On Tuesday, Yankees pitcher José Contreras was reunited with his family in Miami after two years. On Sunday, he capped a storybook week by beating the Mets in front of his wife and two daughters.

BY KEVIN BAXTER

NEW YORK - As José Contreras walked off the mound at Yankee Stadium after escaping a fifth-inning bases-loaded jam, he smiled and wagged his right index finger toward a luxury box down the right-field line.

Inside the glass-enclosed booth, from where she joined the other 37,305 people in the stadium in giving her husband a standing ovation, Miriam Murillo Flores smiled back.

''It was very emotional for me,'' Murillo said. ``From the first time I stepped foot in this country, I prayed to God to help José have a good game his first game with us here.''

And for the second time in six days, Murillo's prayers were answered, as Contreras turned in the most dominating performance of his career, holding the New York Mets to two hits in six shutout innings while striking out a lifetime-high 10 batters in an 8-1 victory.

That capped a storybook week for Contreras and his family, who were reunited Tuesday in Miami after Murillo, the couple's two daughters and seven other friends and family members made a daring escape from Cuba by boat. It was the first time they had seen each other since Contreras defected from the Cuban national baseball team 20 months earlier.

''Today, with the presence of my family here, it gave me more motivation,'' Contreras said after the game. ``I'd like to take this opportunity to dedicate this victory to my wife and two daughters and our other friends who came with them from Cuba. And to all the other people in Cuba who support me.''

Without his family, Contreras has struggled since signing a four-year, $32 million contract with the Yankees, bouncing back and forth between the majors and minors. His earned run average of 6.18 coming into Sunday's game was among the worst in the American League.

DIFFERENT PITCHER

But it was clear from the start Sunday that this was a different Contreras. Mixing a mid-90s fastball with a nasty sinker, he struck out five of the first seven batters he faced and all batters he faced in the second and fourth innings. By the fifth inning, the crowd was standing each time Contreras got two strikes on a hitter.

They stood again in the top of the seventh when Contreras made an early exit after his right forearm tightened on his 100th pitch of the afternoon. But that did little to tarnish the day.

`A DREAM COME TRUE'

''It was a dream come true,'' Contreras said. ``I'm in the greatest city in the world playing with the greatest team in my world, with my family here to also enjoy it and take part in it.''

But the best part about Sunday afternoon actually took place late Sunday night, when Contreras returned home to his Fort Lee, N.J., apartment and his family after the second game of a doubleheader.

The most difficult part of his defection, Contreras has repeatedly said, was coming home to an empty apartment.

''During the game, I didn't think about my family,'' he said. ``I concentrated on getting one out after another. I knew after the game my family would be here.''

FAIRY TALE

Sunday's game was just the latest chapter in a fairy tale so perfect Hollywood will be bringing it to a multiplex near you soon. Consider the script, fraught with love and betrayal: National hero and confidant of a dictator defects, leaving behind his high school sweetheart and the two daughters he doted on. He gets millions of dollars to play with the most storied sports franchise in the world in one of the most hallowed stadiums, only to struggle with homesickness, crying himself to sleep in his opulent but empty mansion.

DARING ESCAPE

The family is finally reunited when the wife pulls off a daring escape, outrunning seven Coast Guard ships and a helicopter to freedom. Days later she's in a private box at Yankee Stadium, cheering as her husband mows down the New York Mets. And this winter, they've already made plans to renew their wedding vows on U.S. soil.

Adding to the tale are Contreras' two daughters. At a postgame media conference Sunday, 3-year-old Nailenis seemed frightened by the crush of more than 100 reporters and cameramen before eventually nodding off in her father's lap. But her older sister, 11-year-old Nailan, with her dimpled smile, quickly upstaged her famous father by charming the press.

''Seeing my father striking out batters,'' she said when asked for her favorite memory of her first game in the United States. Well, it was that and the cotton candy, which she tried for the first time Sunday.

''It was good,'' she said with a smile.

And now that his first post-reunion pitching start is out of the way, the painfully shy Contreras is hoping things will return to normal and the media spotlight will focus on someone else. That's not likely to happen anytime soon, however.

Over the weekend a Spanish-language television reporter tried to force his way into Contreras' apartment building, and everyone from The New York Times to the Americas' Division of Human Rights Watch has asked to interview him.

VINDICATION

But the events of the past week have proved one thing to Contreras: He made the right decision what he walked away from Cuba on that October afternoon nearly two years ago.

''Initially, I felt guilt because of the separation of our family,'' he said. ``I felt it was my fault, especially after the first year went by and they weren't here yet. I would ask myself every day if I had made the right decision.

``This confirms I did. I'm reunited with my family in America, playing the best baseball in the world.''