Yankees Rise to the Occasion

Send the Kansas City Royals or Angels into Yankee Stadium, and you might create a little pinstriped paranoia. The defending World Series champions went 4-6 against the Angels and 4-5 against the Royals, teams that finished a combined 57 1/2 games out of first place this season.

Send the Cleveland Indians or Toronto Blue Jays or Atlanta Braves to New York, though, and the Yankees turn into pinstriped piranhas.

“I’ve heard since I was 5 years old that you can’t turn it on or off, but we did this year,” Yankee outfielder Chad Curtis said. “It’s unlike any other

team I’ve ever been a part of. This year and last year [a 125-victory season] have been totally different. Last year we were focused the whole year, and we expended so much energy doing that.

“This year we went through the motions at times. Kansas City had one of the worst records in baseball, and they just killed us. Even the games we beat them, we shouldn’t have. But you want to get hot in the postseason, and somehow we did.”

Indeed, there is something about the makeup of this Yankee team, a collection of seasoned playoff veterans such as Bernie Williams, Paul O’Neill and Derek Jeter, that enables it to play its best baseball when the stakes--and the pressure--are the highest.

The Yankees have won 10 consecutive World Series games, and they can make it 11 with a victory over the Braves in Game 3 tonight. They are now 20-3 in postseason play dating back to last October, and are two victories shy of their third World Series championship in four years.

“I don’t think we turn it on when we want to,” said Yankee designated hitter Chili Davis, who will probably return to the lineup tonight as the series shifts from the National League to the American League city. “We turn it on when we have to.

“We have a lot of quality players who have been in this atmosphere before, we have an experienced manager and coaches, and we play with a lot of desire, pride and intensity.”

Not to mention pitching. That’s the fuel that has nourished this Yankee playoff beast. A rotation of David Wells, David Cone, Andy Pettitte and Orlando “El Duque” Hernandez helped the Yankees roll through 1998 postseason play, and New York has ridden Hernandez, Cone, Pettitte and Roger Clemens to the verge of its 25th World Series title in ’99.

In winning Games 1 and 2 in Atlanta, the Yankees, behind Hernandez and Cone, limited the Braves to seven hits in 58 at-bats for a .121 average. Atlanta scored three runs.

“Hitters never give pitchers credit, but when you win 10 consecutive World Series games, that’s pretty remarkable,” Atlanta batting instructor Don Baylor said. “Last year I watched them annihilate San Diego [in a World Series sweep]. When they pitched, they had an air about them.

“It reminded me of Oakland when they had their three-year [World Series] run [1972-74]. They have the air they can’t be beat. That’s what we’re up against. We have to get on the board early and hope we can derail it. . . . You look at our .121 average, and you’d think it was our pitchers hitting. We know we’re a better club than that.”

Most considered the Braves to have the superior rotation in this series, but the Yankees limited a powerful Texas team to one run in three division series games. In their four American League championship victories over Boston, the Yankees held the Red Sox to eight runs, their only pockmark a 13-1 Game 3 loss in which Clemens was hit hard.

In their last five World Series games, Yankee starters have given up only four earned runs in 34 1/3 innings for a 1.05 earned-run average.

“I think people are just starting to recognize that we have one of the best pitching staffs in baseball,” said Yankee left-hander Pettitte, who will oppose Brave left-hander Tom Glavine tonight. “The Rangers weren’t struggling [this year] until they ran into our pitching staff.”

The Yankees didn’t seem to struggle this season until they ran into the Royals or Angels. But they went 7-3 against the Central division-winning Indians, 10-2 against the wild-card contending Blue Jays and 9-1 against the Seattle Mariners.

“I accepted it about halfway through the season, that this team wasn’t always going to play up to its capabilities,” General Manager Brian Cashman said. “When the Clevelands and Torontos came to town, we played well. When the lesser opponents came to town, we played with less intensity.

“At the time, I just kept telling myself that it’s a veteran team, these guys know they’re good, and when the money is on the line, they’ll rise to the occasion.”

All the Yankees have done this month is prove Cashman right.