October 31 - November 1, 2001 Yankee Stadium Bronx, - TopicsExpress



          

October 31 - November 1, 2001 Yankee Stadium Bronx, NY World Series - Game # 4 Arizona Diamondbacks 3 New York Yankees 4 (10 innings) Mr. November . . . Thirteen years ago, as midnight on Halloween became the first day of November, Derek Jeter broke a 3-3 the in the bottom of the 10th inning with an opposite-field, walk-off solo home run off reliever Byung-Hyun Kim, giving the Yankees a 4-3 victory over the Diamondbacks to even the 2001 World Series at two games apiece. The home run, hit at 12:04 AM on November 1, marked the first time a World Series game had been played in November, and earned Jeter the nickname Mr. November for posterity. The Series had been pushed back to include November dates, due to the postponement of over one week of regular season games following the September 11 terrorist attacks on America. Here is the game story as it appeared in The Daily News that morning, accompanied by the play-by-play call of Joe Buck for Fox Sports. Call him Mr. November. Four minutes after midnight, when last night turned into this morning and the calendar changed to November and baseball was played beyond October for the first time, Derek Jeter homered into the right-field seats in the bottom of the 10th inning, lifting the Yankees to a 4-3 victory over Arizona in Game 4 of the World Series. Jeter hadnt done anything in the Series and was mostly a dud in the ALCS after tumbling into the stands to catch a foul ball in the division series. Joe Torre has said for a week that he doesnt believe his shortstop is 100%. But Jeter fought Diamondbacks closer Byung-Hyun Kim through a nine-pitch at-bat to homer on a 3-2 pitch and even the best-of-seven World Series at two games apiece and guarantee a return trip to Phoenix for Game 6. When the ball reached the stands, the 55,863 at the Stadium erupted. Jeter rounded third and slowed in front of the plate, leaping into a crowd of teammates, who pounded him on the head. Later, Jeter joked that he broke his foot on the jump. Probably just the Diamondbacks hearts. Not long before Jeters thump, they had a two-run lead in the ninth inning and were on their way to a 3-1 series lead. But Tino Martinez hit a two-out, two-run homer off Kim to tie the score and wake a sleepy Stadium, which had been relatively subdued for the first two Series games. This, Paul ONeill said, is a game that the 25 guys in this locker room will remember for a long time. Jeter entered last night 1-for-11 (.091) in the Series and was hitting .239 in the postseason. He batted leadoff in Game 4 when Torre shuffled the lineup, hoping someone could spark the struggling offense. Ive been scuffling, Jeter said. I havent gotten any hits, but Ive had good swings. Thats the beauty of the postseason. Regardless of how youve done, every time you come up you have a chance to do something special. Weve been spoiled over the years, but this is huge. ... When I first hit it, I had no idea whether it was going to go out, but once it goes, its a pretty special feeling. It was the first time in World Series history that a team had hit a ninth-inning homer to tie the score and then an extra-inning homer to win. It was also the 12th time a Series game had ended on a homer. The heart-wrenching finish robbed the Diamondbacks of any advantage they had in pitching their ace, Curt Schilling, on three days rest. Schilling was terrific, but Arizona manager Bob Brenly took him out of the game after seven innnings of three-hit ball. Kim blew away the Yankees in the eighth inning, but blew it in the ninth and 10th. Schilling allowed only one run and struck out nine. The last pitch he threw was 97 mph. The second-to-last pitch was 98 mph. The Yankees had as much success against him as they had in their Game 1 loss. Before Kims collapse, Brenly looked like a genius, especially since Schilling had thrown just 88 pitches and would probably be fresh for a possible Game 7 start. Now the Diamondbacks have wasted a turn by one of the guys they had to get a win from, shifting the Series momentum to the Yankees. It was an easy decision to take him out, considering he was starting on three days rest, Brenly said. We had a lead and we insisted all along that we would go to BK (Kim) for two innnings to try to close the game out. Just didnt work out that way. Did Game 7 considerations seep into Brenlys mind, too? Certainly, that entered into it somewhat, Brenly admitted. The D-Backs took a 3-1 lead in the top of the eighth, scoring two runs off Mike Stanton, one of the top postseason pitchers of all time, and Ramiro Mendoza. Stanton entered the game in the seventh inning with a streak of 20 straight batters retired in Series play. He got a double play to end a threat in the seventh and retired the leadoff hitter in the eighth but then ran into a snag. Luis Gonzalez singled and Erubiel Durazo doubled him home, taking third on the throw. Mendoza came on, and Matt Williams then hit a grounder to Jeter. The Yankees were playing the infield in to cut off the insurance run. Jeter threw home to Jorge Posada, but pinch-runner Midre Cummings was safe after Posada dropped the ball. The Yankees wasted a solid effort by Orlando Hernandez, who was an emotional wreck but pitched 6 1/3 strong innings. Hernandez, who was seemingly snapping at everybody from Posada to umpires to Durazo on a key fifth-inning play, allowed four hits and one run. Hernandez exploded at home plate ump Ed Rapuano over balls and strikes in the third inning. After he was taken out in favor of Stanton in the seventh, Hernandez went to Rapuano and they spoke briefly. The Yankees entered the game batting just .144 in the Series. Martinez didnt even have a hit until his homer. Now two guys who werent hitting have changed the whole Series. This is obviously a huge boost, Jeter said. I mean, 3-1, thats a pretty deep hole for us. But this win means absolutely nothing unless we come out ready (tonight) and play well. Theyre a tough team. Schilling might pitch (tonight), too.
Posted on: Sat, 01 Nov 2014 19:51:45 +0000

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