NEW YORK – These fish can fly.

Juan Pierre and the Florida Marlins had the Yankees on the run from the very start, stealing the World Series opener 3-2 Saturday night from a New York team that looked as if it was still recovering from its last game.

True to form, the Yankees showed up in the ninth inning and threatened after drawing a pair of walks. But somehow the Marlins held on, with Ugueth Urbina getting Alfonso Soriano on a called third strike on a 3-2 pitch and then retiring Nick Johnson on a fly ball to the streaking Pierre in center field to end it.

Florida led the majors in steals this season, and showed off its speed in a hurry. Pierre began the game with a bunt single and Luis Castillo followed with a hit-and-run single.

With that, the wild-card Marlins were off in this 100th anniversary Series. Pierre later added a two-run single and a stolen base as Florida defeated David Wells and ended New York’s record string of 10 straight home Series wins.

Brad Penny, Dontrelle Willis and Urbina made the lead stand up – something that San Diego, the New York Mets and Arizona could not do in the late innings of previous Octobers at Yankee Stadium.

These Yankees seemed spent, having wrestled Boston to a draining but spectacular Game 7 win that took 11 innings and lasted into Friday’s wee hours. The Marlins also needed seven games to beat the Cubs in the league championship series, but had an extra day to rest.

NLCS MVP Ivan Rodriguez starred in his Series debut. He hit a sacrifice fly in his first at-bat and the 10-time Gold Glove catcher later picked off Nick Johnson at third base to cut short a rally.

The biggest play, however, might have come when third baseman Aaron Boone – whose homer won that Game 7 – failed to throw a relay to the plate and allowed a run to score. The mistake angered Wells, who spun around in disgust.

The Yankees will try for a split at home when Andy Pettitte starts Game 2 Sunday night against Mark Redman.

New York also lost the openers in their other two postseason series this year, to Minnesota and the Red Sox.

Penny, bumped from the NLCS rotation after a poor start against Chicago, did a nice job in limiting New York to two runs in 5 1-3 innings. Willis, the 21-year-old All-Star rookie, bounded off the mound after 2 1-3 scoreless innings and exchanged a chest bump with Urbina after the closer struck out Jorge Posada with runners on first and third to end the eighth.

While the Marlins’ pitching held the Yankees, their speed made them jumpy, just as they hoped it would.

“The speed is something that can disrupt, can move defensive people out of their proper positions and do a lot of things,” Yankees manager Joe Torre said before the game.

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AP-ES-10-18-03 2353EDT