Yankee heroics have D-backs against the wall

PHOENIX -- The Arizona Diamondbacks arrived at Yankee Stadium this week, all eager to explore the most storied ballpark in sports.

By the time they watched Chuck Knoblauch slide home early Friday, they'd seen enough.

A giant rat in their dugout. A pair of ninth-inning leads slip away with one out to go. And three straight losses that gave the New York Yankees a 3-2 edge in the World Series.

"If I see this place again, it'll be too soon," Arizona first baseman Mark Grace said. "This is a tough place to win.

"After playing these rascals, you see why they're so tough."

They're also only one win from the fourth straight championship. The Yankees will get a chance to wrap up their 27th overall title this weekend at Bank One Ballpark, and it won't be easy.

Randy Johnson, who pitched a three-hit shutout in Game 2, will start Game 6 tonight against New York's Andy Pettitte.

If the Diamondbacks win, it'll force a superb Game 7 showdown -- Curt Schilling against the Yankees' Roger Clemens.

In any case, Arizona was just glad to be back home after losing two of the most thrilling, back-to-back games in postseason history.

"No disrespect to the fans or the Diamondbacks, but you have to sit back and kind of chuckle a little bit because it's so unbelievable," Knoblauch said.

Grace made the most of his first trip to Yankee Stadium, sneaking away during Monday's workout to study the shrines in Monument Park. He even took off his hat, saying it was a place of baseball reverence.

Now, like it or not, Grace and the Diamondbacks are part of its lore. The wrong side of it, that is.

"I can't say it was fun, but it was fun being a part of it," manager Bob Brenly said Friday, back in the comfort of the BOB. "I know a lot of people are saying that those are two of the most exciting baseball games they have seen: World Series, regular season, spring training, Little League, whatever you choose."

On Halloween night, Tino Martinez got Yankee Stadium shaking with a tying, two-run homer with two outs in the ninth. Shortly past midnight, Derek Jeter homered to become the first Mr. November -- someday, there might be a plaque beyond the left-center field fence marking that moment.

And then Thursday night, in the haunted House that Ruth Built, the Diamondbacks watched Scott Brosius -- of all people! -- do it again against doomed reliever Byung-Hyun Kim, who also gave up the shots to Martinez and Jeter.

Brenly again brought in Kim to close Game 5, and again it all fell apart. Brosius tied it with a two-out, two-run homer in the ninth and in the 12th, Alfonso Soriano singled home Knoblauch.

"I don't know if I can really put into words what the last 24 hours has been like," Brenly said. "It's just been a roller-coaster of emotions"

The amazing rally was even enough to get George Steinbrenner to pound a table in delight, tears falling down his face in the owner's box.

"It's does seem like it's magic," Yankees manager Joe Torre said Friday. "I don't give you any other reason other than good relief pitching and a base hit here or there -- because we have certainly not wasted any extra-base hits."

The Yankees won their seventh straight extra-inning game in the World Series. They also extended their record by winning their 10th home game in a row in Series play.

"What's happened the last two nights -- you are just scratching your head," Pettitte said. "I can't believe it happened. I really can't."

While hundreds of city police officers, firefighters and rescue workers celebrated on the field and Frank Sinatra's "New York, New York" played long into the night, Kim could only apologize.

"I am sorry to my teammates and my manager for giving up the tying run," he said. "I want to thank my manager for giving me another chance to pitch."

At home in his native South Korea, where the games were carried live on television, there was sympathy for the 22-year-old closer. The image of him crouching on the mound after Brosius' homer was seen around the baseball world.

"It's too cruel even in a movie or fiction," the major newspaper, Dong-Ah Ilbo wrote.

Said the headline of Hankyoreh newspaper's sports page: "Byung-Hyun Kim. Again."

Only twice this season had Arizona lost when taking a lead into the ninth inning.

"We could not believe it," Luis Gonzalez said. "We felt like we had those games won."

The Yankees became the first team in postseason history to win two straight games when trailing after the eighth.

Simply remarkable, which is how Brosius and 56,018 fans at Yankee Stadium saw it.

"It's pretty amazing," Brosius said. "You can't draw up two better endings than what we had. To have the same situation two nights in a row and have it happen is pretty unbelievable."