Rivera returns secure Game 1

American League

Mariano Rivera showed up just in time to save the New York Yankees against a surging Boston Red Sox, who had cut an eight-run deficit to one.

Shortly after jetting back from a funeral for relatives in Panama, Rivera got Kevin Millar to pop out to strand the tying run at third base in the eighth inning, then finished a thrilling 10-7 win for the Yankees in Tuesday's opener of the American League championship series.

Hideki Matsui tied an American League Championship Series record with five runs batted in, four off Curt Schilling, Mike Mussina was perfect through six innings before Mark Bellhorn doubled on a drive that hit the left-field wall on a hop with one out in the seventh and Bernie Williams drove in three runs, including a two-run double in the eighth that gave Rivera some breathing room.

For much of the night it seemed like a laugher, with the Yankees ahead 6-0 by the third and 8-0 in the sixth.

"It was like it was too good to be true," New York manager Joe Torre said.

But after Bellhorn's hit on Mussina's 86th pitch, the stubbly faced pitcher's huge curveball quickly became hittable.

Millar hit a two-run double with two outs and scored on a single by Trot Nixon. Tanyon Sturtze relieved and Jason Varitek hit a two-run homer on his third pitch, pulling the Red Sox to 8-5.

David Ortiz made it 8-7 with a two-run triple in the eighth off Tom Gordon, who would have been the Yankees' closer had Rivera not been back and ready. Ortiz's drive to left-center bounced off the glove of Matsui near the top of the wall, and the crowd got up to welcome Rivera, perhaps the biggest factor in New York's six AL pennants and four World Series titles since 1996.

He had returned to his native country Sunday after two relatives were electrocuted in the swimming pool of his home, and arrived back at the ballpark in the second inning after a private plane arranged by the Yankees took him to Teterboro Airport in New Jersey.

"My teammates needed me there," Rivera said. "When I went to the bullpen in the fifth inning, I was ready."

Given a huge ovation by the sellout crowd of 56,135, he fell behind 2-1 to Millar, who popped the next pitch to shortstop Derek Jeter, behind second base.

Williams doubled in the bottom half off Mike Timlin, a ball that soared over Manny Ramirez in left.

Varitek and Orlando Cabrera singled with one out in the ninth, bringing up Bill Mueller, whose two-run homer off Rivera beat the Yankees at Fenway Park on July 24. Rivera hit a comebacker that Rivera turned into a game-ending double play, and the Yankees came on the field, a few of them hugging the reliever who earned his 31st postseason save.

After this thriller, Pedro Martinez pitches for the Red Sox on Wednesday night against Jon Lieber. Martinez is sure to be reminded by fans of his remark last month that the Yankees are his ``daddy.''

Mussina, assuming the ace role on a rotation that's struggled, had come within a strike of a perfect game at Fenway Park on Sept. 2, 2001, before pinch-hitter Carl Everett singled. Mussina ended New York's streak of losses in four straight playoff openers, striking out eight and allowing four runs and four hits in 6 2-3 innings. He struck out the top of the order -- all looking -- in the fourth inning, part of a streak of five straight strikeouts, tying the LCS record.

"You start thinking about how this guy might be going through something special here," Williams said.

Matsui's first-inning double drove in New York's first-run, and his three-run double in the third signaled Schilling was struggling. Matsui added a run-scoring single in the seventh off Tim Wakefield, who also allowed a solo homer to Kenny Lofton. It was Wakefield who gave up the 11th-inning homer to Aaron Boone that ended the epic Game 7 last year.

Right from the start, Schilling didn't look like the pitcher who led the major leagues with 21 wins, one who had been 6-0 in nine postseason starts since 1993, never allowing more than two earned runs. He said Monday he planned to have his right ankle injected with a painkiller before the start, and he had trouble hitting the targets set by Varitek, his catcher.

Sheffield reached out and pulled a letter-high pitch down the left-field line for a double with two outs in the first. Matsui fell behind 0-2, then got his right elbow up and the bat head down to slap an opposite-field double into left-center and drive in the first run. Williams then hit the next pitch up the middle for a 2-0 lead.

Schilling retired the bottom of the order in the second inning, then gave up four more runs in the third.

Jeter singled leading off, Alex Rodriguez reached on an infield hit to deep shortstop and Gary Sheffield walked -- one pitch after driving a pitch about 5 feet foul to deep left. Matsui lined the next pitch off the right-field wall to clear the bases. Sheffield was so pumped up after he slid across the plate that he smacked Rodriguez's back so hard that A-Rod's helmet was knocked off.

Matsui shines

"It's nice to tie a record like that, but there's nothing like winning," Matsui said through a translator after he tied an AL championship series record by driving in five runs.

Matsui hit an RBI double in the first inning and a three-run double off the right-field wall in the third against Red Sox starter Curt Schilling, and added an RBI single in the sixth to make it 8-0.

Matsui, 3-for-5, had a chance to set the record in the eighth inning with the Yankees leading 8-7 and runners on first and second, but popped up behind second base.

"He gets into a situation where there's men in scoring position and he has knowledge of the pitcher, he just has a feel on what pitch he wants to hit," Yankees manager Joe Torre said.

It was the sixth time a player has driven in five runs in an ALCS game, and the first since Adam Kennedy accomplished the feat for Anaheim in 2002. Paul Blair, Don Baylor, John Valentin and Bret Boone also drove in five runs.

Matsui, a skilled left fielder, was unable to make a difficult leaping catch against the wall in left-center on David Ortiz's drive in the eighth, allowing two runs to score and pulling Boston to 8-7.

"When the ball was hit, the ball actually started coming back to left field, so I actually overran it and, as a result, it hit off the heel of my glove," Matsui said.

Matsui, who hit .412 in the first round against the Twins, is being relied on even more in these playoffs, batting cleanup with an ailing Jason Giambi not on the postseason roster.

"He's really locked in," Yankees first baseman John Olerud said.

Matsui, dubbed Godzilla in Japan, is a huge star back home, with his image everywhere, including the side of JAL jetliners.

A three-time MVP of Japan's Central League, Matsui signed a US$21 million, three-year contract before the 2003 season and has played in every game in a Yankees uniform -- he played 1,250 straight games for the Yomiuri Giants, too. Eleven players started in left field from opening day in 1990 until Matsui arrived in New York.

Tailed by a large contingent of Japanese reporters eagerly recording his every move, Matsui hit a grand slam in his first game in pinstripes. He finished second in AL Rookie of the Year voting, hitting .287 with 16 homers and 106 RBIs.

This year, he seemed more comfortable against the better major league pitching and found his power stroke -- he hit 50 homers in his last season in Japan. He finished the regular season with 31 homers and drove in 108 runs, emerging as an MVP candidate with his more renowned teammate Gary Sheffield.

"I appreciate the fact that everybody considers me in that way," Matsui said. "Today that all led to today's victory, so I'm just very happy."