Classic Teams 2.0 - ALCS Game 4

New York snapped a 4-4 tie in the ninth plating 2 runs, and Tino Martinez's two-out RBI single held up as the winning strike enabling the 1998 Yankees to tie their ALCS with a 6-5 win over the 1978 Boston Red Sox. The series is now knotted with each team grabbing two wins to set up a pivotal fifth game at Fenway Park.

Boston put their best foot forward using their top two pen arms late in Bob Stanley and Bill Campbell. Stanley blanked the Yankees in the eighth in order, but the ninth unraveled quickly. Paul O'Neill ignited the spark with a single, and Chuck Knoblauch then laid down a bunt for a base hit. Derek Jeter successfully sacrificed to put runners on second and third. Chad Curtis broke the tie with an RBI single to chase Stanley from the game. Campbell came on and got Bernie Williams to ground into a fielder's choice as George Scott scooped the hard grounder and threw home to cut down Knoblauch attempting to score. However, the Yankees were able to pick up their insurance run on Martinez's single with Curtis racing home from second to make the score 6-4.

Boston was basically on life support as New York brought on legendary closer Mariano Rivera to close things down in the home half of the ninth. George Scott breathed a bit of life into a possible rally with a two-out solo blast, but Dwight Evans popped out to give Rivera the save.

Both starting pitchers lasted only five innings. Boston pounded Yankees' David Wells for 13 hits and four runs and let him off the hook in the fifth. After scoring a pair of runs in the second inning and again in the third, Boston had runners on second and third in the fifth with only one out. Wells bore down and struck out Rick Burleson, and retired Butch Hobson on a lazy fly to center. Hideki Irabu was a huge factor out of the bullpen blanking Boston for the next three innings only allowing 3 hits to earn the victory.

New York ambushed Red Sox starter Bill Lee in the second inning by loading the bases with no one out. The Yankees would score three runs with only one ball leaving the infield with an RBI single and two fielder's choice groundouts as an elusive double play never materialized for the Red Sox defense. Jim Wright and Tom Burgmeier combined for two scoreless innings in relief after Lee's departure holding New York to one hit.