Yankees’ Edge Is a Lot of Bullpen

A pipe broke in the New York Yankees’ Shea Stadium clubhouse during Game 4 of the World Series Wednesday night, flooding the room with about a foot of water.

The Yankees were impressed with how quickly stadium personnel drained the locker room, enabling them to at least dress after the game, but is there really any sense in spit-shining the place for Game 5 tonight?

The way the Yankees are playing, they’re just going to flood the clubhouse with champagne in celebration of another championship.

The Yankees moved to the brink of the title with a 3-2 victory over the New York Mets in Game 4 Wednesday night before a crowd of 55,290 in Shea, taking a commanding three-games-to-one lead in the best-of-seven series.

They can become the first team since the 1972-74 Oakland Athletics to win three consecutive World Series titles with a victory in Game 5 tonight, when Yankee left-hander Andy Pettitte will oppose Met lefty Al Leiter. It would be the 26th title in franchise history.

“You don’t want to give the other team one win, because one win can change the momentum real quick in the postseason,” Yankee first baseman Tino Martinez said.

“Obviously, we’re in a good position, but the Mets aren’t going anywhere. They’re a tough team, and they have Leiter going [tonight]. We have to win one more game.”

The Mets wheeled out five of the original You Gotta Believers Wednesday when Tom Seaver, Donn Clendenon, Al Weis, Tommy Agee and Ron Swoboda, all members of the 1969 Miracle Met team, threw out ceremonial first pitches before the game.

But neither they nor a packed house could generate the kind of magic Shea discovered for the first time in ’69 and has grown so accustomed to these past two Octobers.

The Yankees built a picket fence on the Shea scoreboard with single runs in the first, second and third innings, the Mets countered with Mike Piazza’s two-run homer in the third, but the Yankee bullpen locked the gate, not allowing a Met runner to reach second from the fifth inning on.

Inconsistent throughout much of the postseason and battered for five runs in the ninth inning of Game 2 Sunday night, the Yankee bullpen--David Cone, Jeff Nelson, Mike Stanton and Mariano Rivera--combined for 4 1/3 scoreless innings in Game 4.

“God, it was a tough ballgame tonight,” Yankee Manager Joe Torre said. “We needed every single bit of contribution that we got from every pitcher out there.”

First, it was starter Denny Neagle, who gave up Piazza’s homer on a shin- high sinker and was pulled with two out, no one on and Piazza due up in the fifth.

Torre, remembering Piazza’s monstrous drive that just hooked foul in the first, didn’t want to give the Met catcher another crack at Neagle, so he summoned Cone, the erstwhile starter who was banished to the bullpen after going 4-14 with a 6.91 earned-run average this season.

After two sliders away, Cone jammed Piazza with a high-and-tight fastball and Piazza popped to second.

“Piazza is one of the few players who is in scoring position when he gets in the batter’s box,” Torre said. “He had a couple of good swings off Neagle, even though I didn’t think the home run came on a bad pitch, and I just made up my mind [Cone] was going to pitch to Piazza at that point.”

Next was Nelson, who gave up a two-run homer to Piazza in Game 2 but rebounded with 1 1/3 scoreless innings, snagging Benny Agbayani’s low liner and turning it into an inning-ending double play in the sixth.

Stanton replaced Nelson with one on in the seventh and struck out pinch-hitters Bubba Trammell and Kurt Abbott to end the seventh, and Rivera, the one- pitch wonder who gave up a three-run homer to Jay Payton in Game 2, threw the final two innings for the save, striking out two of three in the ninth.

“I would have been surprised if [Rivera] didn’t bounce back,” Stanton said. “He has ice water in his veins. It’s tough to go out there and pitch with a few different pitches, much less one pitch, but what he does is spectacular. His fastball moves everywhere.”

Rivera notched his sixth World Series save, tying him with Rollie Fingers for the most ever. Nelson was awarded the win.

The Mets had closed the top of the sixth, seventh and eighth innings with huge momentum-building outs, Glendon Rusch striking out pinch-hitter Jose Canseco with two on to end the sixth and cleanup batter Bernie Williams with a runner on second to end the seventh, and John Franco whiffing Jorge Posada to end the eighth.

Each was punctuated by huge roars from the Shea faithful, but the Yankee bullpen would not allow the Mets to parlay any of those into rallies.

“I really think our bullpen has been the difference in these tight games,” Martinez said. “They came in and shut the Mets down. It was a great performance.”

Torre had a nice night too. Jose Vizcaino started at second base in the first three games for the Yankees, but Torre went back to Luis Sojo for Game 4, inserting Sojo into the second spot in the order and moving Derek Jeter to leadoff.

It took less than a New York minute for that move to pay off. Jeter drilled Met starter Bobby Jones’ first pitch of the game into the left-field bleachers for a home run and a 1-0 lead.

Paul O’Neill, who did not have a triple all season, legged out his second triple in as many nights in the second inning and scored on Scott Brosius’ sacrifice fly. In the third, Jeter tripled and scored on Sojo’s grounder to second. That made it 3-0 before the Mets finally got to Neagle in the third.

Timo Perez, who had one hit in 14 Series at-bats, led off with a single to center and took second on Edgardo Alfonzo’s groundout. With first base open, the Yankees opted to pitch to Piazza, who reached down for a low sinker and banged it over the wall in left-center to pull the Mets to within 3-2.

They would get no closer, but the Yankees moved closer to another championship.

“It’s only enjoyable at the end, when it’s all over, you win and you can look back on it,” Stanton said. “Right now, we’re focused on the task at hand.”

GAME 1

YANKEES: 4

METS: (12) 3

GAME 2

YANKEES: 6

METS: 5

GAME 3

METS: 4

YANKEES: 2

GAME 4

YANKEES: 3

METS: 2

GAME 5

Tonight,

Shea Stadium,

5:15 p.m.

GAME 6

Saturday,

Yankee Stadium,

5 p.m.*

GAME 7

Sunday,

Yankee Stadium,

5 p.m.*

*--if necessary