20th Win Emotional for Cone

David Cone was trying to keep his composure. Then catcher Joe Girardi came up to him, and a wave of emotion followed.

“He gave me the game ball and a big hug,” Cone said. “I think he wanted it as much as I did.”

It took 10 years for Cone to finally become a 20-game winner again.

Cone, who has spent much of the past two seasons coming back from two shoulder operations, pitched seven shutout innings Saturday to help the New York Yankees to a 3-1 victory over the Tampa Bay Devil Rays.

“There were a lot of appreciative gestures coming my way,” said Cone, close to tears as his face flushed. “That’s the reason I reacted the way I did. Everybody was kind of silent and then, all of a sudden after we got the last out, everybody kind of burst.”

The right-hander, who was 20-3 for the New York Mets in 1988, set a major league record for most years between 20-win seasons, surpassing the mark set by Jim Kaat, who went 25-13 for the Minnesota Twins in 1966 and 21-13 for the Chicago White Sox in 1974.

“It means a lot because of where he came from and what he’s gone through the last couple of years,” Yankee Manager Joe Torre said. “You keep reminding yourself that he wasn’t supposed to be available until late May, really more like June.”

Cone, who had an aneurysm is his right shoulder repaired in May 1996 and unrelated arthroscopic surgery in the shoulder last Oct. 17, gave up only one run and four hits in leading the Yankees to their sixth consecutive victory.

Cone (20-7), scheduled to pitch Game 3 of the playoffs against Texas, struck out eight and walked one.

In combining with three relievers on a seven-hitter, Cone became the first Yankee right-hander to win 20 since Ed Figueroa went 20-9 in 1978.

The Yankees (113-48) improved to 10-1 against the Devil Rays, beating Tampa Bay for the fifth consecutive time. With a victory today, the Yankees (.702) would be the first team to play .700 ball over an entire season since the 1954 Cleveland Indians went 111-43.

Only the 1906 Chicago Cubs (116-36) won more games than this year’s Yankees, whose Bernie Williams went one for four Saturday and leads Mo Vaughn of the Boston Red Sox, .3360 to .3355, in the race for the AL batting title.