In late October 2000, New York City was the epicenter of the baseball world, as the New York Yankees and New York Mets faced off in the 2000 World Series.
With the two teams set to face-off in a three-game series at Citi Field beginning on Friday night (watch Game 2 of the series on Saturday at 7:15 p.m. ET on FOX and the FOX Sports app), here’s a look-back at the 2000 Subway Series.
Irony from the jump.
The Mets sent Al Leiter, who spent the first two-plus seasons of his MLB career with the Yankees (1987-89), to the mound for Game 1 in Yankee Stadium, and the left-hander carved up his old team the first two times through the order.
Leiter kept the Yankees off the board through the first five innings, giving up just four baserunners on three hits and one walk. Then, the Yankees broke the ice in the bottom of the sixth inning.
After two of the first three runners of the inning got on base, left fielder David Justice laced a two-run double to left-center field, giving the Yankees a 2-0 lead. With that said, after six scoreless innings from Andy Pettitte, the Mets got to the Yankees’ left-hander in the top of the seventh. After back-to-back singles and a walk, pinch hitter Bubba Trammell leveled the score at 2-all for the Mets with a two-run single. Two batters later, Pettitte was relieved by right-hander Jeff Nelson, who gave up a go-ahead single to second baseman Edgardo Alfonzo.
The Yankees didn’t plate a run in the seventh or eighth innings, but they managed to send the game to extra innings on a Chuck Knoblauch sacrifice fly in the ninth. Both teams went scoreless in the 10th and 11th innings, with the Yankees stranding two runners in both innings and also doing so after tying the game in the ninth.
In the bottom of the 12th, the Yankees finally got the winning run home, as second baseman José VizcaÃno hit a walk-off single with two outs in the inning.
VizcaÃno finished with a game-high four hits for the Yankees, who won 4-3.
Yeah, drama was aplenty in Game 2.
In the top of the first, Mets star Mike Piazza broke his bat on a foul ball, and part of the bat went to Yankees starter Roger Clemens, who hurled that piece of the bat down the first-base line where Piazza was standing at the time. Both benches cleared temporarily, but no one was ejected, and the inning resumed moments later, with Piazza grounding out to end the inning.
That skirmish has continually distracted from the memory of Clemens dominating the Mets in Game 2 from start to finish. The eventual seven-time Cy Young Award winner pitched eight scoreless innings, posting nine strikeouts and only surrendering two baserunners (two hits).
As for the Yankees’ bats, they went right to work on Mets left-hander Mike Hampton, with first baseman Tino Martinez and catcher Jorge Posada each driving in a run on a single in the bottom of the first. Third baseman Scott Brosius then led off the bottom of the second with a solo home run. A fifth-inning Paul O’Neill single, a seventh-inning sacrifice fly from Brosius and an eighth-inning RBI single from Martinez â who, along with Yankees star shortstop Derek Jeter, had a game-high three hits â would give the Yankees a 6-0 lead entering the ninth inning.
But then it got dicey for the Yankees â like, wildly dicey.
Nelson began the ninth inning for the Yankees and proceeded to give up a single, a two-run home run to Piazza and then another single, forcing manager Joe Torre to go to Mariano Rivera, who also struggled. While Rivera got out two of the first four batters that he faced, MLB’s eventual all-time saves leader (652) proceeded to give up a three-run homer to center fielder Jay Payton, making it a 6-5 game.
All that said, Rivera got infielder Kurt Abbott to strikeout looking to end it, with the Yankees evading a catastrophe, winning 6-5 and taking a 2-0 series lead to Queens.
One could argue that the ninth inning of Game 2 gave the Mets some momentum
