Jeter Wins Game With Home Run

One minute, Mariano Rivera was bent over on the mound in disgust. The next, the Yankees were piling on Derek Jeter at home plate.

Jeter’s ninth-inning homer gave the Yankees a 4-3 victory Tuesday at New York and bailed out Rivera after the All-Star closer blew a lead against the Red Sox.

“We escaped today,” Yankee Manager Joe Torre said. “Mariano is still the best in the game as far as I’m concerned. That doesn’t mean that clubs aren’t going to get to him once in a while. These guys we’re playing are the world champs.”

Jason Varitek’s homer off Rivera tied the score in the ninth. But Jeter led off the bottom half and drove Keith Foulke’s full-count pitch over the right-field fence, giving the Yankees their second consecutive win over Boston to begin the season.

“Just a bad pitch to the wrong guy,” Foulke said.

“I kind of thought he popped it up and he did, but he hit it a lot farther than I thought.”

Carl Pavano pitched well in his New York debut, Hideki Matsui hit his second home run in two games and the Yankees handed a 3-2 lead to Rivera, who blew only four saves during the regular season last year but three in the playoffs.

After Rivera struck out Edgar Renteria to start the ninth, Varitek lined a 1-and-2 pitch over the right-field fence, costing Pavano a win.

Minnesota 8, Seattle 4 -- Jacque Jones hit a two-run home run and the Twins survived an ugly start by Cy Young winner Johan Santana at Seattle.

The Twins collected 14 hits on the night, and they batted around and scored seven runs in the fifth inning. Minnesota used seven singles -- four off Mariner starter Gil Meche -- and Jones’ shot into the right-field stands for a 7-4 lead.

It made a winner of Santana, who won 20 games and led the AL with a 2.61 ERA last season but didn’t look himself right away.

The Twins trailed, 4-0, in the first after Adrian Beltre’s two-run double, Richie Sexson’s RBI double and a one-out RBI single by Raul Ibanez. Santana threw 29 pitches in the first and got only one out through the first five batters.

Then he returned to his old form, retiring 14 of the next 15 batters, with Beltre getting a single in the third. Santana worked five innings, giving up four runs and five hits with six strikeouts and one walk.

Santana had gone 22 straight starts giving up three runs or fewer, the second longest stretch in history behind Dwight Gooden’s 24 in 1985.

Beltre went two for four for the Mariners.

Toronto 6, Tampa Bay 3 -- Shea Hillenbrand’s bases-loaded single ended a sixth-inning tie at St. Petersburg, Fla.

Young left-hander Gustavo Chacin gave up two singles and Alex Gonzalez’s solo homer in five innings to get his second major league victory.

The 24-year-old Venezuelan struck out three and walked one before being removed after the Blue Jays scored five times to pull away from a 1-1 tie in the sixth. Miguel Batista worked the ninth, finishing a seven-hitter for his second save in as many chances.

Toronto starter Scott Kazmir, the second youngest player in the majors at 21 years, two months, gave up one run and three hits -- one of them Reed Johnson’s triple that left fielder Eduardo Perez lost in the lights -- in five innings.