CLEVELAND (AP) - Livan Hernandez grinned the moment the interpreter finished the question in Spanish. Then he shuddered.
Hernandez has been asked dozens of questions during the World Series. About learning to handle freedom, about coping with loneliness, about concerns for the family he left behind. But the 22-year-old Cuban defector chose to answer only one in English. That was whether a trip to Maine in the minors last year was the first time he'd ever seen snow.
"Uh-huh,'' Hernandez finally said.
Considering all the other adjustments to life in these United States that he's made, dealing with the cold ranks way down the list. But because Hernandez found a way to do even that with success Thursday night - gametime temperature: 46 degrees - the Marlins were winging back home to Florida in the early morning hours only one game away from being World Series champs.
"I think the cold actually helped me,'' he said after giving up seven hits but lasting into the ninth in the Marlins' 8-7 win.
"I felt fresh, I felt cool. I was even sweating.''
He was not the only one. Hernandez wasn't the power pitcher in Game 5 he'd been during the league championship series against the Braves. Nor as perplexing as he'd been beating these same Indians just six days earlier.
Hernandez struck out 15 in the game against Atlanta that catapulted him into the limelight. And he'd walked only four batters in three previous postseason appearances.
On this night, he struck out only two Indians and walked eight. He didn't have a ready answer why, in English or Spanish. But to be fair, he had plenty weighing on his mind. Always does.
Among the dozens of questions Hernandez gets asked all the time are a few about the mother and brother left behind. He is always evasive - with good reason. His brother, Orlando, was thrown out of Cuban baseball by the government on thin - very thin - evidence that he, too, considered defecting. He worries about reprisals against his mother all the time - except those few hours when he is on the mound.
"When I get out there, I really can't think about her, because if I do, I'll wind up getting into a lot of trouble and I'll start worrying about everything out there,'' he said.
"I think about her before, and I think about her right now. But at the time I'm out there, I really can't.''
Friends of Miriam Carreras told The Associated Press in a telephone call from Cuba that she had listened to the game. They also said she wasn't feeling well afterward, though apparently it had nothing to do with her son's tough night. And make no mistake: it was a tough night. In the second inning, Hernandez gave up two runs and then rifled his glove in the direction of the dugout in case anybody had questions about his emotional state.
"He's a very tough guy,'' Marlins manager Jim Leyland said, "and usually he stays on an even keel. There was one other time this year where he got a little frustrated and consequently didn't throw the ball very well. So I had (pitching coach Larry) Rothschild and every Spanish-speaking guy on the team talking to him when he came in the dugout. ... I don't know which one it was, but one of them hit home.''
But not immediately.
The Indians nicked Hernandez for just one run in the second, despite a triple, a single and two walks. Then they proceeded to get three in the third with just one swing of Sandy Alomar's bat. Somehow, though, Hernandez found a groove and set Cleveland down in order until the eighth. He began that inning with a pitch count at 121, and almost everything he threw after it had Leyland pacing or Rothschild talking on the bullpen phone. But shortstop Edgar Renteria bailed him out of trouble with a great play from the hole and Leyland let the kid have the ball one more time for the ninth. His rationale was simple.
"He's been one of our best,'' the manager said, "and I think you have to stay with your best.''
The decision didn't look so brilliant when Hernandez failed to touch the bag while covering first on Bip Robert's grounder. Though replays were inconclusive, he didn't even peep in protest, either because Hernandez didn't figure to make any headway in Spanish with ump Ken Kaiser, or because he actually missed the base.
"To be honest,'' he said, "I really don't know if I did or not.''
It didn't matter once reliever Robb Nen, shakier in one inning of work than Hernandez had been during the previous eight, finally sealed the deal.
The win wasn't pretty, it didn't come easily, but in a funny way it reflected much of Hernandez' experiences during his two years in America - plenty of peaks and valleys, lots of risks and rewards, hot and occasionally cold.
Uh-huh.
AP-NY-10-24-97 0539EDT