Mussina wins his duel with Beckett

"It was a very frustrating night for me. In my last at-bat, I was taking it for granted that he would throw a fastball and I put my best swing on it," Williams said.

Beckett struck out 10 in 7 1-3 innings, yet took the hard-luck loss. He breezed through New York's first 10 batters before Jeter doubled in the fourth.

After a walk to Jason Giambi and a popup by Williams, the young pitcher's problems started.

Matsui was hit by a pitch that bounced and, with the bases loaded and a 2-2 count, Beckett threw a fastball to Jorge Posada that veered off the outside corner. Plate umpire Gary Darling called it a ball and McKeon spread his arms in the dugout, wondering what was wrong with that pitch.

Beckett came back with another fastball, the kind some umps would call a strike. Darling saw it a bit low for ball four and a bases-loaded walk that tied it at 1.

"It was very close," Florida catcher Ivan Rodriguez said during the rain delay. "It was a pitch that could've gone both ways, a strike or a ball.

"I just asked where the pitch was," he said. ``He said the pitch was down."

McKeon was really barking at Darling at that point, and the umpire held his mask and cap as he stared into the dugout. Pitching coach Wayne Rosenthal trotted to the mound to settle down Beckett, who retired Karim Garcia on a grounder and then began to berate Darling from the bench.

Several other players had trouble with Darling's calls, too. Giambi and Williams argued strikes, as did Florida's Miguel Cabrera.

"You saw both clubs arguing, so take it from there," McKeon said.

The early focus in Game 3 again was on Florida's Juan Pierre.

Three Yankees infielders crept onto the grass when the springy leadoff man came to bat in the first, and he still defiantly bluffed a bunt. Next, he hit a blooper to right-center that fell beyond the reach of a sliding Williams for a double, Florida's first extra-base hit of the Series.

Cabrera delivered an RBI single with two outs. He hit three homers in the NLCS, but the 20-year-old rookie was 0-for-7 in this Series until then.