SECTION: Sports; Pg. 64

LENGTH: 564 words

HEADLINE: JETER, CONE POUND RANGERS  3-RUN DINGER SINKS TEXAS  

BYLINE: By PETER BOTTE

BODY:


Pitchers across baseball have been unable to adjust to Derek Jeter all season, but the Stadium's famed bleacher creatures have altered their roll call to accommodate the Yankees' all-everything shortstop.

When it came time to chant Jeter's name during the first inning of yesterday's game, the rabid right-field fans yelled, "MVP, MVP."

"What am I going to do, turn around after 50 games?" Jeter asked afterward. Jeter did not acknowledge the fans for nearly one minute. But the bleacher creatures are clearly on to something.

Jeter's three-run homer was the exclamation point on a six-run outburst in the second inning to support David Cone's latest winning effort. The Yankees' tidy 6-2 victory over the Rangers took less than 21/2 hours to complete before 28,200 at the Stadium.

"He's just phenomenal," Cone said. "He gets big hits, home runs. He's the key to our lineup. He's virtually carried us the first third of the season."

There are 100 games remaining in the season and there are valid MVP arguments out of Cleveland, where Manny Ramirez is on pace to challenge Hack Wilson's single-season RBI record. But Jeter leads the first-place Yankees in every offensive category aside from stolen bases, which he trails Chuck Knoblauch by one (10-9).

Even on a night when Jeter actually struck out three times to surpass Jorge Posada for most on the team with 42, he still was the focus as the Yankees (37-25) moved 12 games over .500 for the first time this season.

"I really didn't swing the bat very well tonight," Jeter said.

Jeter failed to get at least two hits for the first time in eight games, which would have made him the first Yankee to have eight straight multi-hit games since Mike Easler in 1986.

So what? The offensive numbers he continues to post are staggering.

Jeter has been on base in all but one of the Yankees' 62 games on his way to a remarkable .380 batting average, trailing only Tony Fernandez' .403 mark in the American League.

Jeter also leads the AL in hits, triples and multi-hit games. He ranks second in batting, extra-base hits and on-base percentage; in the top five in runs, total bases, slugging and doubles.

His team-high totals in home runs (12), RBI (46) and walks (39) project to 31, 120 and 102 over 162 games.

Jeter's three-run bomb off Texas rookie Ryan Glynn in the second gave Cone (7-2, 2.77) plenty of breathing room.

Cone, who allowed only four hits before Ramiro Mendoza took over in the eighth, struck out six and walked two over seven innings of two-run ball to improve to 10-3 lifetime against Texas.

The West-leading Rangers, who've won only five times in the last 25 head-to-head meetings (including playoffs) between the teams, jumped out to a brief lead with a single run in the second.

But the Yankees showed Glynn the Bronx and batted around for the 14th time this season in a six-run third.

Glynn's wild pitch on ball four to Chuck Knoblauch made it 3-1, before Jeter clobbered a flat 0-1 curveball over the right-field wall to open Cone's lead to five runs.

The ball just missed landing in the very section where the early-game chant summed up exactly what type of player the people of New York believe Jeter has evolved into.

"That's what I thought they were saying," Joe Torre said of the MVP chant. "But I just knew he wasn't going to turn around."



GRAPHIC: JON NASO DAILY NEWS MVP? Derek Jeter, who hit a three-run homer against Texas last night, is having a spectacular season.

LOAD-DATE: June 16, 1999