NEW YORK, Nov. 2 (UPI) -- Alfonso Soriano ended yet another magical New York performance by driving in the winning run with a one-out single in the 12th inning Thursday night, moving the Yankees to within one victory of their fourth straight World Series title with a 3-2 victory over the stunned Arizona Diamondbacks.
In the last game of the season at Yankee Stadium, New York tied it in the ninth on a two-out, two-run homer by Scott Brosius -- just as they had done the night before on a blast by Tino Martinez. And the ninth-inning Arizona victim was once again 22-year-old Korean Byung-Hyun Kim.
It is the first time in World Series history that a team has come from behind twice to win games in which they trailed going into the ninth inning.
New York took a 3-2 lead in the Series, but still face a substantial obstacle in its bid to finish off what would be one of the incredible championships in the history of the sport.
After an off day Friday, the Yankees will face Arizona's Randy Johnson at Bank One Ballpark. New York will counter with Andy Pettitte in Game 6. And if there is a Game 7, Arizona will have Curt Schilling waiting to take the mound.
For the second straight night, Arizona was often just one big hit away from breaking open the game. But the Diamondbacks had to be satisfied with a 2-0 lead going into the ninth -- the runs coming on solo homers in the fifth inning from Steve Finley and Rod Barajas.
Arizona starter Miguel Batista pitched the game of his life in shutting out the Yankees through 7 2/3 innings -- allowing five hits with five walks and six strikeouts. Greg Swindell came on with two outs in the New York eighth to record the final out with two men on.
In the ninth, Arizona manager Bob Brenly once again turned to Kim, even though his ace reliever had suffered through a disastrous outing Wednesday night. Kim not only surrendered a two-run homer to Martinez that tied Game 4 in the ninth inning, but also gave up the game-winning blast to Derek Jeter in the 10th.
On Thursday night, he surrendered a bloop double to Jorge Posada to lead off the ninth, but Shane Spencer grounded out to third base and Chuck Knoblauch struck out. That brought up Brosius, who looked at ball one before turning on a fast ball down the middle and driving it into the left-field seats.
Brosius raised his arms an instant after he hit the ball, knowing that he had allowed the Yankees to again fight off defeat by the narrowest of margins.
Neither side had a base runner in the 10th, but Arizona had a great chance to break through in the 11th off closer Mariano Rivera. Danny Batista and Eurbiel Durazo opened the inning with singles and moved up on a sacrifice by Matt Williams.
Finley was then intentionally walked to load the bases, but Soriano recorded the second out at second base by leaving his feet to snare a liner off the bat of Reggie Sanders and Mark Grace bounced into a force play to end the inning.
Albie Lopez came in to pitch the 12th for Arizona and Knoblauch greeted him with a single up the middle. Brosius sacrificed Knoblauch to second and Soriano then looped a single to right field.
Sanders got to the ball quickly and had a chance to throw Knoblauch out at the plate. But the ball hopped just in front of the catcher Barajas and he was unable to field it cleanly as Knoblauch slid in with the winning run.
The win went to Sterling Hitchcock, who worked the top of the 12th for the Yankees.
For the second straight night, the Diamondbacks wasted a superlative pitching effort. Miguel Batista worked his way out of a first-inning jam and then allowed only one runner past first base over the next five innings.
On Wednesday night, Schilling allowed a lone run over seven innings before being removed in favor of Kim.
Until scoring their two runs in the ninth, the Yankees were in danger of producing just seven runs through the first five games of the Series. That would have been the lowest total through five games since the infamous 1919 Chicago White Sox managed just six. Eight members of that team were later banned from baseball as part of the "Black Sox" scandal.
