Yanks Fall To Rangers

The breaks finally seem to be going the Texas Rangers' way in their house of horrors at Yankee Stadium.

Texas turned two line drives by Chili Davis into five outs and scored the winning run off Roger Clemens on a ball that didn't even make it halfway up the third-base line to beat the New York Yankees 4-2 Thursday night.

Â"Sometimes you think you've seen every combination,Â" Rangers manager Johnny Oates said. Â"You look out there tonight and see Chili hit two balls the way he did and end up with five outs. Then we score the winning run with a ball that didn't go 45 feet.Â"

Â"We're not going throw this one back,Â" Oates said. Â"Things happened to go our way tonight.Â"

On a night when Clemens had 13 strikeouts including 10 in the first four innings the Rangers managed nine hits, four in the infield, and three runs in seven innings off the Rocket to win their second straight at Yankee Stadium.

Clemens (6-2), who had his best stuff since the Yankees acquired him this spring, lost for the second time in three starts after not losing a decision for more than a year.

Â"It's a loss,Â" Clemens said. Â"We didn't play well enough to win.Â"

Aaron Sele (7-5) wasn't as dominating, but he proved more effective than his former Boston teammate. Sele allowed two runs, six hits and five walks in seven innings to win for the fourth time in five starts. John Wetteland pitched the ninth for his 23rd save in 25 chances.

Â"I knew Roger was on tonight, so I just wanted to keep the game close,Â" Sele said. Â"There are the games that are tough to win but you have to win them.Â"

Through four innings, Clemens looked like he might equal or even surpass the record of 20 strikeouts in a game he shares with Kerry Wood. He struck out the side in the first, second and fourth.

Â"His slider tonight was as good as I've seen it, Oates said. Â"It was breaking at the last second. He was throwing the fastball up by people and getting them to swing at the splitter down. He had all three pitches working tonight.Â"

The strikeouts dried up after that. He set down one batter in each of the fifth, sixth and seventh innings, while also allowing a run in each inning. Royce Clayton doubled and scored on Mark McLemore's fifth-inning single to tie the game at 1.

Gonzalez, who struck out three times against Clemens, tattooed an eye-level fastball into the left-field seats in the sixth for his 19th homer. His fifth career homer off Clemens tied it at 2.

Â"It was a high fastball and I thought he would be looking for something down,Â" Clemens said. Â"When he gets it, it's going to go.Â"

The Rangers took the lead when Gregg Zaun reached on an infield single, advanced to third on a bunt and a groundout and scored on Roberto Kelly's swinging bunt up the third-base line.

Â"These teams have so many good hitters, you don't expect the game to be won on a play like that,Â" Kelly said.

McLemore added an eight-inning sacrifice fly off Ramiro Mendoza.

The Yankees, who entered the game with a 15-inning scoreless streak against the Rangers, ran themselves out of a rally in the second inning.

With Tino Martinez on second and Paul O'Neill on first, Sele ran a full count on Davis. Yankees manager Joe Torre sent the runners, and Davis hit a liner to second baseman McLemore, who threw to shortstop Clayton for the second out.

Clayton threw to first to complete the Rangers' first triple play since Aug. 8, 1977, against Oakland and just the second since moving to Texas.

Â"Chili sat on a heater and that's what he got,Â" Sele said. Â"If I left it up a little, it would have been trouble. I kept it down and Mark was right there.Â"

The Yankees finally scored in the third, when Sele walked Bernie Williams with the bases loaded. They took the lead again in the fifth on an RBI single by Tino Martinez.

After O'Neill singled with one out in the eighth, Davis lined to pitcher Mike Munoz, starting an inning-ending double play and proving that this indeed was the Rangers' night.

Â"I made seven outs in four at-bats,Â" Davis said. Â"Just bad biorhythms tonight.Â"

Notes: The triple play was the first hit into by the Yankees since Steve Balboni lined into one against Baltimore on June 15, 1989. They haven't turned one since June 3, 1968. ... Rangers C Ivan Rodriguez missed his third straight game with back spasms. ... Yankees C Jorge Posada, struggling at the plate and behind it, was judged to have perfect eye sight after an exam Thursday. He went 2-for-3 with a walk, raising his average to .199. ... Texas won two games in a series at Yankee Stadium for the first time since sweeping a two-game set in August 1993.

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