MIAMI – This was the showdown: One of baseball’s marquee players against one of its top young pitchers.
Derek Jeter vs Josh Beckett. Mr. October vs. a first taste of October. Poise facing power.
Poise won.
Jeter got the two key hits last night in the Yankees’ 6-1 win over the Marlins in Game 3 of the World Series. His double to left in the fourth broke up Beckett’s perfect game. His double to right in the eighth sent Beckett to the showers.
Beckett gave up three hits. Jeter got all of them.
After striking out in the first, Jeter was the offense against Beckett. He led off the sixth with a double up the middle but was stranded. In the eighth, his double forced the Marlins to go to their pen and disaster struck.
Early on it was shaping up as a disastrous night for the Bombers. Beckett was perfect after three innings and the Yankees had barely put a ball in play. The pressure of Game 3 was mounting.
Crack!
Just as he has done so many times, Jeter broke the tension by hammering a ball into the corner down the left field line. Jeter would come in to score when Jorge Posada worked a walk that enraged the Marlins dugout.
It tied the game at 1-1 and the Yankees took the lead in the eighth when Jeter started another rally with a sharp double to right. After ending the no-hitter, Jeter ended Beckett’s night. He was lifted for Dontrelle Willis, who got gave up two walks and a costly single.
With Jeter on second, Jason Giambi walked. Bernie Williams flied to center, just deep enough to get Jeter to third. He scored on emerging World Series hero Hideki Matsui’s single to left.
Jeter, who was hit by a Braden Looper pitch in the ninth, finished 3-for-4 and scored the Yankees’ first two runs.
With two swings of his bat, the Yankee captain had changed the Series. The Bombers had beaten the Marlins’ ace.
Jeter was the wild-card.