Daily News from New York, New York • 764

AO BflSIBAfi no DL yet for Jeter AP By THOMAS HILL DAILY NEWS SPORTS WRITER DETROIT Joe Torre has no intention of jeopardizing Derek Jeter's season by writing him into the Yankees lineup before he is completely healthy. Torre, however, also would prefer not to lose All-Star shortstop's services for any longer than is absolute ly necessary. -v- i don't want to put him oh the disabled list if he's going to be better in a week," Torre "That's a week I could-. have him." Jeter yesterday missed his i. second straight start since leaving Thursday night's game with an abdominal strain.

The Yankees have lost three .1 straight since Jeter headed to the bench. Six weeks into a season in which the Yankees will have trouble scoring Torre acknowledged yesterday that a week in May without Jeter could have an impact on the season. "Any time it's important to have him for a week because of what he can do," Torre Joe Torre (I.) takes ball from Andy Pettitte (r.) as Jorge Posada wonders what went wrong. fflonglhift odd ITIgdir tap) NOTEBOOK Wind, errors doom Pettitte, Yankees By THOMAS HIU DAILY NEWS SPORTS WRITER DETROIT Paul O'Neill always will have a story to tell about the second game he played in Comerica Park. He will be able to relate the tale of a fly ball that took a crazy route through the sky and landed nowhere near where it should have.

Just two hours after the play occurred, the Yankees already had assigned it to a special place solely on account of its weirdness. Of course, the Yankees also had considerable incentive to dwell on unpredictable wind patterns and unusual playing conditions inside a month-old ballpark. Such thinking diverted their attention from truly 7j 1 1 rim TIGERS 6 YANKEES 3 a CM said. "But don't get me wrong. I'm not flirting with his future." Jeter again underwent treatment yesterday for his muscle strain.

He is not supposed to perform any baseball activity until after the Yankees return to New Yorki "We'll see him when we get home and see what he's like on Tuesday," Torre said. "If there's no marked improve-i ment, we'll re-think putting him on the disabled New kid on block: Tigers' rookie second baseman Jose Macias is 5-for-9 after the first two games of the series. He had a double, a triple and a single yesterday. Andy i 'i Pettitte pointed to his unfamil-iarity with Macias as one reason pitching to the Tigers was difficult for him yesterday. "I know he can hit a fastball in down the line," Pettitte said, "I know he can hit a fastball the other way.

I'll try to get him next time." Lefthander Allen Watson has reported to Triple-A Columbus to begin a rehabilitation assignment. Torre estimated he would need "a week to 10 days" before returning to the Yankees. Torre was among the Yankees who admired the spacious outfield at Comerica Park, an anomaly among retro parks that tend to favor hitters. "It's fair to the point where you can pitch to an outfield position and get outs," Torre said. "A club like ours would fit in this Tigers' 29 hits in the first two games of the series tied their season-high for i' back-to-back games.

Detroit's 298 hits and and 128 runs are the fewest in the majors. first. Pettitte made a hurried throw wide of first for an error. That misplay foreshadowed more trouble, particularly during the Tigers' four-run second. After rookie second baseman Jose Macias tripled home two runs, Shane Halter hit a hard shot toward the middle that Pettitte knocked to the ground.

He picked it up quickly, but again threw wildly past first for another error that allowed Macias to score. Two batters later, Brad Ausmus' RBI single pushed the Yankees into a 4-1 hole from which they never escaped. "Everything that could go wrong went wrong," Pettitte said. Soon discomfort turned to bewilderment for the Yankees. Pettitte recorded the first two outs of the fourth before Juan Encarna-cion singled to right and Juan Gonzalez walked.

Dean Palmer lofted what appeared to be a routine fly ball to right. O'Neill prepared to catch it, but a gust of wind suddenly carried it far from O'Neill's reach. The ball fell for a single while Encarnacion scored. "I had absolutely no chance," O'Neill said. "You could have told me where it was going to land.

It's not like it dropped at my feet. It landed 30-40 feet away." Other Yankees observed that the ball shot out of the sky as if it had been thrown back to Earth. "Like someone shot at it like a duck," first base coach Lee Mazzilli said. "Bam. Went right down." In the sixth, Tigers left fielder Rich Becker endured a similar fate.

Bernie Williams hit a liner to left that sailed well over Becker's head as he ran directly toward the wall. The final moment of wind-aided entertainment occurred in the ninth, when Scott Bro-sius hit a foul pop behind the plate and seemingly 10 rows into the stands. The ball blew back into foul territory, where Ausmus, the Tigers catcher, made a lunging catch while still wearing his mask. "From bitter to hopeful to bitter," Brosius said, "all on one popup." Only comic relief spared the Yankees from a thoroughly dissatisfying day. Iff limn 1 1 fr a AP inexplicable events: their 6-3 loss yesterday to the Tigers, the second time in less than 24 hours the two-time defending World Series champions had lost to the worst club in the major leagues, and their season-high third straight loss overall.

"You hate to see a game decided by weird plays like that," O'Neill said. O'Neill himself acknowledged a short time later that a handful of wind-aided plays were "no reason why we lost; we just got beat." The real reasons ranged from a poor outing by Andy Pettitte (2-2), who could not keep his pitches low in the strike zone, to shaky defense to the Yankees' trouble hitting hard-throwing righthander Jeff Weaver (1-4). The Yankees totaled just seven singles against against Weaver in 623 innings, and only one other single during 2'3 scoreless innings by the Tigers' bullpen. Pettitte pitched just 423 innings and allowed five earned runs on 10 hits and three Tigers' Jose Macias follows flight of two-run triple in second inning yesterday. walks in his poorest start of the season.

Pettitte also committed two throwing errors and lost for the first time since his initial start this season, on April 7. Just like Roger Clemens who lasted just 423 innings Friday night Pettitte brought an end to a recent run of strong starts. "For the most part, I felt good," Pettitte said. "I got out of some jams, but I was in so much trouble all day. It was just too much." Since he came off the DL April 26, Pettitte had gone 2-0 with a 2.04 ERA in three starts.

His good fortune came to an end as soon as he took the mound and fielded a bunt by Luis Polonia leading off the bottom of the 4f 4 -Jrjrfl4-i.