By JOHN DELCOS
The (Westchester, N.Y.) Journal News

MINNEAPOLIS - They might not have the collective swagger they once had, but that doesn't mean the New York Yankees aren't without players capable of an October strut.

The Yankees always say the playoffs are when it counts and experience is their edge. However vulnerable age has made them, they insist to be defined by their ability to play under pressure.

Roger Clemens, pitching under the specter of making the last start of his Hall of Fame career, was overpoweringly magnificent, and Hideki Matsui, the Japanese slugger, unloaded to lead the Yankees over the Minnesota Twins, 3-1, Saturday afternoon in Game 3 of the AL Division Series at the Metrodome.

"In spite of all that's been said and what's gone on, we still have players who can step out when it matters," Bernie Williams said. "We have the ability to block everything out. We don't let outside distractions affect the way we play."

That includes the ability to rebound from defeat.

Embarrassed in Game 1 at home, the Yankees have turned the series and can wrap it up Sunday behind David Wells. In a worst-case scenario, they are assured of a Game 5 Monday night at Yankee Stadium.

"There is no sense of that at all," said Williams when asked if the Yankees had a feeling they had taken psychological control.

"The only sense I have is we'll come out here as focused as we were today."

"We can forget about this game now," Derek Jeter said. "It doesn't mean anything tomorrow."

Clemens said he welcomed the 1999 trade that sent him to the Yankees because it gave him a chance for a ring, "but nobody gave it to me, I had to earn it."

He earned his rings by beating Atlanta in Game 4 of the 1999 World Series and striking out 15 Seattle Mariners in a one-hit shutout in Game 5 of the 2000 AL Championship Series.

If he gets a third, it will be by what he did Saturday.

A player fueled by adrenaline, and with Game 3 his first start that could have been his last, Yankees manager Joe Torre conceded the possibility prior to the game that Clemens could get too pumped up and overthrow.

It never happened.

Although not as dominant as that afternoon in Seattle, with the exception of A.J. Pierzynski's third-inning homer, Clemens was in control.

"His location was unbelievable," catcher Jorge Posada said. "He put the ball where I wanted."

Clemens struck out Michael Ryan to end the fifth with the tying runners on base, and put down the Twins' 4-5-6 hitters, Matthew LeCroy, Jacque Jones and Torii Hunter - who each represented the tying run at the plate - to end the sixth.

If this was Clemens' last game, he retired the final six batters he faced to finish with a line of one run on five hits and one walk with six strikeouts in seven innings.

"I'll miss getting out of jams and trying to elevate my game," Clemens said. "What a feeling I had my last inning."

There was pre-game talk of the noise factor in the Metrodome - it played to the Twins' advantage in the 1987 and 1991 World Series - but didn't come into play as the Yankees took the early lead and Clemens did little to indicate he couldn't hold it.

Torre said it is important to score first in the offseason, that doing so gives you the hammer.

Matsui, who didn't hit with the anticipated power considering the 50 homers on his resume his last season with the Yomiuri Giants, swung that hammer against Kyle Lohse in the second.

"When you score first, it takes the crowd out of the game," Jeter said. "(Game 4) is going to be a low-scoring day like today. It seems that whoever scores first could win."

Williams, who appears to have regained his stroke in the postseason, doubled and scored ahead of Matsui and added a RBI single in the third.

"I don't think it was devastating," Twins manager Ron Gardenhire said of Matsui's homer. "We thought we were going to be able to score some runs if we could beat the ball around a little bit, but Clemens pretty much stopped us. He controlled the ballgame. We just waited for it to happen and it never did."