YANKEE NOTES

CHICAGO – When the Yankees odyssey of 21 games in 20 days started Tuesday night, Joe Torre hoped his bullpen wouldn’t be taxed too much.

However, Tuesday’s game went 11 innings and Torre used six relievers in a loss. When Randy Johnson hadn’t allowed a hit through six Wednesday night and took a 7-0 lead into the seventh, Torre had to be thinking his pen was going to be rested. Instead, Torre used Ron Villone, Kyle Farnsworth and Mariano Rivera for a second straight game.

“I need to involve more people,” Torre said. “We have to get help without an off day for three weeks. I can’t keep going to the same people.”

Since the start of spring training, Torre’s plan was to keep Kyle Farnsworth away from back-to-back outings. Farnsworth, who gave up two homers and four runs in two-thirds of an inning, hasn’t pitched well in the second half of the back-to-back situations. In 11 instances, Farnsworth has worked 9 2/3 innings, allowed 10 hits and has a 5.59 ERA. When Farnsworth hasn’t pitched the game before, his ERA is 4.05.

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The Yankees met for 10 minutes before last night’s game. Part of the meeting entailed heightened security measures for the charter flight home last night.

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Carl Pavano hurled 2 2/3 innings (46 pitches) for Single-A Tampa last night against Daytona. He allowed three runs, five hits (one homer), fanned one and issued an intentional walk. Octavio Dotel threw one scoreless and hitless inning for Double-A Trenton, fanning one and throwing nine pitches.

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The Angels are three games out in the AL West and only four games over .500, but Torre is wary of them. “They are never an easy team,” Torre said of the club that eliminated the Yankees in 2002 and 2005 and has won two of three this year.