Yanks Edge Rangers In 11

There's no instant replay in baseball, and no luck for the Texas Rangers against the New York Yankees.

After Texas loaded the bases with no outs in the bottom of the 11th inning, the Yankees got help from an umpire's call and held on to beat the Rangers again this time with aid from a strange double play that seemed appropriate in a wild 5-4 victory.

"In that situation, we are hoping for a double play. It worked out, though not the way most double plays happen," said Yankees reliever Todd Erdos, who earned his first major league save.

Luis Alicea appeared to foul a ball off his lower leg. The ball rolled in front of the plate and home plate umpire Jeff Kellogg ruled it a fair ball. Catcher Jorge Posada picked it up, stepped on home and tagged Alicea for a double play.

Kellogg and Yankees manager Joe Torre both said they never saw the ball hit Alicea. They obviously hadn't seen the television replay, which showed clearly that Alicea fouled the ball off his leg. It should have been a dead ball.

Texas manager Johnny Oates was predictably annoyed.

"Go ask the umpire. I saw a replay and the ball did hit him," he said.

While Alicea never felt the ball hit him, he knew it had to hit something or somebody to bounce into fair territory.

"After looking at the replay, it was clear that it hit me," Alicea said. "It's a tough loss. When a feak play happens like that it was a heartbreaker."

After the wild play, Erdos got Scott Sheldon to ground out to end the game.

The Yankees, who swept a two-game series against the Rangers last week, have won 34 of the last 45 meetings since the opening game of their 1996 playoff series. The Yankees also swept the Rangers out of the AL playoffs the last two seasons, holding them to one run each time.

In other games, Oakland beat Boston 1-0 and Toronto beat Anaheim 7-1. The Tampa Bay-Baltimore and Seattle-White Sox game were postponed because of inclement weather.

Tino Martinez tied the game with an RBI single in the ninth off John Wetteland and won it with another RBI single in the 11th.

Overshadowed by the strange ending and another Rangers loss was the performance of Texas starter Darren Oliver.

Oliver pitched 6 1-3 no-hit innings before Paul O'Neill hit a bloop single to left and Bernie Williams followed with his third homer to tie the game at 2. Those were the only two hits he allowed in eight innings, but Oliver still ended with his third straight no-decision.

Posada led off the 10th with a solo home run off Tim Crabtree (0-1). Texas got the run back in the bottom half against Mariano Rivera (1-0) when Royce Clayton led off with a single, moved to second on a sacrifice bunt and scored on a single by Ivan Rodriguez.

Rafael Palmeiro's two-out homer had broken the 2-2 tie in the eighth inning.

Yankees starter David Cone got his second straight no decision against the Rangers, leaving after allowing two runs and five hits in seven innings.

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