PHOENIX -- Derek Jeter, evidently distraught that Fox is not showing nearly enough close-ups of his parents, went hitless Saturday to end his World Series hitting streak at 14 games.

But he did come up with one notable new play.

A pitch from Curt Schilling deflected off Jeter's invisible force field in the first inning and home plate umpire Steve Rippley ruled it a hit-batter, sending him to first base.

One out later, Bernie Williams sued his familiar telepathic powers to will a double inside the left-field line, and just like that, the 26-time world champions led Game 1 and were ready to pile on the mound before the Arizona Diamondbacks even came to bat for the first time.

	Struggling from the start
	Yankee starting pitchers who have failed to pitch at least five innings in a playoff game dating back to 1996:
	Date	Series	Opp.	Pitcher	Innings
	10/5/96	Div.	Tex.	Rogers	2
	10/12/96	ALCS	Balt.	Rogers	3
	10/20/96	W.S.	Atl.	Pettitte	2.2
	10/23/96	W.S.	Atl.	Rogers	2
	9/30/97	Div.	Cle.	Cone	3.1
	10/9/98	ALCS	Cle.	Pettitte	4.2
	10/16/99	ALCS	Bos.	Clemens	2
	10/8/00	Div.	Oak.	Pettitte	3.2
	10/15/00	ALCS	Sea.	Neagle	4.1
	10/25/00	W.S.	NYM	Neagle	4.2
	10/10/01	Div.	Oak.	Clemens	4
	10/15/01	Div.	Oak.	Clemens	4.1
	10/27/01	W.S.	Ari.	Mussina	3

"A ball nicks Jeter and then Bernie hits a pitch that I don't think he even knew it where it was and you're thinking, 'Here we go again,"' Arizona pitcher Brian Anderson said. "You're thinking 'Yankee Magic.'"

Yankee Magic? Not this time. This time Yankees Magic resembled nothing more than one of those cheesy Siegfried and Roy acts.

For just as Yankees manager Joe Torre began consulting with Don Zimmer on which vintage of Dom Perignon to go with this year, Arizona second baseman Craig Counsell stepped to the plate in the bottom of the first inning. The man who scored the winning run in the last World Series not won by the Yankees sneaked a Mike Mussina pitch just over the right-field fence and beyond the range of Jeter's famous baseball-incinerating X-ray vision to tie the game.

"For me, it was the turning point," Schilling said of the home run after the game, wearing a "Craig Counsell Fan Club" T-shirt. "I sat on the bench and when he hit the home run, I was resolved that we were going to win or I was going to get a no-decision."

Schilling, of course, is the man who joked Friday that Mystique and Aura are the names of exotic dancers and not God-ordained Yankee attributes that affect the outcome of games every October. He proved it by holding the Yankees to that one run while his teammates pounded Mussina and New York's bullpen in a 9-1 rout.

The loss stunned New York fans, who are currently looking into whether a city law was violated.

	“	We got spanked by Seattle, 14-3, and came right back. I don't think this game will bother this team. ”
		— Randy Choate on the Yankees' 9-1 loss to Arizona in Game 1.

"The Yankees are who they are," Schilling said. "They have 37 championship banners and what, 26 World Series titles, because of their ownership and the character and players they put on the field, but that does not mean they are going to beat us. We have a job to do and we deserve to be here just like they deserve to be here."

Not that you would know it from the endless weeks of media hype that made it seem that all other teams should pay the Yankees royalties for even daring to play in October. Heck, it was to the point where you expected to open up the Playboy centerfold and find Miss October wearing Yankee pinstripes (and lying in Jeter's arms, naturally). Even al-Jazeera picked the Yankees in five.

But as Schilling pointed out about the hype, "More times than not, (the media) are way off base and usually, they are wrong."

Indeed. The Yankees may have won 26 world championships but they also are 11-time World Series losers. And rather than a team with some sort of supernatural postseason powers, the Yankees who showed up for Game 1 looked more like the team that, as Seattle manager Lou Piniella said 10 days ago, is ready to have its rear kicked.

The Yankees made two errors, allowed five unearned runs and managed only three hits, while Mussina didn't get past the third inning. Torre even made a bad lineup choice when he started David Justice in right field instead of ancient and limping Paul O'Neill. Justice whiffed three times against Schilling and dropped a flyball that led to two runs.

Mystique? What mystique?

Things got so bad the Yankees let Randy Choate out of the bullpen for the first time in three weeks and he allowed four runs in one inning.

"So many guys here have played in so many World Series," Choate said. "We got spanked by Seattle, 14-3, and came right back. I don't think this game will bother this team."

"This is the same team that dropped the first two games against Oakland and came back to win," Arizona first baseman Mark Grace said. "So I don't expect them to panic. They're way too smart and way too talented.

"Remember, there's a familiar expression that momentum is only as good as tomorrow's starting pitcher."

Of course, Arizona's next starter is Randy Johnson, the best left-hander in baseball and the man who brings to the mound his own certain mystique. A Yankees loss to him in Game 2 wouldn't end the series (not with Anderson and his 4-9 record starting Game 3), but it would mean the Yankees would have to win four of six, with Schilling and Johnson possibly pitching two of those games.

In other words, Hizzonor, Sir Rudy Giuliani, might want to postpone that ticker-tape parade until at least next weekend.

Jim Caple is a senior writer for ESPN.com.