New York Is Just Getting Warmed Up

Champagne dampened his shirt and puddled on the floor beneath his feet, but Gary Sheffield enjoyed every soggy second.

The Yankees had just vanquished the Minnesota Twins with a combination of Ruben Sierra’s home-run thunder and Alex Rodriguez’s 11th-inning baserunning lightning, but for Sheffield, their 6-5 victory and four-game American League division series triumph were merely warmup acts.

The big show for the Yankees begins Tuesday in New York, when they face the Boston Red Sox in the AL championship series. “I never thought I’d be so happy to see them,” Sheffield said, though champagne prevented him from seeing much of anything.

Through a sometimes rocky season, Sheffield steadfastly believed playing the Red Sox was the Yankees’ destiny. Each of their 61 successful comebacks and the three rallies they staged to win the last three games against the Twins carried them to this.

“This is what everybody drew up in spring training,” said Sheffield, who misplayed a fly ball under the tricky Metrodome ceiling in the fourth inning to help the Twins take a 2-1 lead but sparked the Yankees’ game-tying, four-run rally in the eighth with an infield hit.

“When [Curt] Schilling went over to the Red Sox and A-Rod came here, that’s what everybody wanted, and we’re going to give it to them.”

It’s a present for themselves too. “It’s fun to play them,” shortstop Derek Jeter said. “I’d be lying if I said otherwise. The atmosphere is great. People get into it and the fans get into it.”

The Yankees had to be patient Saturday, but it was almost inevitable that they’d dent Minnesota’s bullpen after Johan Santana’s start was limited to five innings. Between Santana and closer Joe Nathan is a netherworld of bad innings waiting to unfold, and the Yankees made theirs happen against Juan Rincon.

The Twins had built a 5-1 lead for Santana, and reliever Grant Balfour protected it for two innings, but the Yankees pulled even in the eighth on an RBI single by Bernie Williams and Sierra’s 381-foot, three-run home run to left off a backdoor slider.

“I thought this is the year we could have had it,” third baseman Corey Koskie said in the Twins’ silent locker room. “That’s the thing I’m really disappointed about. I thought we were going to beat them.”

With Kyle Lohse pitching in the 11th, Rodriguez doubled just inside the left-field line, stole third with Sheffield at bat and scored when Lohse’s 2-and-2 pitch to Sheffield bounced in front of the plate and over catcher Pat Borders’ shoulder, a wild pitch.

Mariano Rivera pitched a perfect inning to earn the victory and send the non-sellout crowd of 52,498 off into the night to ponder the Twins’ second straight four-game AL division series loss to the Yankees.

“I think we gave them a lot. I think they had to battle their tails off,” Manager Ron Gardenhire said of the Yankees. “But that’s no consolation to our baseball team

“We matched up as good as we possibly could with those Yankees. Don’t let people tear this team down. We played a great game against the team that has a chance to win the World Series.”

Those chances are enhanced by Rodriguez. Although power is his hallmark, he put his speed and baserunning savvy to good use this season, stealing 28 bases, fifth in the AL, in 32 tries. Those assets served him well in the 11th. Hoping Lohse might be tiring in his second inning of work, Rodriguez was ready to pummel Lohse’s sinker.

“I was just looking for a pitch I could get in the air,” Rodriguez said. “We were thinking, ‘This game, we’ve got to go get it. We can’t let it come to us.’ ”

They had to chase it because the Twins had taken 5-1 lead against Yankee starter Javier Vazquez, including a three-run fifth. Catcher Henry Blanco led off the fifth with a 381-foot home run to left, his first hit in six at-bats in the series. With two out, Torii Hunter singled to left, Justin Morneau reached on an infield hit and Vazquez hit Koskie on the right arm to load the bases. Lew Ford’s double to deep left on an 0-and-2 pitch scored Hunter and Morneau.

However, the Twins were wary; rightfully so, as it turned out after Sierra’s feat in the eighth and Rodriguez’s feats in the 11th.

“They do this year in and year out,” Nathan said. “And everyone said their pitching wasn’t going to be good and it was going to be offense that would carry them, but their pitching was pretty good in this series.”

For the Yankees, no deficit is too big. “We’re 25 guys with a lot of heart, who never give up,” Rodriguez said. “It was fun to be part of this fraternity.”

There will be no brotherhood, of course, between the Yankees and the Red Sox in a reprise of last year’s AL championship series, which the Yankees won in seven games. Rodriguez, though, brushed off questions about the series. “I’m going to enjoy the next two days and just sleep,” he said.

With his biggest dreams, perhaps, about to come true.