mariners caught a break when the ball caromed off the wall, hit Diaz in the leg and stopped right at his feet.

Diaz picked it up and threw to shortstop Luis Sojo, whose perfect relay to catcher Chris Widger cut Williams down at the plate and sent the game to the 13th.

O’Neill’s home run off Mariner reliever Norm Charlton in the bottom of the seventh pulled the Yankees even, 4-4.

Mariano Rivera threw 3 1/3 innings of scoreless relief for the win.

After Sierra and Don Mattingly hit back-to-back homers in the sixth to give the Yankees as 3-2 lead, fans littered the field with debris, and Seattle Manager Lou Piniella pulled his team off the field, ostensibly for his players’ safety.

But some speculated Piniella was just buying time for reliever Bill Risley to warm up, and Steinbrenner had his own theory.

“He wanted to silence the crowd and kill our momentum,” Steinbrenner said of Piniella, a former Yankee right fielder and manager. “He’s cagey. I know--I taught him.”

Whatever Piniella’s motives, it worked. Risley replaced starter Andy Benes with none out and got out of the inning, and the Mariners scored two runs in the controversial top of the seventh to move ahead, 4-3.

Steinbrenner was in an even more foul mood after a close call by first-base umpire Jim McKean allowed Coleman to reach.

“This is disgraceful,” the steamy Yankee boss said during an impromptu news conference. “That’s the fourth bad call tonight. [American League President] Gene Budig is going to have to stand up and give some answers. That wasn’t even a close play.”

Steinbrenner then invited a group of reporters into a video room--as the game was going on--to review the play. He asked for an audience with Budig and Marty Springstead, AL executive director of umpiring, but was apparently turned down.

“It’s not appropriate,” Steinbrenner said. “From Gene, I can understand. He came from the University of Kansas, where he was the president. He doesn’t want to see me. . . . I guess I’m not educated enough.”