NY's Chacon answers the call for arm

BALTIMORE -- Tuesday night was such a farce that the Yankees were laughing about it while it was still going on.

''I think we ought to go for the 2-point conversion," captain Derek Jeter had advised Joe Torre, after the manager had trudged to the mound to make his seventh pitching change with his club down, 17-9, to the Orioles in the eighth.

Last night, a safety was more than enough. Alex Rodriguez smacked a record-setting homer, Jeter knocked in the deciding run in the seventh, Mariano Rivera punched out the hosts in the ninth, and the pinstriped planet was back on its axis.

''We're in good shape," reckoned Torre, after New York had stifled the hosts, 2-1, before a crowd of 30,539 at Camden Yards to take a one-game lead over the Red Sox with four to play, the final three in the Fens. ''We're playing well. The fact that after last night's ugly one we came back and did some good things . . ."

After Tuesday's opera bouffe, all the Yankees wanted last night from their pitchers was a quality start and a competent finish. They got both, as Shawn Chacon, rescued from high-altitude hell in Colorado at the end of July, pitched into the seventh, conceding only a second-inning homer to Javy Lopez.

''It's an unbelievable experience for me," said Chacon, who was 1-7 with the Rockies but is 7-3 with the Yankees. ''I didn't ever imagine I would be in this situation. To be able to come here and contribute, it's a dream come true. But it's not over yet."

For most of the season, the Yankees have been rummaging around just to find five starters to hand the ball to. Kevin Brown and Carl Pavano have been on the disabled list since July. Jaret Wright was on it for nearly four months, Chien-Ming Wang for nearly two. Mike Mussina missed the first three weeks of September with an inflamed elbow. In all, New York has used 28 pitchers this season.

If it weren't for Chacon and journeyman Aaron Small, who's an astounding 9-0 since showing up after the All-Star break and who will pitch tonight's series finale, the Yankees almost certainly would be out of contention now.

''The name of the game is pitching and defense," said Rodriguez. ''Without Shawn and Aaron, we'd probably be 10 games out now."

Midway through last evening, when Boston was already taking a beating from Toronto, the Yankees knew they had a priceless chance to get a game up on their archrivals. All they had to do was solve Baltimore righthander Daniel Cabrera, who'd conceded just two singles through five innings.

Rodriguez, who'd struck out in his first two at-bats, took Cabrera out of the yard with one out in the sixth, lofting a solo shot to right-center field for his 47th homer.

''The home run was a huge point in the game," said A-Rod, who broke Joe DiMaggio's 1937 club record for most home runs by a righthanded hitter. ''Cabrera had us dazzled."

Now came some classic Yankee baseball. Jorge Posada led off the seventh with a single. After Bernie Williams was hit by a pitch, Robinson Cano advanced both with a textbook bunt. Now came Jeter, singling to right off reliever Todd Williams to put New York ahead.

Had plate umpire Hunter Wendelstedt not blown a call on the next play, calling Williams out after he'd clearly slid under Geronimo Gil's tag after Rodriguez's liner to right, the Yankees would have been up, 3-1.

On this night, though, two was enough. This time, when Torre went to his bullpen with two outs in the seventh, out came Tom Gordon, his preferred setup man. Gordon promptly got pinch hitter David Newhan to ground to first, then caught Bernie Castro looking and got Miguel Tejada to hit into a 6-4-3 double play to take care of the eighth.

So it was over to a rested Rivera for the ninth and a clinical finish -- a grounder by Jay Gibbons, a soft liner by B.J. Surhoff, a strikeout by Lopez. Fourteen victories in 17 games, beginning with Randy Johnson's 1-0 shutout of the Sox in the Bronx Sept. 11, has taken New York from four games out to one game up. ''We control our own destiny," said Torre.

Destiny has a way of changing with the spin of a ball, so the Yankees aren't looking past tonight. ''There's no comfort," said Rodriguez. ''We know what the Boston Red Sox can do. We saw what they did last year. That's very clear in our minds. No comfort."