Yanks Win 6th Straight - At Shea?

On an unprecedented day when the Yankees and Mets shared Shea Stadium, Darryl Strawberry felt right at home.

Playing a home game outside of their fabled Bronx ballpark for the first time in 23 years, the Yankees stretched their winning streak to six Wednesday, beating the Anaheim Angels 6-3 as Strawberry had three hits, including a home run.

"There's a lot of memories," said Strawberry, the player the Mets built their team around in the late 1980s. "That's something you can't take away."

Then Mets first-ever AL-NL doubleheader was created when Yankee Stadium was declared unsafe Monday -- just five days before its 75th anniversary. The Yankees, who used Shea Stadium in 1974 and '75 when their own ballpark was remodeled, postponed the first two games of their series against the Angels and moved the finale across town to the home of the Mets, who had a regularly scheduled game against the Chicago Cubs on Wednesday night.

Never before had there been AL and NL games on the same day in the same park.

"It was just a unique day," said Yankees pitcher David Cone, who played for the Mets from 1987-92.

Strawberry was 3-for-4, homering off Omar Olivares in the fifth. The crowd of 40,743 -- many bought $2 tickets months ago as part of a Yankee Stadium 75th anniversary promotion -- even brought Strawberry out for a curtain call.

"You knew he'd be ready to go today," said Cone, who on July 18, 1991, allowed Strawberry to homer off the scoreboard in his first game back at Shea after signing with the Los Angeles Dodgers.

As Strawberry circled the bases, the Mets' electronic "Big Apple," used when home players connect, started to rise. But it stopped just as the Mets' logo started to become visible.

"That definitely was a good memory. I've seen that a lot of times," said Strawberry, whose 127 homers at Shea are 30 more than any other player.

He played for the Mets from 1983-90, then got caught up in drug and alcohol problems, resulting in a 60-day suspension in 1995. But he's on the rebound, hitting .400 (12-for-30) with four homers and nine RBIs.

"He's been our hottest hitter," Cone said.

Paul O'Neill had three hits and two RBIs, and Tino Martinez hit a pair of RBI doubles for the Yankees, on their longest winning streak since 1995 and 7-1 since an 0-3 start.

David Wells (2-1) gave up four hits in eight-plus innings, allowing homers to Darin Erstad, Phil Nevin and Gary DiSarcina. Wells, an unflappable, happy-golucky guy, struck out eight and walked one, hardly seeming to notice the ballpark switch.

"Just give me the ball. I'll go out there and throw," he said.

Ken Hill (2-1) was pounded for five runs and 10 hits in four innings. The distractions seemed to get to the Angels more. Like the Yankees, they shuttled between the ballparks.

"We had to get up a 6:30 in the morning, leave the hotel, go to Yankee Stadium, get dressed and then come out here," Hill said. "That's not a good excuse for what happened. I put us in the hole early."

O'nell's RBI single and Martinez's run-scoring double put the Yankees ahead 2-0 in the first. Martinez doubled in another run in the third, and New York increased the lead to 5-0 in the fourth when Hill threw a wild pitch with a runner on third and O'Neill tripled home a run.

"We did not get ourselves ready to play," Angels manager Terry Collins said.

Having survived the weird week, the Yankees get a day off before starting a three-game series Friday at Detroit - games originally scheduled for the Bronx.

"The last couple of days have been tough. The only way to deal with this is to be matter-of-fact about it, go about your business," manager Joe Torre said. "There's nothing normal about this."

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