"I could feel they were getting caught up in the game, just like I was," he said Monday night.
Bidding to become the first pitcher to throw a no-hitter against the Yankees in 42 years, he barely missed.
Colon wound up with a one-hitter, allowing only Luis Polonia's eighth-inning single and striking out 13 as the Indians beat New York 2-0.
"I think once you get five, six innings of no-hit ball in, you can start to feel the adrenaline," losing pitcher Roger Clemens said.
"You can see the finish line, and he continued to stay strong."
Centre-fielder Kenny Lofton reached over the wall to rob Jorge Posada of a home run as Colon tried to throw the first no-hitter against the Yankees since knuckleballer Hoyt Wilhelm in 1958.
"There was nobody saying a word," Indians manager Charlie Manuel said.
Polonia, a friend of Colon's since they were teammates in the Dominican Republic, slapped a sharp grounder up the middle with one out in the eighth.
"I wanted to get the hit," Polonia said. "He'd been throwing me fastballs all night and I was looking for one."
Colon, through an interpreter, admitted, "I was a little nervous in the eighth inning."
"When Polonia got that hit, I felt like I'd gotten punched in the chest," he said.
Colon (14-8) walked one in ending a nine-game winning streak by Clemens (13-7).
First baseman Jim Thome also contributed a pair of neat stops on hard grounders.
The Indians held their one-half game lead over Oakland in the wild card race.
New York's magic number for clinching the AL East remained at eight.
Cleveland outscored the Yankees 31-11 in winning three times in this four-game series.
The Indians now move on to Boston, where they play five games in three days at Fenway Park.
The Yankees have not been no-hit for 6,637 games -- the longest streak in the majors -- since Wilhelm, a future Hall of Famer, did it at Baltimore on Sept. 20, 1958.
New York has not been held hitless at Yankee Stadium since Detroit's Virgil Trucks accomplished the feat on Aug. 25, 1952.
Colon breezed into the eighth and struck out Glenallen Hill to start the inning. But with the crowd of 31,317 sensing history and nine Yankees leaning on the top railing of the dugout, Polonia hit a clean single on Colon's first pitch.
David Justice was the only other player to reach against Colon.
He hit a high fly ball that left fielder Russell Branyan misplayed for a two-base error in the first inning and walked in the seventh.
Colon stopped Derek Jeter's streak of reaching base in 41 straight games.
Lofton, a four-time Gold Glove winner, turned in one of the more spectacular plays of the season in the second when he raced back to the wall and reached far over it for Posada's drive.
With many fans thinking the ball was gone, Lofton landed back on the warning track and casually flipped the ball with his glove into his bare hand.
"In the sixth or seventh inning, I thought that play might be pretty big," Lofton said. "In the spot, in New York, it was pretty exciting."
Colon, a 25-year-old right-hander with a fastball that nears 100 m.p.h., also did his part on defence.
Hit in the right side by Jeter's liner in the first inning, Colon recovered to make the play at first base.
At first, it was uncertain whether Colon would be able to continue -- after being attended to by trainers, he stayed in the game.
"He's one of the few pitchers who can overpower you," Jeter said. "He basically dominated the game."
Colon pitched his first shutout of the season and fourth of his career.
He is 5-0 in his last 10 starts.
Clemens had not lost in 15 starts since June 9.
He allowed two runs on six hits and five walks, striking out nine in seven innings.
Cleveland came out ready to hit against Clemens, swinging at 10 of his first 15 pitches and making contact each time.
Lofton led off by drawing a 10-pitch walk and Omar Vizquel followed with a single that skimmed off the second-base bag.
After Roberto Alomar struck out, Manny Ramirez hit an RBI single.
Ramirez walked with two outs in the third and Thome lined an opposite-field double to left past the Yankees' overshifted infield.
Ramirez scored when Clemens threw a pitch that skipped through Posada's legs for a passed ball.
