Yanks Roll To 7th Straight Win

Orlando Hernandez said there's nothing to be concerned about his right arm is just tired, not sore.

Hernandez lasted long enough Tuesday night as he overcame two homers by Magglio Ordonez to lead the New York Yankees to their seventh consecutive win, 5-3 Tuesday night over the Chicago White Sox.

"He says he doesn't want to make a big deal out of it," said Yankees coach Jose Cardenal, Hernandez's interpreter. "It's happened before and happens to every pitcher. He said don't worry about it. In five days, he'll be fine."

The right-hander fell behind in the count twice to Ordonez who hit a pair of solo shots to raise his season total to 23. The White Sox lost for the 11th time in 15 games.

Yankees manager Joe Torre went to the mound before the sixth inning started to talk to Hernandez, who said something between innings to Cardenal. Hernandez said he wanted to go one more inning and he finished strong, getting Frank Thomas to fly out and then striking out Ordonez and Paul Konerko.

"(Hernandez) said it's just like nothing's there. Nothing hurt," Torre said. "It wasn't that he felt something. He felt nothing."

Hernandez pointed to his right triceps as the trouble spot.

"He said he felt it early in the game, but he didn't feel anything until the sixth. He wasn't scared, but he was concerned." Cardenal said.

"The sixth inning he threw harder than the first five innings," catcher Jorge Posada said. "Location-wise, he wasn't throwing where he wanted to, especially early."

The Yankees will take a wait-and-see approach with Hernandez.

New York has put together winning streaks of at least seven games three times this season and now boasts baseball's best record at 61-37.

"Cleveland has a good offensive team, but you look at the Yankees with their pitching and thy're probably the best team in baseball," White Sox manager Jerry Manuel said.

James Baldwin (4-11), who has lost seven of eight decisions, allowed four runs on eight hits in seven innings.

Derek Jeter, the AL's leading hitter, went 0-for-4 with a walk, lowering his average to .368. He has reached base in 95 of 97 games and was held hitless for only the 11th time.

Ordonez led off the second with his 22nd home run to straightaway center to put Chicago ahead 1-0.

New York took a 3-1 lead in the fourth. Paul O'Neill doubled, Bernie Williams singled and Tino Martinez singled to score O'Neill. Shane Spencer hit a sacrifice fly and Posada added an RBI single.

Ordonez led off the fourth with his second homer to close to 3-2, but Williams' RBI single in the fifth made it 4-2.

"He's got a really good slider," Ordonez said of Hernandez. "My last at-bat (in the sixth), he threw me two and I couldn't even reach them."

The White Sox put runners at first and third with one out in the eighth. Yankees reliever Jason Grimsley came on to face Thomas, who hit a potential double-play grounder to third baseman Scott Brosius.

Second baseman Chuck Knoblauch dropped Brosius' throw for his 18th error, allowing Ray Durham to score and cutting the lead to 4-3. But Grimsley got Ordonez on a soft liner to Jeter and struck out Konerko to end the threat.

"Everything is going right except for that (key) hit," Manuel said. "Everything is perfect except the execution. A lot of that is inexperience. Some guys are trying to do too much. Hopefully, we're learning."

Knoblauch added a sacrifice fly in the ninth to make it 5-3.

Rookie center fielder Chris Singleton stole a home run from O'Neill in the first with a leaping one-handed grab high above the eight-foot wall in right-center field.

"That catch gave the entire team a lift," Manuel said.

"It doesn't happen often where it happens that perfectly," Singleton said. "It was almost like a football pass."

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