Yankees Show Their Stripes

The Yankees have historically been defined by their pinstripes and their power, and that has not changed.

However, they’ve added a dimension this season -- a resilience that boosted them to a major league-record 61 comeback victories and allowed them to redirect the course of their American League division series Wednesday night just as the Minnesota Twins were poised to take a forbidding lead.

Derek Jeter scored on a sacrifice fly to short right field in the 12th inning, capitalizing when substitute first baseman Matthew LeCroy cut off Jacque Jones’ off-line throw and threw a late relay home, giving the Yankees a 7-6 victory that tied the best-of-five series at one game each. The Twins had taken the lead in the top of the inning on Torii Hunter’s one-out home run against reliever Tanyon Sturtze, but the Yankees scored twice on guts, instinct and determination.

“That’s the mystique of playing here,” Minnesota infielder Michael Cuddyer said. “It’s tough to win when that lineup gets the last at-bat.”

And so the Yankees, who had been two outs from traveling to Minnesota for Game 3 on Friday a loss away from the off-season, instead went with buoyant spirits.

“We never doubt ourselves. We’ve been doing this all year,” said Gary Sheffield, whose two-run home run in the third inning tied the score, 3-3.

Said catcher Jorge Posada: “We’ve done some good things, but today was pretty special.”

It might also have rekindled the Twins’ nightmares about the teams’ AL division series a year ago. In that one, too, Minnesota won the first game at Yankee Stadium and lost the second; the Twins then lost the next two at home and were eliminated.

“It’s hard to come here and win a game,” LeCroy said. “To win one here was big. We’ve got to go home and make sure we play some good defense and get some hits.

“Last year was last year. We can’t think about that.”

The winning rally began with a one-out walk to Miguel Cairo. Jeter walked on four pitches from Joe Nathan, who was into his third inning of work but later said he hadn’t been tiring. Alex Rodriguez, who had homered to left in the fifth and is six for 10 in the series, lined a ground-rule double to left-center field that drove in Cairo and moved Jeter to third.

Nathan walked Sheffield intentionally before J.C. Romero came in to face Hideki Matsui. With Jones playing in shallow right, Jeter took off as soon as Matsui’s fly ball was caught. “I was going all the way,” Jeter said.

He was in easily, delighting the sellout crowd of 56,354 in Yankee Stadium on a chilly but clear fall evening and ending a nerve-racking evening for Manager Joe Torre.

“About three or four times during the game, I said, ‘What am I doing this for? Why don’t I retire?’ ” he said. “It’s grueling. It’s grueling.

“But the thing that makes it all worthwhile to me is to watch these guys never give up. I mean both sides.... But it was a huge game for us.”

It was a strange game almost from the start, as the Twins got to starter Jon Lieber for a run in the first and two in the second.

The Yankees responded in the bottom of the first, when Jeter became the 19th player to hit a home run into the black seats in deep center field in the remodeled Yankee Stadium and only the third to do so in postseason play, following Reggie Jackson in Game 3 of the 1977 World Series and Seattle’s Jay Buehner in Game 3 of the 2001 AL Championship Series.

The Twins surged ahead, 3-1, in the second on a walk, two singles and a sacrifice fly, but the long ball again brought the Yankees even. With Rodriguez on base after a one-out single, Sheffield lined a homer to left, the fifth postseason homer of his career and third in AL division series play.

Rodriguez gave the Yankees a 4-3 lead in the fifth by ripping Brad Radke’s first pitch to him in the fifth into the bullpen in left, his fourth career postseason home run. They added a run in the seventh inning, knocking Radke out of the game. But the Twins scored twice in the eighth to tie the score, 5-5, and were unlucky not to have scored more.

With one out, Jones struck out but reached first when Tom Gordon’s pitch bounced in front of the plate and away from Posada. He went to second on Hunter’s single to center and, after the Yankees brought in Mariano Rivera, scored on Justin Morneau’s single to right.

Hunter moved to third on Morneau’s single and scored on Corey Koskie’s ground-rule double to left. Luis Rivas, who ran for Morneau, had to stop at third and was stranded there.

“We’re going to have to shake this off,” left fielder Shannon Stewart said. “We had them with two outs to go, and I feel bad to lose a game like this, but that’s why they’re a good team. We’ve got to regroup and forget about it as soon as we can.”