Openers Not Half Bad

With every pounding Angel pitcher Ken Hill absorbed in spring training, Manager Mike Scioscia seemed to grow less and less concerned about his ace--on this team, at least--right-hander.

His velocity is good, Scioscia kept saying. His command is getting better. He’s physically sound. It was almost as if Scioscia expected the same pitches that were being pummeled in Arizona to magically melt the bats of opponents once the regular season started.

Pure fantasy, this was. Or was it?

Hill made Scioscia look like a genius for five innings Monday night before reality struck quickly and forcefully in the sixth. Paul O’Neill drilled a Hill offering well beyond the center-field wall for a two-run home run to help catapult the New York Yankees to a 3-2 season-opening victory over the Angels before a sellout crowd of 42,704 in Edison Field.

Shane Spencer added a solo homer off Angel reliever Kent Mercker in the seventh, and the Yankees, looking to become the first team since the 1972-74 Oakland A’s to win three consecutive World Series championships, rode the resilient right arm of Orlando Hernandez for seven strong innings en route to the victory.

Hernandez, who has an amazing 5-0 record and 1.02 earned-run average in six postseason starts, was rocked for a career-high 10 earned runs on 13 hits in 3 1/3 innings in his only previous appearance against the Angels, a 10-5 loss in Anaheim on July 29, 1998.

But this was a much more mature and polished Hernandez than the 1998 version. The Cuban baffled the Angels for much of the evening, giving up one run on Tim Salmon’s homer to lead off the second, eight hits and striking out four--including Mo Vaughn three times--to earn the victory.

Jeff Nelson pitched a scoreless eighth with an assist from Spencer, who made a nice running catch of Scott Spiezio’s drive to the left-center field gap with two out and a runner on first; and Mariano Rivera registered a save--and a scare--in the ninth.

After striking out pinch-hitter Orlando Palmeiro to open the inning, Gary DiSarcina flared a single to right, and Darin Erstad walked on four pitches. Adam Kennedy flied to shallow right, and up stepped Vaughn, who had struck out with the bases loaded to end the fifth.

Vaughn singled to center, scoring DiSarcina and snapping Rivera’s scoreless innings streak at 44. But Rivera jumped ahead of Tim Salmon, 0-2, and got Salmon to fly to right, ending the game.

O’Neill’s homer turned the game around, but the momentum actually swung toward the Yankees in the bottom of the fifth, after the Angels loaded the bases with one out on Spiezio’s infield single, DiSarcina’s single and Erstad’s bloop that fell between shortstop Derek Jeter and Spencer. Jeter appeared to have a play on the ball but yielded to the outfielder as if he were called off.

But Kennedy, who doubled sharply to right-center in the third inning, popped out weakly to third, and Vaughn struck out for the third time in the game to end the threat.

Jeter then opened the sixth with an infield single to the shortstop hole--DiSarcina made a diving catch but had no play--and O’Neill blasted Hill’s next pitch onto the hitting background above the center-field wall, an estimated 430 feet away, for a 2-1 lead.

Hill had allowed only three balls to reach the outfield until that point, Chuck Knoblauch’s single in the first, O’Neill’s single in the fourth and Bernie Williams’ fly to left in the fourth. Both Knoblauch and O’Neill were wiped out attempting to steal second by Angel catcher Bengie Molina.

The only time Hill seemed rattled was in the fifth, when he leaped to catch Vaughn’s high throw on Spencer’s two-out grounder to first and appeared to land on the bag ahead of Spencer, only to have umpire Terry Craft rule Spencer safe.

Hill fell behind Scott Brosius, 3-0, before walking him and threw a first-pitch ball to Knoblauch. Knoblauch then grounded to Vaughn’s right, and Vaughn again threw wildly to Hill, who was covering at first.

But Hill reached far to his left for the throw and stabbed at the bag with his right foot twice, his second attempt hitting the bag before Knoblauch arrived to end the inning and preserve the Angels’ 1-0 lead.

With Hill’s pitch count at 101 and the left-handed Tino Martinez, Ricky Ledee and Jorge Posada coming to bat with one out in the sixth, Scioscia pulled Hill for the left-handed Mercker.

Hill gave up only four hits in 5 1/3 innings, struck out two and walked three.

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RANDY HARVEY

Don’t expect anything different in Anaheim. D2

A BEGINNING

Mike Scioscia’s debut starts with wisdom from Joe Torre. D7

A RETURN

Brian Downing says he came back because of the fans. D7