History · MLB
How Arizona Beat Mariano Rivera to Win the 2001 World Series
Twenty-five years after Game 7, the ninth-inning sequence shows how Arizona turned a one-run deficit against Rivera into its first championship.
Arizona’s 2001 World Series championship required more than Luis Gonzalez’s famous final hit. The Diamondbacks had to get a runner aboard against Mariano Rivera, survive a failed bunt and erase a one-run deficit before Gonzalez could send the winning run home. Twenty-five years later, the inning explains the image.
On November 4, 2001, the Diamondbacks beat New York 3–2 in Game 7 at Bank One Ballpark. They entered the bottom of the ninth trailing 2–1. Their championship came from three hits, a throwing error, a hit batter and a final swing that found the space behind an infield positioned to stop the winning run.
A game that left almost no margin
Curt Schilling and Roger Clemens kept the game scoreless through five innings. Arizona broke through in the sixth when Danny Bautista doubled home Steve Finley. The Yankees answered in the seventh on Tino Martinez’s run-scoring single, then took the lead when Alfonso Soriano homered to begin the eighth.
Randy Johnson supplied the necessary bridge. After starting Game 6 the previous night, he entered Game 7 with two outs in the eighth. He retired all four batters he faced. His work held the deficit at one run through the top of the ninth. The Diamondbacks still needed a rally, but they did not have to chase another Yankees score.
Rivera protected the lead in the bottom of the eighth. He struck out Gonzalez, Matt Williams and Bautista in the bottom of the eighth, with a Finley single between the second and third strikeouts. Arizona had survived long enough to reach its last turn, but New York had the pitcher it wanted on the mound.
How the ninth changed
Mark Grace opened the ninth with a single and David Dellucci ran for him. Damian Miller bunted toward Rivera, whose throw to second went astray. Instead of exchanging a runner’s advance for an out, Arizona had two runners aboard and nobody out.
The next bunt did cost an out. Pinch-hitter Jay Bell pushed the ball back toward Rivera, who forced Dellucci at third. Miller reached second, where Midre Cummings replaced him. The error had created an opportunity, but the championship still depended on what Arizona did with it.
Tony Womack supplied the inning’s hardest blow, doubling down the right-field line. Cummings scored the tying run and Bell reached third. Rivera then hit Craig Counsell, filling the bases for Gonzalez with one out. New York’s one-run cushion was gone; Arizona could win without driving another ball to the wall.
The space behind the infield
Gonzalez had hit 57 home runs during the regular season, yet a home run was unnecessary here. The Yankees brought their infield forward to make a play at the plate. That positioning made sense with the winning run at third, while leaving less coverage behind the shortstop.
Gonzalez fouled off the first pitch, then lifted Rivera’s next pitch over Derek Jeter and into shallow center field. Bell scored. The National Baseball Hall of Fame’s account emphasizes the combination of Rivera’s inside cutter, Gonzalez’s soft contact and the drawn-in defense. The winning ball did not need to be struck cleanly to reach the decisive patch of grass.
Contemporary ESPN reporting described Rivera arriving with 23 consecutive converted postseason save opportunities. The ninth ended that streak, but reducing the result to a closer’s failure loses Arizona’s part in it. Grace put the first runner aboard, Womack erased the deficit, Johnson had kept the game within reach, and Gonzalez completed the rally.
The Diamondbacks won their first championship in their fourth season. Their last three outs had become two runs through a combination of hits, an error, a successful Yankees force play and a hit batter. Gonzalez ended the Series after the rest of the inning had changed what Arizona needed from him.
