The West Point Marching Band performed the national anthem, providing a festive introduction to the game and solving the problem of finding a singer capable of remembering the words.

LHP Andy Pettitte's second pitch of the game came inside and barely brushed OF-L Juan Pierre's uniform, which should have sent him down to first base, but the umpire didn't see it touch and called ball one. With the contest just getting underway, no one made much of the oversight, but Florida quite likely could have scored in the first if they had an extra out and an extra baserunner.

Several balls were hit hard over the next few innings, but most were caught or fielded for outs. The few men who reached base were continually left stranded when the inning ended.

With two outs in the top of the fifth, SS-R Alex Gonzalez reached on a single courtesy of OF-S Bernie Williams' veal calf like range. Pierre then hit a soft liner past SS-R Derek Jeter for the first back-to-back hits of the night for either team. The game looked likely to remain scoreless, as 2B-S Luis Castillo, who was struggling in the series, looked at strike one and swung for strike two. However, he fouled off the next two pitches to stay alive and then took two balls before hitting a line drive in to shallow right field.

OF-L Karim Garcia fielded the ball on a bounce and threw to the plate while Gonzalez charged from third. C-S Jorge Posada moved to the first base side of the plate to field the throw and wasn't able to get his glove around to tag Gonzalez, who was sliding on the outside of the plate. Gonzalez legs missed the plate and it looked for a moment as though he'd completely missed home, allowing Posada to tag him out. However, the umpire was in perfect position to see what the replays later showed us. As he passed the plate, Gonzalez reached over and grazed home with his finger tips, scoring the first run of the game and avoiding the out.

With Pierre at third and Castillo at second, the Yankees intentionally walked C-R Ivan Rodriguez, bringing OF-R Miguel Cabrera to the plate. Cabrera's at-bat began to resemble Castillo's as he fought off strike three with three foul balls. However, he was swinging for the fences and the grand slam rather than just trying to put the ball in play, so Pettitte was able to finish him off and end the inning.

I began to worry about RHP Josh Beckett showing signs of fatigue as Garcia hit a grounder past Castillo into right to lead off the bottom of the fifth. The Yankees seemed in position to re-tie the game after 3B-R Aaron Boone sacrificed Garcia to second. Given Jeter's success against Beckett in Game 3, I was in favor of walking Jeter to set up the force following 2B-R Alfonso Soriano's pop out. Instead, we watched as Beckett blew a 97 MPH fastball by Jeter to strike him out.

Leading off the sixth, DH-R Jeff Conine grounded the first pitch of the inning to short and reached first on an error by Jeter. The shortstop fielded the ball but bobbled it when trying to remove it from his glove to make the throw to first. If his throw to first had been accurate, the Yankees still might have gotten the out, but the ball skidded past 1B-L Nick Johnson at first. 3B-R Mike Lowell took a 4-pitch walk, putting men on first and second when 1B-R Derrek Lee laid down a bunt that bounced to the pitcher's mound. Pettitte fielded the bunt and had time to go to third to get the lead runner, but he instead threw to Jeter for the force at second. Jeter's throw did not beat Lee to first for the double play, so Florida had men at first and third with two outs to drive them in.

Posada jumped up to save a high pitch from flying to the backstop and allowing Conine to score with the count 0-2 on OF-R Juan Encarnacion, but Encarnacion waited for his pitch and lofted a ball into right field, allowing Conine to score on the sac fly. The Yankees stopped the rally before any more runners could score, though while the 2-0 deficit didn't look insurmountable for New York, Florida definitely held an edge on them.

We were stunned to learn that Beckett's pitch count was only at 65 after 6.1 innings. The new information made me more comfortable with the Marlins' decision to stick with him for a bit longer, as I figured we wouldn't start to see him really tire until his pitch count reached the mid-90's. With Beckett's efficiency allowing him to go deeper into the game, I also began believing the Marlins might be able to end the series early, though two runs wasn't a very comfortable lead against the Yankees.

Coming off the seventh inning stretch, Beckett gave up a double down the third base line to Posada. Then the Marlins' choice not to employ a heavy shift on DH-L Jason Giambi once again paid off, as Giambi grounded out to third, where no one would have been standing if Florida had shifted. Beckett finished the inning with consecutive Ks.

With Pettitte at 106 pitches, RHP Mariano Rivera went out to pitch the eighth and held the score at 2-0 Florida. Beckett went into the eighth with a pitch count of 89 and gave up a first pitch leadoff singled to Soriano. However, Jeter flew out to center and Johnson hit into a double play.

Rivera went one-two-three through the top of the ninth, and we still weren't confident of Beckett's narrow lead going into the ninth. Williams hit a big fly ball into left for one out. OF-L Hideki Matsui hit one a little deeper into left for the second out. Then Posada slapped the ball slowly down the first base line, Beckett came off the mound to field the ball and tag Posada out, and just like that the game was over and the Florida Marlins had won the World Series.

I still believe Jack McKeon's call to start Beckett on short rest was a reckless decision. As expected, Pettitte pitched deep into the game and limited the Marlins ability to score. Nevertheless, Beckett certainly came through, pitching economically to compile a 9:2 K:BB with 5 H allowed over 9 innings while throwing only 107 pitches.

After the game, Beckett claimed the World Series MVP trophy. While he took the loss in his Game 3 start, he compiled a 19:5 K:BB with only 8 H allowed over 16.1 IP with a 1.08 ERA for the series. Normally, we prefer to give the award to an offensive player, as they have an opportunity to contribute in more games. However, no hitter truly dominated at the plate or in the field the way Beckett did on the mound.