Yankees manager Joe Torre comes out to see Roger Clemens and brings the hook with him.(AP)

Oakland, whose $33 million payroll is less than one-third of the Yankees' $113 million outlay, stopped the 10-game postseason home winning streak of the two-time World Series champions and put New York one loss from elimination in the best-of-five, first-round matchup.

Andy Pettitte, who rescued New York by winning Game 2, will pitch on three days' rest in the twilight on Sunday night against Gil Heredia, who beat Clemens in the opener.

Both traveled to the West Coast on Saturday, to be well rested in case Game 5 was needed to determine Seattle's opponent in the AL championship series starting Tuesday. Their teammates were to arrive only about 14 hours before gametime.

Clemens, the second-oldest player in the series at 38, looked like his five Cy Young Awards were rusty relics, dropping to 3-5 with a 4.32 ERA in 14 postseason starts.

"Nothing has really come easy this year at all," Clemens said. "It's disappointing, no question about it."

He walked two of his first three batters, gave up a line-drive homer to Saenz into the left-field seats, then needed great defense to bail him out of a jam in the second.

"That gave us a hill to climb right away," Yankees manager Joe Torre said.

It took 25 pitches before a batter swung and missed, and hitters swung and missed just seven of the 93 pitches Clemens threw in five-plus innings.

While he recovered in the middle innings, retiring nine in a row, Oakland chased him in the sixth when Eric Chavez singled, Miguel Tejada doubled under the glove of a diving Scott Brosius at third and Ben Grieve singled them both in.

Ramon Hernandez drove in Grieve with an infield grounder off Mike Stanton for a 6-0 lead.

That was around the time Benny Agbayani's 13th-inning homer led the New York Mets over San Francisco across town at Shea Stadium. Saturday marked the first time two major league postseason games were played in one city on the same day.

Clemens, booed when he walked back to the Yankees dugout after Torre took him out, was pitching on three days' rest for the first time in seven years, and was wild from the beginning, walking Terrence Long on four pitches leading off the game.

Randy Velarde grounded into a force play, Jason Giambi walked and Clemens gave up a homer on a high fastball to Saenz, who had just nine in 214 regular-season at-bats.

"It's been a grind," Clemens said. "We're obviously not trying to do it the easy way."

Saenz was bruised when he was hit on a wrist by a pitch from Dwight Gooden in the ninth and left the game.

Zito, a little more than a year out of Southern California, looked sharp and self-assured, hooking curveballs past the Yankees' slumping batters at will.

"That's the way he's been just about every time out," Oakland manager Art Howe said. "Thank goodness he was sharp tonight. He was the key to the game, to go out and keep putting zeros up."

New York, which ended the season with 15 losses in 18 games, hasn't homered in seven games and 62 innings since Glenallen Hill connected at Tampa Bay on Sept. 28.

The Yankees, seeking to become the first team to win three straight Series titles since the A's from 1972-74, are hitting like Superman after contact with kryptonite, batting .221 in the series with just eight extra-base hits in four games - all doubles.

"Hopefully, we can get some hits," Torre said. "That's been the most frustrating part of it for me, my players and my coaches. We're going to get hits sooner or later, mark my words. Hopefully, it's (Sunday) so we can give Andy some breathing room."

When the Yankees finally got runners to first and second with two outs in the fifth, Luis Sojo hit into a forceout.

New York finally broke through for a run in the sixth, just its 12th in the first four games of the series.

Paul O'Neill, just 2-for-14 in the series with a pair of infield hits, legged out a grounder to the right side and David Justice (2-for-14) singled with one out.

Hill (1-for-12) flied out and Jorge Posada hit an RBI double, putting runners on second and third. Jim Mecir then relieved and got Tino Martinez to pop out.

Ryan Christenson added an RBI single off Gooden in the eighth and Oakland pounded Gooden for four runs in the ninth. Chavez hit a two-run double, Tejada had an RBI grounder and Bo Porter drove in a run with a bunt single.

Sojo, playing second in place of scatter-armed Chuck Knoblauch, threw out Grieve at plate in the second on Long's grounder, with Posada expertly blocking Grieve's foot from touching home.

Notes:

• Mecir left in the seventh with patella tendinitis in his left knee, but thinks he'll be able to pitch Sunday.
• New York has lost 22 of its last 23 when scoring three runs or fewer, including 14 in a row since beating Toronto 3-2 on Sept. 13.
• The previous two times the Yankees went to a fifth game in the first round, they lost 4-3 at Cleveland in 1997 and 6-5 in 11 innings at Seattle in 1995.
• It was the Yankees' largest postseason loss since Boston beat them 13-1 in the ALCS last year.