Yankees Grateful to Salvage Angel Split

The markets on Wall Street will not close today. The New York subway system will not shut down. George Steinbrenner will not fire his entire coaching staff.

Nervous New Yorkers can rest a little easier because the Yankees finally won Wednesday night, beating the Angels, 7-6, on Derek Jeter’s two-out RBI single in the bottom of the ninth inning to earn a split of a day-night doubleheader before 28,837 in Yankee Stadium.

The Angels came from behind to win the first game, 6-4, extending the Yankee losing streak to four, their longest skid of a season in which they’ve been touted as one of the greatest teams in baseball history.

And Yankee fans, griping about a bullpen that suddenly looks vulnerable and wondering if the Angels have some secret formula on how to beat the Yankees, were getting a little restless.

So was Yankee Manager Joe Torre, as evidenced by his decision to summon closer Mariano Rivera with no outs in the eighth inning of the nightcap.

The Angels, who erased 5-1 and 6-3 deficits with two runs each in the seventh and eighth innings, tied it in the ninth when Norberto Martin, running on a full-count pitch, scored from first on Darin Erstad’s single to right.

But Jeter snapped the Angels’ five-game win streak when he followed Jorge Posada’s ninth-inning walk off Mike Fetters, Scott Brosius’ sacrifice bunt and Homer Bush’s groundout with an RBI single to right off Shigetoshi Hasegawa. All was well again in the Bronx.

“No question it’s a big win,” Torre said, even though New York has a 16 1/2-game lead over Boston in the American League East. “You never want anything to spiral. Every time you lose two, three, four in a row, little pieces of your confidence are chipped off.

“You know you’re a good team, but you don’t want to see the losses build. You don’t want to go home and try to sleep on another loss.”

Angel Manager Terry Collins said his players had no reason to toss and turn Wednesday night. Bush’s three-run homer keyed a five-run fifth off Angel knuckleballer Steve Sparks, but the Angels rallied with Jim Edmonds’ two-run homer in the seventh--his second homer off Yankee left-hander David Wells--Erstad’s double and Tim Salmon’s RBI single in the eighth.

Todd Greene greeted Rivera, one of the game’s top closers, with a double to center, advancing Salmon to third, and Garret Anderson’s RBI groundout trimmed the Yankee lead to 6-5.

Rivera struck out Troy Glaus and got pinch-hitter Orlando Palmeiro to fly out, but Martin singled with two outs in the ninth and Erstad fouled off five two-strike pitches before drilling his game-tying hit.

“I tell you, we’re going to leave the park tonight feeling great, holding our heads high,” Collins said. “That was a tremendous effort. We have nothing to be ashamed of . . . if we get this kind of concentration and effort out of 25 guys in September, it’s going to be a fun month.”

It’s been a fun week for the Angels, whose victory in the opener was their fifth straight come-from-behind win, and they stunned the Yankees with their comeback in the nightcap.”We’re just grinding, like a bunch of rats,” Erstad said. “We don’t have the best talent. We have a lot of guys who don’t care about numbers, who just want to win.”

In the opener, Jeff Juden limited the Yankees to four runs on three hits in 6 1/3 innings, and left fielder Reggie Williams smashed a two-run home run to give the Angels a 3-2 lead in the fifth. Gary DiSarcina’s two-out, RBI single had scored Edmonds with the first run.

“It’s a new hero every day,” DiSarcina said.

Juden had trouble throwing his fastball for strikes--in fact, he threw two pitches completely behind Yankee hitters, nearly beaned three others and walked six--but his curve and slider were sharp enough to record eight strikeouts.

“You start throwing balls behind heads, it makes you a little uncomfortable in that batter’s box,” Collins said. “They weren’t intentional, but those pitches may have helped him a bit.”

The Angels added three more runs in the sixth for a 6-2 lead.Rich DeLucia bailed Juden out of an seventh-inning jam, and he added a 1-2-3 eighth.

Troy Percival struck out two of four batters in the ninth for his 37th save, right on the heels of his 39-pitch, 1 2/3-inning save Tuesday night. Though the Angels fell short in the nightcap, they are 6-4 against New York and assured of being the only team with a winning record against the Yankees in 1998.

“I guess it’s something special,” DiSarcina said, “when you take a season series against the team of the century.”

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Tough on the Yankees

The Angels are the only team in the American League with a winning record against New York this season. Game by game:

April 1: Angels, 4-1

April 2: Angels, 10-2

April 15: Yankees, 6-3

July 28: Yankees, 9-3

July 29: Angels, 10-5

July 30: Yankees, 3-0

August 24: Angels, 7-3

August 25: Angels, 7-6

August 26: Angels, 6-4

August 26: Yankees, 7-6

Angels, 6-4 advantage