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Look back at: Divisional Playoffs |
League Championship
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Friday, October 27
Useless facts from the World Series
By Jayson Stark
ESPN.com
NEW YORK -- Finally, the Game 5 edition of the World Series Useless
Information Department:
Here's how the Yankees compare to the last three-peaters -- the
1972-74 Oakland A's: The Yankees lost one game in three World Series, the
A's lost SEVEN; the Yankees outscored their opponents by 28 runs, the A's
actually allowed more runs (56) in those three World Series than they scored (53); the Yankees got their 12 Series wins from nine different pitchers, the A's got a win from only five.
Has there ever been a better October closer than Mariano Rivera? Not
only has he converted 18 consecutive postseason saves, but they haven't been
those wimpy one-inning saves your modern-day closers are famous for. In the
past three postseasons, he has an incredible 16 straight saves of more than
one inning.
SABR'S Lee Sinins reports that Rivera has become the first pitcher
in history to be on the mound for the last out of three straight World
Series. Only three pitchers before Rivera were even out there for the final
out in two straight years: Will McEnaney (1975-76 Reds), Bob Kuzava (1951-52
Yankees) and Art Nehf (1921-22 Giants).
When the Yankees allowed two unearned runs in the second inning, it
was their first unearned runs in this postseason. It also equaled the amount
they'd allowed during their entire 14-game World Series winning streak. The
last time they allowed two in one inning in a World Series was way back in
the sixth inning of Game 1 of the 1996 Series, when an error by Mariano
Duncan led to two unearned runs against reliever Brian Boehringer. The
Yankees then went 123 straight innings without allowing two -- and, in fact,
had only two innings in which they even allowed one unearned run (both in
the '98 Series).
Derek Jeter never had homered in a World Series game before
Wednesday, then he homered in two in a row. But throughout his career,
Jeter's homers have come in bunches. He now has 82 homers, counting the
postseason, and this is the eighth time he has homered in two straight
games. The two other times he did it this year: June 19-20 in Boston (off
Brian Rose and Pedro Martinez), July 5-6 vs. Baltimore (off Pat Rapp and
Jason Johnson).
To get a run out of an Al Leiter at-bat is always a challenge. But
thanks to Andy Pettitte's error on Leiter's bunt Thursday, the Mets did it.
Leiter was 3-for-58 in the regular season, with no RBI and one run scored,
this year. He was 0-for-7 in this postseason before Thursday and 0-for-14
over his past three postseasons. But as he likes to remind people, he was
the only Met who owned a World Series hit in his career before this World
Series. Leiter singled -- in relief -- in the wild 15-14 game in the '93 World
Series, for Toronto.
Thursday was Pettitte's fifth career start in a game in which the
Yankees had a chance to clinch a postseason series. Their only loss (and
his) came in the deciding fifth game of the '97 Division Series with
Cleveland, when he lost a 4-3 game to Jaret Wright. He also got a
no-decision out of his start in Game 5 of this year's Division Series with
Oakland, but his team won. In the two previous games, however, in which his
team led a series with a chance to close it out, Pettitte was 2-0, with a
1.18 ERA. He shut out the Padres for 7 1/3 innings in the '98 Series
clincher in San Diego and gave up just three hits and two runs over eight
innings in the '96 ALCS finale in Baltimore.
Had Pettitte won, he would have become the first Yankees pitcher to
win the deciding game of two World Series since Allie Reynolds did it in
1952 and '53.
Before giving up homers to Bernie Williams and Jeter, Leiter hadn't
allowed two home runs in any game since June 26. Last to do it against him:
The Marlins (Mike Lowell, Derrek Lee).
The Yankees set one record in this Series they'd rather not have set. They left an incredible 52 runners on base. The old record for a five-game World Series was only 42 -- by the 1941 Yankees, against the Dodgers.
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