Marlins SS Alex Gonzalez got the Series going with a bang when he led off the 3rd inning with a solo home run to left., and then Juan Pierre followed that up with some small ball - single, stolen base, ground out, wild pitch - to put Florida up by two runs. But the Bronx Bombers answered right back when Alfonso Soriano followed two singles with a sac fly and Nick Johnson drove one into the right field seats. The pendulum swung back to the National Leaguers in the 5th, when Ivan Rodriguez doubled home a run with two away, and in the 6th when Jeff Conine hit a two-run shot to capitalize on a Derek Jeter error. Penny got through six innings, allowing one more run on Jason Giambi's RBI double in his final frame, and he left with a 5-4 lead. Braden Looper came on in the 8th to play set-up and whiffed the first two Yanks, but then fell to pieces - three straight hits, the last an RBI double by Aaron Boone, tied the score and a walk and a two-run single by Soriano flipped the game in favor of the Yankees. Joe Torre then handed the ball to Mariano Rivera in the 9th and, despite allowing two singles, he finished off the Floridians to give New York a home win to start the Series. New York (A) 7-13-1, Florida 5-11-0. [scoresheet]
This time it was the home team that got off to the quick start, as the Yankees had four singles and a walk in the bottom of the 1st to score three times. Florida scored singletons in the 2nd, 4th and 5th to tie the game, but NY jumped on Redman again in the home 5th as the first two men singled and then Bernie Williams immediately chased them home with a two-run double. As was becoming customary in this Series, no lead was safe, and the Marlins dropped a three-spot on New York on the top of the 6th to take back the lead, at least for the moment; the first three men had base hits, a Pettitte wild pitch plated one, Gonzalez singled home a second and Luis Castillo's base hit with two outs made it 6-5 FLA. Of course, that didn't last, as the Yankees tied the score in the 7th when Jorge Posada homered and then took the lead in the 8th. Soriano doubled with one out to put runners on second and third, and Jack McKeon decided to put Jeter on base to create a force at any base; the risk of this was obvious yet Dontrelle Willis couldn't avoid it, throwing a fourth ball to Giambi to force in the go-ahead run. Willis recovered to stop any further damage but that run was enough for Rivera again, who overcame his own fielding error in the final frame to earn the save. New York (A) 7-10-2, Florida 6-11-1. [scoresheet]
Florida scored on a wild pitch for the third straight game to open the scoring in the home 1st, but Posada crushed a grand slam off of Beckett in the 4th to put New York on top. Soriano and Giambi homered in the 4th to make it 7-2 but Florida kept chipping away with long balls of their own, Mike Lowell and Derrek Lee going deep as the home team closed back to within two runs after six innings. But the first four Yankees hit safely in the 7th, with Aaron Boone and Johnson (as a PH) delivering RBIs, and this was enough of a cushion for three relievers to survive the final three innings despite Lee's second home run of the game in the 8th. In addition to his slam, Posada had two doubles and a walk. New York (A) 10-15-1, Florida 7-14-0. [scoresheet]
Facing an abrupt end of their season, the Marlins found themselves behind 2-0 early in the game on Soriano's leadoff homer and Jeter's RBI single in the 3rd. But three FLA singles produced two runs in the bottom of the 3rd, and three more following Boone's bobble in the 4th forced Florida to the front by a score of 5-2. The way things were going, this was going to be hard to defend for five innings, and the Yankees tied the game up with two runs in the 5th and a Posada solo shot in the 6th. Jeff Conine homred in the 8th to give the Marlins the late lead, but Ugueth Urbina could not close the game out in the 9th - despite striking out the side, he allowed a Boone double with one out, and an RBI single to Soriano. The game of "he who bats last" came to an end in the bottom of the 9th as the first two Marlines singled off Jose Contreras and Pierre (2-4, 3 rbi, 2 sb) managed to loft one deep enough to center to allow Gonzalez to tag home with the walk-off winner, and the Miami crowd had at least salvaged one last magic night at the ballpark. Florida 7-11-0, New York (A) 6-13-1. [scoresheet]
This time, the Marlins made sure there was no drama. Lowell and Lee hit back-to-back homers in the 3rd, Conine hit a sac fly in the 4th, Gonzalez homered in the 4th to start a second three-run rally and Lowell hit his second circuit clout of the game to spark a six-run 5th that put Florida ahead 13-2 halfway through the game. This time, they got some pitching to match as Penny twirled seven very effective innings (allowing only four hits and a walk) and the back end of the bullpen ran out the string on a lopsided victory that turned this into a Series again. The Marlins have hit multiple homers four times in the five games, and are just some decent pitching away from being a real threat to turn their Series deficit all the way around. Florida 13-18-0, New York (A) 4-9-1. [scoresheet]
With the Yankees stumbling somewhat, Florida was quick to give them a jolt, With the game scoreless in the 4th (only the second time in the Series that three full innings had ben played without a run), Lowell and Lee went belly-to-belly for the second straight game and the Marlins not only had the lead, but Beckett appeared to be in on top form again after his Game Three pounding. He had held the Yankees scoreless through six when Lee and Juan Encarnacion each singled and stole second in the 7th, leading to two Florida runs, and a nervous hush had fallen on the Stadium crowd. The visitors conceded a run to get out of a first-and-third, one-out jam in the 7th and another in the 8th when Williams doubled and scored on Matsui's base hit. When Braden Looper came on to retire the final two Yanks with runners on second and third it looked like Florida was on their way to forcing a Game Seven, but there was a still an left inning to play. The Marlins wasted a leadoff error in the top of the 9th when Encarnacion was gunned down attempting to steal, and Soriano and Jeter led off the 9th against Looper with singles. After Johnson took a called third strike for the first out, Williams tripled over the head of Pierre in center to tie the game. This brought the infield in for Matsui, and he hit a dribbler past the mound towards second base which Castillo could only fling headlong at the vicinity of the plate, and was not nearly in time to prevent Williams from sliding across the dish with the winning run in an ironically feeble end to what had been a Series of big hitting from beginning to end. New York (A) 5-13-3, Florida 4-8-0. [scoresheet]
Ah, the joys of early-2000s baseball - one of the twenty biggest offensive seasons in history culminated in a slow-pitch exhibition that saw the teams combine for more than eighty runs in six games and compile identical team batting averages of .332. Despite making nine errors, being outhomered 14-8 and striking out 48 times, the Yankees won by surviving the late innings better than did the Marlins. Florida's two late-inning relievers combined to allow eleven hits and seven runs in less than five innings of work while New York weathered the storm that engulfed their starters by stringing together solid innings from Contreras, Hammond, Nelson and Rivera. [Series stats]
While Lee and Lowell were torching Yankee pitching for a combined nine home runs on the other side of the ledger, New York C Jorge Posada was the engine for the New York offense. He led the Yanks in runs, RBI, homers and walks on his way to a 1.380 OPS.
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