Devil Rays 2 – Yankees 1

ST. PETERSBURG – Jeff Nelson didn’t need two eyes planted in the back of his skull to know what the scoreboard in left-center field was reporting.

As Nelson took the Tropicana Field mound for the ninth inning last night, he was keenly aware the

Orioles had defeated the Blue Jays and put the Yankees in position to clinch their third straight AL East title by reducing the Bombers’ magic number to one lonely digit.

Now, it was up to Nelson to force the Yankees-Devil Rays game into extra innings and give his mates a chance to drench each other in celebratory champagne.

Nelson never gave anybody a chance. He walked Randy Wynn, a pinch-hitter leading off the ninth, watched Wynn move to second on a bunt and was lifted for Mike Stanton. He walked pinch-hitter Vinny Castilla intentionally, got Steve Cox to force Castilla at second and gave up a ground single to Fred McGriff that scored Wynn to lift the lowly Devil Rays to a 2-1 win that had the Yankees waiting until tonight to win their ninth AL East title and fourth in five years. The Blue Jays losing means the Yankees can do no worse than tie for the AL East crown.

“When you walk the leadoff hitter, it’s a bad situation,” said Nelson, who absorbed the Yankees’ 10th loss in 13 games and is 8-4. “I knew Baltimore had beaten Toronto and I really wanted to win this thing and I walk the leadoff hitter. We had a chance and it was a terrible way to lose.”

On top of keeping the corks in place, the Yankees wasted Orlando “El Duque” Hernandez’ best pitching performance of the year. In eight innings, El Duque allowed one run and two hits. Yet, if it wasn’t for Jorge Posada’s leadoff homer in the ninth off closer Roberto Hernandez’ first pitch, El Duque would have been saddled with a 1-0 loss because the Yankees did very little against converted reliever Albie Lopez in eight innings.

“I feel good, but not happy that we lost,” said Hernandez, who has pitched brilliantly across his last three starts and appears to have returned to the pitcher Joe Torre tapped to start the first game of each post-season series a year ago.

As good as he was, El Duque apologized to Torre for giving up a homer to Gerald Williams with two out in the sixth.

“That’s because I gave up the homer,” said El Duque, who left a knee-high, 0-1 breaking ball in the middle of the plate for the ex-Yankee. “That’s why I apologize. We can’t win a game by doing that.”

Of course, Williams’ homer wasn’t why the Yankees lost. With George Steinbrenner watching from a luxury box behind home plate and his extended baseball family spread out all over Tropicana Field in anticipation of a clinching, going 0-for-8 with runners in scoring position was a lot worse than El Duque giving up a bases-empty homer.

After Chuck Knoblauch and Derek Jeter opened the game with a walk and single, respectively, Lopez retired Paul O’Neill, Bernie Williams and David Justice. In the fifth he fanned Knoblauch looking and Jeter swinging with runners on first and second and one out. With the bases loaded in the sixth, Lopez froze Scott Brosius with an 0-2 pitch for a called third strike.

However, the biggest blow was struck by right fielder Jose Guillen in the eighth. O’Neill, who started the night in a 1-for-21 slump and grounded out in the first two at-bats, reached on an infield single over the mound leading off. Bernie Williams followed with a double off the top of the center field wall.

With runners at second and third and no outs, Justice hit a liner to Guillen in right field. Possessing one of the best arms in baseball, Guillen unleashed a two-hop seed to catcher John Flaherty’s right as O’Neill charged down the line.

“As I was running down the line, home plate was open and all of a sudden it wasn’t,” said O’Neill, who opted not to slide, was tagged by Flaherty and called out. “I don’t know if I slide that I am safe.”

One thing O’Neill wasn’t doing was babying a right hip that has been bothering him for almost a month.

“It doesn’t enter my mind,” O’Neill said of the hip pointer.

After last night’s loss, the Yankees have the third best record among AL division leaders. If that holds up, they might not get home field advantage for the best-of-five ALDS that is slated to start Tuesday.

“We got to get used to winning some games,” O’Neill said when asked about letting the home field edge slip into the Tampa Bay. “These are the games you need to win because these are the type of games that are played in the playoffs.”