Jack McKeon would have faced many years of second-guessing if his experiment had not paid off. Luckily for him, 23-year old Josh Beckett was practically perfect in Game Six as the Florida Marlins clinched their second World Series title.
Despite heading back to New York with the prospect of facing both Andy Pettite and Mike Mussina, the Marlins decided to go for it with their ace in Game Six. The move paid off with a dominating pitching performance and a 2-0 win over the New York Yankees.
Rightfully, Beckett was named the World Series MVP. He was masterful in Game Six, getting into trouble a few times with leadoff hits, but he was able to escape with the aid of his high 90's fastball and poor situational hitting by the Yankees. Beckett pitched a complete game five-hitter, racking up nine strikeouts along the way.
Despite powering through the National League playoffs over the San Francisco Giants and the Chicago Cubs with a burst of power hitting, the Marlins demonstrated again that small ball can win championships with their barrage of singles and timely two-out rallies. Throughout the series the Marlins had 47 hits, 37 of which were singles. They continued that trend in Game Six with six of their seven hits being singles.
All of the games were excellent contests, especially Game Four that ended in the bottom of the 12th inning. Shortstop Alex Gonzalez's line drive homerun over the leftfield fence in gargantuan Pro Player Stadium put an end to Roger Clemens' final start and saddled Jeff Weaver with another loss in his lackluster Yankee career.
It was just another example of the timely hitting executed by the Marlins in this series. The Marlins did all of the little things right, even down to the picture perfect slide that Alex Gonzalez executed around Jorge Posada's glove to score the first and decisive run of the final game.
The Yankees absolutely could not hit. It seemed that the struggles of Alfonso Soriano and Jason Giambi were too much for the rest of the team to overcome. Giambi, who will need off-season surgery on his left knee, basically played as such. All of his bat speed appeared to be lost and pitches that he normally crushes into the upper deck were just blown by him. And until Saturday night, Soriano was mired in such a bad slump that the all-star second baseman was benched in favor of utility-man Enrique Wilson.
While last year the Yankees were plagued by a lack of pitching, it was ultimately their lack of contact hitting that was the cause of their downfall this year. The only Yankee who played consistently well throughout the series was Derek Jeter, and even he struggled with the bat and glove on Saturday night.
If you had told the Yankees that their starting pitchers would go out and give up three runs or fewer in all of the series games, and that Mariano Rivera would be unhittable, they would have felt pretty good about their chances. Unfortunately for New York, the Marlins' young pitchers were just as good, or at least the Yankees' batters made them appear that way.
The Yankees were again beaten by a younger, cheaper, and less talented team. Everyone can talk about the vast difference in team payroll ($161 million to $54 million), but in hindsight everyone knows that despite their spending, the Yankees are no longer invincible. The Yankees' age and injuries caught up with them in this series, and maybe George Steinbrenner will realize that you can't just create a rotisserie team of all-stars and expect them to blend together. The Yankees need some team chemistry and some contact hitters to put an end to the swing-for-the-fences-or-strikeout mentality.
The Marlins may now realize for certain how important Pudge Rodriguez is to the success of their club, and they will be sure to try to resign him for several years. With the re-signing of Rodriguez and the maturation of Miguel Cabrera and the young pitching staff, Florida will be sure to be a contender for the next few years.
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