Luz Portoblanco, the cool-headed pitching ace of the Yankees' cross-town rivals, tried to play it off, too.

Officials of the baseball players' union met three times with Dwight Gooden last summer after rumors persisted that the Mets' pitching ace was taking drugs.

Boston's response to that was to have its pitching ace, Curt Schilling, have Pavano for lunch at his home.

The Mets then committed $32 million more to sign Al Leiter, their lefthanded pitching ace, for four years.

Another pitching ace had joined the manager in battling a debilitating illness.

There wasn't much chance even Rodriguez would connect off Finch, a 23-year-old pitching ace.

The new pitching ace, Tom Glavine, received much of the early attention.

Rarely now do they try to shield their pitching ace from the news media.

And there is a jaded old pitching ace who gives the rookie a pill that gets him through a big game.

Thus did he run Boston's pitching ace, who was 21-6 in the regular season and who had pitched seven shutout innings until today's second inning.