Times reporters David Waldstein, Tyler Kepner, Ben Shpigel, Jack Curry and Richard Sandomir provided updates and analysis during Game 6 of the Yankees-Phillies World Series in the Bronx.
A season of redemption came to its conclusion Wednesday night for the Yankees, who beat the Philadelphia Phillies, 7-3, in Game 6 of the 2009 World Series. The victory gave the Yankees their 27th championship, a quest nine years in the making.
Hideki Matsui, who may have played his last game as a Yankee, became the first Japanese-born player to win the Most Valuable Player award. He led the Yankees’ offense with a record-tying night — he had a home run, a double, a single and six runs batted in — and Andy Pettitte, who also may have played his last game in pinstripes, handled the pitching chores on three days’ rest.
Pettitte, a veteran left-hander, threw five and two-thirds solid innings, allowing three runs on four hits. He earned his fifth World Series ring with his second victory of the 105th World Series, which began and ended in the Bronx, in the first year of the new Yankee Stadium.
Yankees Manager Joe Girardi, who last season failed to take the team to the postseason in his first year in charge, became the first Yankees manager not named Joe Torre to win a World Series in 31 years. He was questioned for going with a three-man rotation in the postseason, but it worked perfectly as the Yankees went 11-4 and outpitched and outplayed the opposition.
Alex Rodriguez, who has faced withering criticism over his 16-year career for never having ultimate success in the postseason, won his first championship, and although he didn’t do much in the World Series, he carried the Yankees through the first two rounds of the playoffs.
General Manager Brian Cashman, who has been blamed for various moves since the Yankees last won the World Series, in 2000, signed C.C. Sabathia, Mark Teixeira and A.J. Burnett over the winter with money from the Steinbrenner family chest. It proved to be the difference, and Cashman stood behind Girardi after his disappointing inaugural season.
Matsui, who joined the Yankees in 2003, when they lost to the Florida Marlins in the World Series, tied Bobby Richardson’s record of six R.B.I. in a World Series game. He went 3 for 4 and finished the series with six hits in his final nine at-bats, including three home runs.
Pedro Martinez did not pitch well for the Phillies, allowing four runs on three hits in four innings, including Matsui’s home run in the second and his two-run single in the third.
Mariano Rivera, who was on the mound at Shea Stadium the last time the Yankees won the World Series, secured the final five outs, although he did not get his third save of the World Series because of the four-run lead. Rivera, along with Derek Jeter, Jorge Posada and Pettitte, won his fifth championship with the Yankees. — DW
Update | 12:00 a.m. The on-field celebration of the Yankees’ 7-3 victory was properly covered by Fox as a team event, not one replete with crowd shots.
After Shane Victorino grounded out to end the game, Fox showed the pulsing group of Yankees who gathered and jumped in the infield. They were seen from 10 different angles before the first cut was made to the Phillies’ dugout. A subsequent sequence of 10 more replays of the final out culminated with isolated shots of Derek Jeter, Mariano Rivera, Alex Rodriguez and Jorge Posada. — RS
Update | 11:38 p.m. We go to the ninth inning. Three more outs, Yankees fans, and we don’t expect a repeat of Game 7, 2001. It’s starting to looking a lot like 2000 at Yankee Stadium. — DW
Update | 11:19 p.m. After Fox cameras at Yankee Stadium showed a montage of celebrities in the crowd — Jimmy Fallon, Kurt Russell, Donald Trump, Regis Philbin and Spike Lee, Joe Buck said: “I’ll give Spike credit; he wore all that Yankee stuff in Philadelphia.”
What else would he be wearing and why should he get credit for sporting exactly what a sports fan would expect him to wear?
Whether in New York or Philadelphia, Lee is instantly recognizable as a film director and obsessed New York sports fan, most notably, even infamously, of the Knicks. It would make little sense for Lee to act unobtrusively in Citizens Bank Park. After all, he showed up in Knicks regalia at a hostile Market Square Arena in Indianapolis during those heated mid-1990s Knicks-Pacers playoff series. — RS
Update | 11:15 p.m. Mariano Rivera is coming into the game with one out in the eighth inning, so game over. Marte certainly did his job and then some. He struck out Utley in the seventh and he just struck out Howard, who is now the official World Series strikeout king with 13. Willie Wilson is off the hook. — DW
Update | 11:06 p.m. Incredible as it may seem, Eyre struck out Matsui, thanks in part to Gorman, who once again called a check swing a strike from third base. Here’s some numbers on Matsui:
He has eight R.B.I. in the Series, the most for a Yankee since Reggie Jackson had eight in both the 1977 and 1978 World Series. Matsui (Mr. October-san) has six hits in his last nine at-bats, with two singles, a double and three home runs.
It’s 7-3, Yankees, in the top of the eighth. Marte, who relieved Chamberlain with two outs in the seventh, is back on the mound for the Yankees. — DW
Update | 11:02 p.m. Matsui is coming to bat again in the seventh inning, so the Phillies are bringing in the left-hander Scott Eyre to face him, as if that’s going to do anything. One more R.B.I. and Matsui breaks Bobby Richardson’s World Series record of six. He gets a huge ovation as he comes to the plate. — DW
Update | 10:50 p.m. Marte strikes out Utley on an appealed check-swing, third-strike call by the third base umpire Brian Gorman, and the threat is over. Marte, Girardi’s new left-handed specialist, first threw a fastball low and outside for strike one, then looped a curveball in for strike two. Gutsy pitching. Ryan Howard will be up first in the eighth, so Marte could stay in, with Rivera possibly ready to come in soon after. — DW
Update | 10:40 p.m. Joba Chamberlain is still on the mound for the Yankees. With a four-run lead, he’ll get some latitude before the Yankees call on Mariano Rivera to close it out. Chamberlain looks strong, but we wrote those very words right before he gave up the home run in Game 4. And what do you know, Carlos Ruiz singled. Chamberlain walked Victorino, so the left-hander Damaso Marte is coming in to face Utley. Utley has five home runs in the series, four of them off left-handers. Two on, two outs in the seventh. 7-3, Yankees. — DW
Update | 10:17 p.m. With the Yankees leading, 7-3, it’s reasonable to think that they will win tonight and that a trophy ceremony in their clubhouse will follow. If the middle relievers don’t melt down, it will be the first World Series celebrated since 1996 with George Steinbrenner in a full public retreat. No doubt, his son Hal Steinbrenner will accept the Commissioner’s Trophy, made by Tiffany & Company, with Randy Levine, the team president, and Lonn Trost, the chief operating officer, alongside him.
A Bossless celebration reminded me of something he said to me six years ago amidst rumors he might retire: ”I didn’t say I’d step aside, but there will come a time in the not-too-distant future when I’m going to step aside and let the young elephants in the tent.” He added, “What I mean is that the young elephants, the young sons and the son-in-law, will be more and more active.” The elephants, it appears, have arrived in the Bronx.
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