On the second pitch of the game, Juan Pierre dragged a bunt past the pitcher's mound and sped to first by the time second baseman Alfonso Soriano fielded the ball. AP

NEW YORK -- If the New York Yankees are to beat the Florida Marlins in this World Series -- and, yeah, you can say "if" now after a Game 1 win by those scrappy, pain-in-the-pinstripe Fish -- they're going to have to figure out a way to slow them down.

Maybe someone throws a no-hitter or three. Maybe the Yanks build a moat down the first-base line. Maybe they just get someone to tie all the Marlins' shoelaces together.

But somehow, some way, the Yankees are going to have to put the brakes on the super-aggressive Marlins. And fast.

"They're not used to seeing the kind of ball we've been playing," said pinch-hitter Lenny Harris. "These guys are trying to make something happen every inning."

The Marlins are one of those teams that drives other teams batty. And you could see it Saturday, from the very start, etched all over the Yankees' faces.

It was there on David Wells' mug on the second pitch of the game, when leadoff batter Juan Pierre pulled a bunt past the mound and legged it out for an infield single. The look of resignation as Wells trotted, aimlessly, to try to cover first said a lot.

It was in Nick Johnson's face, in the third, when the Marlins pulled off a gutsy defensive play to pick him off third base to end a promising inning. Or at least we can assume it was on his face. At the time, he was burying his nose in the dirt.

It was there again, on Wells, in the fifth, when Juan Encarnacion blooped a broken-bat single to center field. And, again, on Wells later that inning when Encarnacion came into score on a slap-single to left by Pierre.

SPOTLIGHT HERO: Juan Pierre The Marlins' leadoff man ignited a first-inning rally and delivered a tie-breaking, two-run single in the fifth. Pierre reached base four times and stole a base. GOAT: Nick Johnson The Yankees' first baseman had a brutal game, going 0-for-4 and getting picked off third base to kill a rally. Johnson also popped up meekly to end the game. CLOSER LOOK If there's one thing the Fish have going for them, it's their defense. Just ask Ivan Rodriguez, whose perfect pickoff throw to third base killed one rally. GO FIGURE 4 -- Outs recorded by Ugueth Urbina, the first inning-plus save by someone other than Mariano Rivera since 1997. 18 -- Career postseason home runs for Bernie Williams, matching Mickey Mantle and Reggie Jackson. 60.2 -- Percent of Game 1 winners who went on the win the Series (59 of 98). MULTIMEDIA Juan Pierre belives the Marlins' efforts in Game 1 will set the tone for the rest of the series.

Give the Marlins and inch and they'll steal second and third. Show them just a little daylight and they'll drag bunt you 'til you're dragging. Give them a sliver of a chance and you know what they'll do?

They'll take it and make something special of it.

Anyone who picked the Yankees in a rout in this World Series either hasn't been paying attention or is a total baseball moron. The Marlins can win this thing, especially if they're given the chances, thanks to their aggressive mindset at the plate and in the field. Saturday, it showed up in both places.

The Marlins beat the Yankees in Game 1 on seven singles that, if you add the distance they traveled in the air, probably didn't go as far as the one home run that the Yankees' Bernie Williams pounded. The Marlins scored their first run with that bunt by Pierre, followed by a bloop single by Luis Castillo that barely made it to the outfield grass. The Castillo hit wouldn't have been a hit at all, in fact, except that Yankees second baseman Alfonso Soriano was covering second as Pierre tried to swipe it.

On the next pitch, Pudge Rodriguez lofted a sacrifice fly to center field, and that was that. The game was five pitches old and the Marlins already had two hits and had scored a run.

"Any time you put pressure on the defense, that's good," said Marlins right-hander Josh Beckett. "You get a throwing error, the guy can end up with a triple, and then a fly ball gets him home."

What the Marlins do, more than anything, is screw with the other team's head. When Pierre came up for the second time Saturday, the infield played him in and Wells got him to ground out to second. The next time he came to bat, with the infield in again and two men on, Pierre slapped the ball past shortstop Derek Jeter, driving in two runs in the 3-2 Florida win.

That's the way they do it. They get on. They dance around. They take the extra base on hits to the outfield. They force the other team's defense to make a play.

And let's be serious. The Yankees' shaky defense can't take much pressure.

Outfielder Jeff Conine came to the Marlins in midseason from the Baltimore Orioles. And he, like Harris, says the Yankees simply haven't seen anyone like the Marlins this year. No one has in the American League.

"Not top-to-bottom like this team," he said. "We have seven guys, legitimately, that can steal a base on you."

In a lot of ways, this Marlins team is like another in very recent memory, one that fought every at-bat, slapped the ball around, ran the bases well and had a couple of guys who could slam the ball over the fence, too. That team, the Anaheim Angels, won the World Series last season.

"We looked at that. We talked about them," Harris said. "We liked the way they played together. We could be like that."

If the Yankees don't do something to slow these guys down -- some well-placed hotfoots, maybe, or a couple of kidnappings -- the Marlins could be like the Angels. Just like them.

John Donovan is a senior writer for SI.com.