Cone Scoops Out Yanks' Victory

You can't argue with success, even if you're pitching as well as David Cone.

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Manager Joe Torre replaced Cone after eight innings of shutout ball for the second straight outing as the Yankees won their ninth straight game to match their longest winning streak of the season.

"I told Joe I'd like to go back out, but it's tough to second-guess Joe Torre," Cone (13-2) said after limiting Tampa Bay to three hits in eight innings.

"He knows what he's doing. And considering what happened to me last year when I ran out of gas in August and got hurt, he's trying to protect me. I appreciate that."

Cone allowed a leadoff single to Randy Winn in the first, a one-out double to Kevin Stocker in the third and a leadoff double to Miguel Cairo in the eighth. He struck out eight and walked three.

Mariano Rivera allowed two hits in the ninth before retiring Dave Martinez and pinch-hitter Bobby Smith with the tying run on base for his 24th save.

By getting his 13th victory, Cone has his winningest season since going 18-8 with the Yankees and Toronto Blue Jays in 1995. He was 12-6 with New York last year.

"I'm thrilled, believe me. Considering what's happened to me the last two years and how I started thiyear, I couldn't be happier with where I'm at," said Cone, who was 0-1 with a 14.90 ERA after his first two starts this season.

"It's been a heck of a battle to get back to respectability. And I feel like I owe our team a couple of games like this because they scored a lot of runs for me early in the year."

Paul O'Neill drove in one run off Rolando Arrojo (10-6) with a first-inning double. Chuck Knoblauch made it 2-0 with a sacrifice fly in the seventh inning as the Yankees improved baseball's best start in 96 years to 64-20 by winning for the 13th time in 14 games.

It marks the first time since 1961 that New York has had two winning streaks of at least nine games in the same season. The Yankees have three streaks of at least eight this year after not having a single one of more than five games in 1996 and 1997. Anaheim is the only other AL team to win nine straight this season.

The Devil Rays lost a season-high ninth straight time before a crowd of 44,859 at Tropicana Field - the expansion team's first sellout since drawing 45,369 on opening day.

Tampa Bay has been shut out a major league-leading 12 times, including five of the past 12 games. The shutout was the Yankees third in the last four games, including 2-0 in the opener of this series.

The punchless Devil Rays are 1-for-27 with runners in scoring position in the series, and that hit -- Paul Sorrento's ninth-inning single off Rivera on Saturday night -- only advanced a man from second to third base.

"Give the pitchers credit," Tampa Bay manager Larry Rothschild said, bemoaning his club's lack of clutch hitting. "But at some point, we've got to get those hits."

O'Neill drove in the game's first run after Knoblauch was hit by a pitch and stole second. Scott Brosius scored on Knoblauch's sacrifice fly after he and Joe Girardi singled off Arrojo.

Arrojo allowed seven hits, struck out four and walked one in seven innings.

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