Is he 30, as he maintains, or 34, as some court documents indicate?

	Less than 1½ years after making his major league debut, Orlando Hernandez is 5-0 in postseason play with a 1.02 ERA

These questions remain unanswered, but in his brief major league career, the issue of whether Hernandez has what it takes to be a big-game pitcher isn't even open for discussion.

The answer, everyone agrees, is: Si.

Hernandez' manager, Joe Torre, has some difficulty communicating with his pitcher because of the language barrier. But Torre doesn't need a translator to know that El Duque relishes the opportunity to pitch best when it counts most.

"You look in the eyes," Torre says. "You look in someone's eyes and it tells you a lot of things. It's the challenge."

Torre had an inkling that Hernandez wasn't about to fold under the pressure when he observed his starter playfully acting the role of a waiter at a team meal.

"I said, 'Wow, he may lose tonight, but he's not going to be afraid,' " recalled Torre. "It's just something that's inside him."

Hernandez rescued New York with a strong performance, limiting the mighty Cleveland lineup to three hits in seven shutout innings. The Yankees never lost again in the postseason, en route to their 24th world championship.

This year, more was expected from Hernandez. A season ago, he was a largely unknown quantity in a strong Yankee rotation, safely nestled behind 18-game winner David Wells, 20-game winner David Cone and 16-game winner Andy Pettitte.

But this season, Hernandez led all New York starters with 17 wins and was tabbed by Torre to open the Division Series against Texas, the ALCS against Boston and the World Series against Atlanta.

In four postseason starts this October, Hernandez is 3-0 with a miniscule 1.29 ERA.

"Everyone feels very confident with him on the mound," Cone said. "He not only gives you quality starts, but he pitches deep into the game."

Indeed, in the pennant-clinching victory over the Red Sox, Hernandez gave the Yanks a season-high 138 pitches before tiring in the eighth.

Like great money pitchers before him, Hernandez seems to thrive under the toughest circumstances. Thus far in the playoffs, opposing hitters are just 4-for-39 against him with men on base, and 3-for-20 with runners in scoring position.

Hernandez watched his half-brother, Livan, pitch the Florida Marlins to the 1997 World Series title after which he was named the Series MVP, and would like nothing more than the opportunity to do the same for the Yankees.

"That desire and hunger for baseball and to succeed at this level," Hernandez said Friday, "is something I've had my entire life, ever since I was a little kid."

Now, on the biggest stage, he gets his chance.

"I guess," Torre said, "it goes back to where he came from and how tough it was to get over here and have an opportunity to pitch at the major league level."

Once you've had Fidel Castro as your boss, answering to George Steinbrenner doesn't seem so menacing.

Over the next 10 days, Hernandez will get the chance to further enhance his legend, and join World Series pitching heroes like Whitey Ford, Bob Gibson, Catfish Hunter and others as pitchers who seemed to save their best for last -- the final seven games of the season.

"Once you do it," Torre said, "you realize it's in the memory bank and it's in that feel, and then you do it again and now we expect it every time we send him out there."