By BRIAN COSTELLO
May 18, 2008
As both New York baseball stadiums prepare to close, The Post looks back at the 25 most memorable moments in the history of Shea. This week, No. 19.
Oct. 26, 2000
The Yankees remained the kings of New York baseball with a 4-2 victory in Game 5 of the Subway Series. The game capped a dramatic World Series, the first between two New York teams in 44 years, and gave the Yankees their third consecutive championship and fourth in five years.
Luis Sojo broke a 2-2 tie in the ninth inning when he hit a two-out single up the middle off Al Leiter. Jorge Posada scored and the throw home bounced off him and rolled into the Mets' dugout, allowing Scott Brosius to score.
The dramatic ending was fitting for a World Series in which three games were decided by one run and the other two by two runs.
In the bottom of the ninth, Mike Piazza hit a deep fly ball off Mariano Rivera to center field. The ball fell about 15 feet short of the wall into Bernie Williams' glove, ending the series.
Williams had started the scoring with a solo home run in the second inning. The Mets responded with two unearned runs in the bottom of the inning off of Andy Pettitte to take a 2-1 lead. Derek Jeter, the Series MVP, tied the game in the sixth inning with a home run.
Leiter threw 121 pitches in the first eight innings, but manager Bobby Valentine stuck with his ace in the ninth. Leiter struck out Tino Martinez and Paul O'Neill to start the inning.
"I thought he was looking good at that point," Valentine said.
Posada worked a walk from Leiter, and the lefty's pitch count reached 138. Brosius lined a single to left, moving Posada to second. John Franco was warmed up in the Mets bullpen, but Valentine kept Leiter on the mound to face Sojo, who entered the game in the eighth.
The Yankees won the title after suffering seven consecutive losses at the end of the regular season and battles in the first two rounds of the playoffs. They were the first team to win three consecutive titles since the 1972-74 Oakland A's.
