Yankees rise in the South

Tom Withers

Wednesday, Oct. 23, 1996 | 11:59 a.m.

ATLANTA -- No, there won't be a sweep. And, no, the Atlanta Braves aren't invincible. The New York Yankees aren't that bad either, are they?

In case you decided to do something else Tuesday night, and who could blame you after a pair of horrific evenings in the Bronx, listen up.

The World Series is worth watching again.

New York won its sixth straight postseason road game, 5-2 over Atlanta, trimming its deficit in the best-of-7 series.

Suddenly, everything about this Series seems different.

"Everyone was talking about how great the Braves were, where their place in history was," said David Cone, who allowed one run in six innings to win Game 3. "Well, if we get one more win, the Series goes back to New York. That's interesting."

Twenty-four hours earlier, the Yankees appeared ready to begin their off-seasons prematurely. They couldn't do anything offensively in the first two games against John Smoltz and Las Vegan Greg Maddux. Their starting pitchers didn't deliver and they seemed anxious to flee New York, where the fans were getting restless.

But with Cone leading the way and Bernie Williams returning to his October form with a two-run homer and three RBIs after disappearing for two nights, the Yankees again are strutting with the same confidence they showed in making short work of the Baltimore Orioles in the ALCS.

One win was all it took. One more and it's a best-of-3.

"I believe with one win that the whole mood and momentum changes," New York manager Joe Torre said. "Maybe getting away from home is the blessing. We've played unbelievably well on the road all season."

The Yankees have another thing going for them tonight as well. For the first time, they won't be facing a pitcher named Smoltz, Maddux or Tom Glavine. Left-hander Denny Neagle is no walk-over, but his name doesn't bring a chill to the spine.

New York will counter with lefty Kenny Rogers, who was only granted a start in the Series when Game 1 was postponed by rain.

"I think they're still going to be the same Yankees we've seen this Series," Neagle said before Game 3. "They'll try to come out and score early. In the first two games, we got the lead, and that makes a difference."

The Yankees learned that lesson in falling behind 2-0 in the Series. Atlanta jumped to an early lead in both of those games by manufacturing a run with positional baseball: Get a man on, move him over and get him in.

Tim Raines walked leading off the first and Derek Jeter followed with a well-placed sacrifice bunt. Williams, hitless in Games 1 and 2, then lined a 1-2 pitch from Glavine to center, bringing in Raines.

The Yankees had one run, and it felt like five.

"That was very important, because of the fact that we haven't been able to score a lot of runs lately," Williams said, "especially playing on the road with this crowd. It's very important just to score the first run and just get going from there."

New York added a run in the fourth when Darryl Strawberry, back in the lineup after sitting out a game to rest his broken toe, singled home Williams.

Meanwhile, Cone was making it very tough on the Braves. Helped by some solid defense from catcher Joe Girardi and first baseman Cecil Fielder, the right-hander went into the sixth inning with a two-run lead before giving up a run by walking Ryan Klesko with the bases loaded.

Torre had already been out to visit Cone once in the inning, and the right-hander convinced his manager to leave him in. With Javy Lopez coming up, Torre never left the bench, putting the game in Cone's hands.

Cone got Lopez to foul out to Girardi, and for the first time in the series, Torre was able to call on his bullpen with a lead -- something he had pointed to as the key to the series.

"The courage he showed in the sixth, well, that's David Cone's heart," said John Wetteland, who pitched the ninth for a save. "He really exhibited everything he's about right there."

Cone's effort was just his latest in a remarkable comeback since missing four months after surgery to repair an aneurysm in his right shoulder.

"It's mind boggling," Cone said. "It's tough for me to put in perspective when I was lying in the hospital bed, I heard the word 'aneurysm' and didn't even know what it meant, so the World Series was the furthest thing from my mind. I wish I was eloquent enough to tell you how I feel. Suffice it to say, I never expected to be here, and I feel pretty lucky."