NEW YORK - The New York Mets came across town with their top two starting pitchers loaded for bear and high hopes of parlaying their wild-card playoff entry into a world title.
Now, they face the possibility that the long-awaited Subway Series might be a short ride.
Future Hall of Famer Roger Clemens showed them the Bronx last night, delivering another masterful postseason performance as the New York Yankees scored a 6-5 victory before a sellout crowd of 56,059 at Yankee Stadium.
He played the bully again, just as he had in a near no-hitter against the Seattle Mariners during the American League Championship Series, this time sparking controversy by picking up a broken bat and flinging it toward Mets catcher Mike Piazza.
But in the end, there was nothing for Piazza and the Mets to do but pack up and head home to Shea Stadium for Game 3 tomorrow night.
Clemens gave up just two hits and struck out nine on the way to his second straight overwhelming performance of the postseason. He didn't one-up his one-hit performance against the Mariners, but he didn't miss by much. Mets left-hander Mike Hampton didn't pitch poorly, but he was no match - giving up eight hits and four runs over six innings.
The Mets didn't score until relievers Jeff Nelson and Mariano Rivera combined to give up five runs on homers by Piazza and Jay Payton in the ninth inning. Todd Zeile also hit a long drive that was caught at the fence, but the late surge was too little too late.
Quite an encore to the night before, when the two teams played the longest game by time in World Series history (4 hours and 51 minutes). The Mets can take some solace in their ninth-inning heroics, but the Yankees have taken control of the Series faster than you can say threepeat, which is starting to look very likely.
"Being up 2-0 isn't as comfortable as it was an hour ago," said Yankees manager Joe Torre. `The Mets showed you why they're here. They don't roll over and die. We're just glad to be up 2-0, because we almost gave it back. It puts us in a good position, but not a guaranteed position."
Postseason standout Orlando "El Duque" Hernandez will put his record October winning streak on the line in Game 3 against Mets right-hander Rick Reed in the first game at Shea, where the Mets tied for baseball's best home record during the regular season.
