A-Rod, Jeter lead Yanks rally

New York evened its series with Minnesota with a 7-6 win in 12 innings.
NEW YORK (AP) -- No more questions about Alex Rodriguez under pressure.
A-Rod and Derek Jeter teamed up to save Mariano Rivera, sparking a championship-caliber rally that carried the New York Yankees past the Minnesota Twins 7-6 in 12 innings Wednesday night, tying their playoff series at a game apiece.
"I don't think I want to watch it again, it was certainly one of the memorable games," Yankees manager Joe Torre said.
Especially for Rodriguez, whose tying double in the 12th was the huge hit New York waited for all season. Jeter then dashed home on Hideki Matsui's sacrifice fly as the Yankees completed another improbable postseason comeback, overcoming a rare October failure by Rivera.
"Alex had a little trouble settling in here, but when you do this at Yankee Stadium in a postseason game, especially coming from behind, God only knows what it's going to do for him," Torre said. "You couldn't get a bigger hit."
Twins took lead
After falling behind in the 12th on Torii Hunter's home run off Tanyon Sturtze, the Yankees refused to fold. No surprise, because New York set a major league record with 61 comeback wins during the regular season.
"We never doubted ourselves," Gary Sheffield said. "We've done this all season. There's no reason to think we couldn't do it again."
Still, Yankees owner George Steinbrenner hardly seemed impressed.
"We've won nothing yet, gang. Nothing, yet. We've got work to do," Steinbrenner said. "It was great to come back."
Corey Koskie keyed the Twins' eighth-inning rally with a tying double against Rivera, who blew a save in the postseason for only the third time in 33 chances.
Jeter, Rodriguez and Sheffield homered earlier in the game, and it went to extra innings tied at 5. It stayed that way until Hunter connected.
Runs out of gas
But Twins closer Joe Nathan was running out of gas. He had made 43 straight appearances without going more than one inning, but manager Ron Gardenhire sent him out for a third inning for the first time since May 20, 2003, in hopes of finishing it.
"He was still throwing 94, 95, 96 mph," Gardenhire said. "It's a little disappointing. I probably left him out there too long. I didn't like our options."
Nathan walked No. 9 hitter Miguel Cairo and Jeter with one out in the 12th, bringing up Rodriguez, who hit only .248 with runners in scoring position in his first season with the Yankees.
Ground-rule double
He's making up for all that in October. A-Rod hit a ground-rule double to left-center on Nathan's 49th pitch, tying the score at 6 with his fourth hit of the game. It gave him three RBIs, and made him 6-for-10 in the series.
Sheffield was intentionally walked before J.C. Romero replaced Nathan.
With the outfield drawn in, Matsui hit a liner directly at right fielder Jacque Jones that appeared too shallow to score Jeter from third.
Jeter took off for the plate anyway, and Jones' throw didn't have much on it. First baseman Matthew LeCroy relayed the ball to the plate, but Jeter slid in safely.
"I didn't care, I was going no matter what," Jeter said. "Sometimes you have to force guys to make plays."
MINNESOTANEW YORK
abrhbiabrhbi
ShStwrt lf6000Jeter ss4211
JJones rf6110ARdrgz 3b6243
THnter cf6331Shffield rf5112
Mrneau 1b4022Matsui lf4011
Rivas 2b0000BWllms cf4010
LeCroy 1b1010Posada c5000
Koskie 3b4111Sierra dh4000
Kubel dh6000Olerud 1b5010
CGzmn ss4120Cairo 2b3200
Cddyer 2b5021
HBlnco c1001
Offrmn ph1000
Brders c2000
Totals466126Totals40797
Minnesota120000020001--6
New York102010100002--7
Two outs when winning run scored.
DP--Minnesota 2, New York 1. LOB--Minnesota 9, New York 7. 2B--Morneau (1), Koskie (1), ARodriguez (1), BWilliams (1), Olerud (1). HR--THunter (1), Jeter (1), ARodriguez (1), Sheffield (1). SB--THunter (2), Sierra (1). S--Jeter. SF--HBlanco, Matsui.
IPHRERBBSO
Minnesota
Radke6 1-385530
Balfour2-300000
JRincon200004
Nathan L,0-12 1-312243
Romero1-300000
New York
Lieber6 2-373314
Gordon2-312201
MRivera1 2-320001
Sturtze2 2-321134
Quantrill W,1-01-300000
WP--Gordon. PB--Posada. Umpires--Home, Mark Wegner; First, Brian Gorman; Second, Mike Everitt; Third, Jerry Crawford; Left, Paul Nauert; Right, Charlie Reliford. T--4:19. A--56,354.