Yankees Won't Go Quietly

By MIKE DiGIOVANNA

Oct. 10, 2000 12 AM PT

TIMES STAFF WRITER

NEW YORK —

It was the last week of the season, and the New York Yankees were in a tailspin, in the process of losing their last seven games and chugging into the playoffs with all the momentum of a slug on a dry sidewalk.

Angel first baseman Mo Vaughn, watching from afar, cautioned reporters not to write off the two-time defending-champion Yankees, even though they’re a little long in the tooth, thin in the rotation and soft in the lineup.

“To me, they’re still the team to beat, because when it comes playoff time, they always go to the next level,” Vaughn said. “You always hear about this guy not doing this, that guy not doing that, and then you look up and some guy’s pitching a shutout for them. You can throw out what they’re doing right now, because all of a sudden, they click in and go.”

Vaughn whiffed often this season, leading the league with 181 strikeouts, but he got all of this prediction, lining it all the way into the American League championship series.

The Yankees, with a Game 1 starter who wasn’t good enough to make the division series rotation, a five-time Cy Young Award winner who can’t seem to win in October, and four regulars who are much closer to their pensions than their prime, have persevered.

They outlasted the upstart Oakland Athletics in a grueling five-game division series, and will open the championship series in Yankee Stadium tonight against a rested and robust Seattle Mariner team after making two cross-country flights and playing the division-series clincher in a span of about 32 hours Saturday and Sunday.

“We’ve gone coast to coast, and we haven’t had much sleep,” Manager Joe Torre said. “We’ve had a lot of changes this year, a lot of distractions, and there have been so many questions about this club.

“But I’m very proud of the way they fought back fatigue to play a game like they played [Sunday night, a 7-5 victory over the A’s]. It was very emotional for me.”

If this series is anything like the 1995 division series between the Yankees and Mariners, Torre might need a reserve tank of emotion.

The Yankees won the first two games in New York, the second on Jim Leyritz’s 15th-inning home run, but Seattle came back to win the final three games amid ear-splitting noise in the Kingdome.

New York took a 5-4 lead in the 11th inning of Game 5, but the Mariners scored twice in the bottom of the 11th for a 6-5 victory when Ken Griffey Jr. scored from first on Edgar Martinez’s double to left.

Though Griffey is gone--the center fielder was traded to Cincinnati last winter--the Mariners are more balanced and more talented then any of those Griffey-led teams, and they should match up well against the Yankees in a series with several juicy subplots:

A-ROD VERSUS JETER

They are two of baseball’s best shortstops, young stars with rock-star followings, and they are the best of friends. Now Alex Rodriguez of the Mariners and Derek Jeter of the Yankees will take their act to a bigger stage, opposing each other in the playoffs for the first time.

“It’s exciting to be playing against Derek,” Rodriguez said. “But when I look through that scope, I don’t care who’s in it, I’m going to shoot.”

Rodriguez is the heart of the Mariners, a team leader who hit .316 with 41 homers and 132 runs batted in, and is a rangy defensive player with a cannon-like arm. Jeter is all of the above with a little less power, having hit .339 with 15 homers and 73 RBIs.

“Years ago, you were not allowed to have that kind of open relationship with somebody from another club because it was more or less a war,” Torre said. “Now, I think it is more respect. And we’re putting on a show for people. These two kids are really worth paying your money to watch play.”

Rodriguez said he and Jeter are “like brothers,” and some New Yorkers apparently think so. Three people at the team hotel asked Rodriguez on Monday if he was Jeter.

“Hey, New York is big,” Rodriguez said. “We’re just little Seattle.”

CUTTER VERSUS SPLITTER

The Yankees have baseball’s best closer in Mariano Rivera, a cut-fastball specialist who has an amazing streak of 30 2/3 consecutive scoreless postseason innings and an 0.34 playoff earned-run average.

The Mariners have one of baseball’s best new closers in Kazuhiro Sasaki, a Japanese split-fingered fastball specialist who saved two of Seattle’s division series victories over Chicago and had 37 regular-season saves.

Mariner Manager Lou Piniella, whose bullpen has caused more heartburn than spicy sausage in recent years, also has a deep relief corps that includes left-hander Arthur Rhodes, revitalized right-hander Jose Mesa and young righty Jose Paniagua.

But much-maligned Yankee set-up men Mike Stanton and Jeff Nelson worked their way back into Torre’s good graces by combining for 3 1/3 scoreless innings Sunday night.

Some in New York had written that Torre had lost faith in everyone in his bullpen except Rivera, and this was pointed out to the manager Monday.

“Just because it is written doesn’t mean it’s true,” Torre said. “If you happen to see your name in the obituary column, I wouldn’t lay down if I was you.”

BOMBERS VERSUS THE BOMBER

The key to the series may be how the Yankee pitchers handle Martinez, because if they choose to pitch around Rodriguez, they will have to deal with him, a machine-like run producer who hit .324 with 37 homers and a league-leading 145 RBIs.

Martinez hit .571--12 for 21--with two homers, three doubles and 10 RBIs in Seattle’s 1995 division-series win over the Yankees. He has a remarkable .818 career average--nine for 11--against Rivera, with two homers and three doubles.

“Usually there’s one guy you don’t want to let beat you, but there are a couple of those guys in this lineup,” said Yankee left-hander Denny Neagle, who will oppose Mariner right-hander Freddy Garcia in Game 1 tonight.

“Rodriguez, if he’s not the best player in baseball, he’s right up there, and Edgar Martinez is just a freak. He’s right up there with A-Rod, and that’s what makes it so tough to pitch around Rodriguez, because he has so much protection in the lineup.”

LEAGUE CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES

YANKEES VS. MARINERS

Game 1: Tonight at New York, 5 p.m.

Game 2: Wednesday at New York, 1 p.m.

Game 3: Friday at Seattle, 5 p.m.

Game 4: Saturday at Seattle, 4:30 p.m.

*Game 5: Sunday at Seattle, 1 p.m.

*Game 6: Oct. 17 at New York, 5 p.m.

*Game 7: Oct. 18 at New York, 5 p.m.

TV: Channel 4. * if necessary

CARDINALS VS. METS

Game 1: Wednesday at St. Louis, 5:15 p.m.