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One for the ages


Special to ESPN.com

Game 4: Yankees 4, Diamondbacks 3
Joe Torre put it well when he said that from the time Derek Jeter and his current teammates arrived, they've always understood that these were just games -- they don't get too wrapped up in them, and they play all of them with equal weight.

It was just an all-around tremendous game. I have to go back to Game 6 in 1975, Game 6 in '86, Game 1 in '88, Games 6 and 7 in '91. This game ranks up there with those classic contests. Let's just call it one of the Top 6 or 8 best World Series games I've ever seen. And we might not have seen anything yet.

They play in October, and now November, the same way they play all season. They are totally unfazed by all of the "mystique" -- they are used to winning. Jeter, Tino Martinez, Paul O'Neill -- they've all been through it all, and they are all so completely unafraid. They never think they are going to lose, no matter how much they get dominated by the opposing team's pitching.

The Yankees got a great performance out of El Duque in Game 4 -- he wasn't as sharp as he could be, but he survived because he's a tough guy. They also saw Jeter and Alfonso Soriano turn two great double plays, and Shane Spencer made a great throw to Jorge Posada, who made a great scoop to get Tony Womack out in the fifth.

Detractors of Bob Brenly will say that he had two games to win and should have done so with Randy Johnson and Curt Schilling on four days' rest, because that is when they are game-finishing pitchers. The detractors will also say that by pitching Schilling on three days' rest, it meant that Byung-Hyun Kim had to win one of those games, and that was perhaps too much to ask.

But I don't think any of that is necessarily true. Kim has, for the most part, gotten it done all year -- he can't be Mariano Rivera -- there are only two or three truly great closers in the game today. I thought taking Schilling out after the seventh was the right decision. For two innings in a row, Schilling had a runner on third with two outs. And he overthrew splitters which Damian Miller made great plays on to save runs.

Against Jorge Posada in the seventh inning, Posada was sitting dead red on three Schilling fastballs but fouled them off, then he hit a hanging splitter into a double play. It was time for Schilling to go -- he pitched great, but the Martinez and Jeter home runs could have come off him, too. There is no presumption of victory if only they had kept Schilling in the game.

Arizona played a great game in their own right -- another fabulous performance from Schilling, some key hits, and they turned two really great double plays.

It was just an all-around tremendous game. I have to go back to Game 6 in 1975, Game 6 in '86, Game 1 in '88, Games 6 and 7 in '91. This game ranks up there with those classic contests. Let's just call it one of the Top 6 or 8 best World Series games I've ever seen. And we might not have seen anything yet.

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