Wells Makes Amends in 6-3 Victory

NEW YORK — David Wells already had made one apology for himself Tuesday. He wasn’t about to make one for his teammates.

Wells, ejected from his last start, pitched eight strong innings and the Yankees evened their Subway Series with a 6-3 victory over the Mets before 56,253 at Yankee Stadium.

Derek Jeter went three for five with two runs batted in, and Luis Sojo and Paul O’Neill each had two hits for the Yankees.

But it was Wells, who earlier in the day apologized to Yankee Manager Joe Torre for getting tossed last weekend in Florida, who made the difference.

Against the Mets, Wells pitched as if he were determined to make further amends to Torre, as well as his teammates. After giving up three runs in the third, the left-hander retired 15 consecutive batters before Luis Lopez doubled with two out in the eighth.

Wells held the Mets to six hits, struck out five and walked none. Mariano Rivera pitched the ninth for his 22nd save.

“He had one bad inning,” Torre said. “He actually gave me two more innings than I expected, seeing that he pitched Saturday. He was determined tonight.”

The Yankees scored four runs in the second inning against Met starter Armando Reynoso (5-1). Two walks and a double loaded the bases with none out, and Joe Girardi hit a one-out, run-scoring single.

Jeter added a two-run double, and Sojo followed with an RBI line drive that hit Reynoso on the left knee and caromed into the Mets dugout.

Two Met errors in the seventh helped the Yankees score two unearned runs.