“At least we didn’t get swept.”
Jim Leyritz remembers saying that out loud when the Yankees’ sixth-inning rally in Game 4 of the 1996 World Series left them still trailing 6-3, only nine outs away from going down three games to one to the Atlanta Braves.
The Yankees missed their biggest chance, he thought. It seemed inevitable, to Leyritz and perhaps most others, that the Braves were on their way to winning a second straight championship.
Two innings later, Leyritz changed Yankees’ fortunes and pinstriped history with one swing, a game-tying, three-run home run off Braves closer Mark Wohlers.