Yankees Take Espresso Lane

By MIKE DiGIOVANNA

Oct. 19, 2001 12 AM PT

TIMES STAFF WRITER

SEATTLE —

There was a rumor floating around that Lou Piniella, the fiery Seattle manager who was once so upset at an umpire’s call he slammed his cap to the ground and kicked it for a 25-yard field goal, has mellowed in recent years. Not true.

For proof, one merely had to be within earshot of Piniella after the New York Yankees beat his Mariners, 3-2, in Game 2 of the American League championship series before 47,791 in Safeco Field Thursday night.

A Seattle team that won a major league record-tying 116 regular-season games and staged a dramatic come-from-behind win over Cleveland in the division series has looked like a mere speed bump on the road to another Yankee championship.

The Mariners went hitless in six at-bats with runners in scoring position Thursday night and are 0 for 10 with runners in scoring position in the series. A team that led the league in offense is batting .161 (10 for 64) and has scored four runs in two games. The heart of the Seattle order, Bret Boone, Edgar Martinez and John Olerud, has combined for four hits in 21 at-bats.

New York took a commanding 2-0 lead in the best-of-seven series with Thursday’s victory, and to grasp the odds the Mariners face, know that no team has lost a league championship series after winning the first two games on the road.

Piniella didn’t care. The series shifts to Yankee Stadium for Game 3 Saturday, Game 4 Sunday, and Game 5 if necessary Monday, but Piniella seemed defiant on his way to the postgame interview room as he passed a long line of reporters waiting to get into the Mariner clubhouse.

“I’m going to tell you right now, we’re going to be back here to play Game 6,” Piniella said. “You don’t have to ask any questions. You can print it.”

Later in his office, Piniella fumed. It was as if each inning-ending double play, each strikeout with a runner in scoring position, each failure to capitalize on a night the Yankees played one of their most shoddy October games--and, perhaps, each question about Yankee greatness--raised Piniella’s ire until he couldn’t contain it.

“We could have won both of these games,” Piniella said. “I haven’t seen anything that dominant over there. They’re a team that is ready to get beat, and somebody’s got to beat them. We’ve just got to start hitting the damn ball. We’re fully capable of doing that.

“I’ve got confidence in this group. If I didn’t, I wouldn’t be talking like this. And I don’t mind sticking my neck on the line by saying what I said.”

The Yankees had to be at least somewhat concerned about their play Thursday night. That great Yankee mystique sprung a leak, as starter Mike Mussina struggled so much with his command he needed 62 pitches to get through the first three innings, center fielder Bernie Williams dropped a fly ball for a two-base error to open the third and Paul O’Neill, who has as much chance of stealing a base as a guy in the left-field bleachers, got caught leaning off first and was picked off in the fourth inning.

And still, the Yankees won, because they got two clutch hits in the second inning, solid relief from Ramiro Mendoza, splendid relief from closer Mariano Rivera, and the Mariners let Mussina off the hook time after time.

The Mariners scored their only runs in the fourth inning when Mike Cameron was hit by a pitch and Stan Javier homered to center, snapping Mussina’s string of 18 scoreless playoff innings. That trimmed New York’s lead to 3-2.

The Yankees had roughed up Freddy Garcia, starting on three days’ rest, for three runs in the second. Tino Martinez singled, Jorge Posada walked, and Scott Brosius laced a two-run double into the left-field corner. Leadoff batter Chuck Knoblauch added a two-out RBI single to center for a 3-0 lead.

Garcia got a huge lift from his defense when Cameron robbed Williams at the wall in left-center. The play seemed to settle Garcia down; he blanked the Yankees on three hits over the next 51/3 innings.

But the Mussina also settled down, retiring the side in order in the fifth and sixth, Mendoza allowed two hits in 11/3 relief innings, and Rivera struck out three of the five batters for his 23rd career playoff save.

“I wish I knew [what was wrong with our offense] because they’ve done it all year,” Piniella said. “But there’s still time. We’ve still got five more games to play.”

AL PLAYOFFS

League championship;

Best-of-seven series

NEW YORK vs. SEATTLE

Yankees lead series, 2-0

Game 2

New York 3, Seattle 2

Game 3--Saturday

at New York, 1:15 p.m., Ch. 11

Starters--Yankee RH Orlando Hernandez vs. Mariner LH Jamie Moyer

NL PLAYOFFS

League championship;