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What if? Leiter, Mets left to wonder after loss
By David Harsanyi, CNNSI.com NEW YORK -- What if Mets' ace Al Leiter had struck out Jorge Posada in the ninth inning to send Game 5 of the Subway Series into extra innings? What if Mets manager Bobby Valentine had summoned John Franco from the bullpen to face the Yankees' Luis Sojo? These are questions Mets fans will be asking themselves for weeks to come. For a distraught Al Leiter, however, these are questions he will ask the rest of his life. Leiter, who pitched magnificently for 8 2/3 innings, surrendered a two-out, tie-breaking single to Sojo in the ninth inning, as the Mets fell 4-2 to the New York Yankees on Thursday night, sending the Bombers to their 26th championship. For the Mets, Leiter's performance symbolized their fortunes this Subway Series, as they fell just short once again.
"I was so convinced I could do it," Leiter said of finishing the ninth inning. "I wanted to do my part to help us play on Saturday. With a couple of what ifs going our way this series, the outcome would have been different." Leiter did more than his part, throwing 142 pitches against the Yankees on Thursday, the longest outing by a pitcher in the World Series since Atlanta's Greg Maddux threw a nine-inning complete game in 1995 against the Cleveland Indians. And while Leiter is now 0-3 in 11 career postseason starts -- the most without a victory in the postseason -- there wasn't a player in the losing team's locker room who would have had anyone else on the mound. "I feel bad for him," Mets reliever Dennis Cook said. "He pitched his ass off. He did it the whole season and we have nothing to show for it. He pushes himself like that all the time." Leiter didn't appear tired when he went back to the mound in the ninth, striking out hot hitters Tino Martinez and Paul O'Neill to open the inning. "If I'm Bobby Valentine," second baseman Edgardo Alfonzo said, "I would have left him in, too." Leiter's problems began with a two-out walk to Jorge Posada. "I thought that striking out those two first guys, and the pitches he threw Posada, made me think he had plenty," said Valentine, who is sure to take some New York tabloid heat for not going to his bullpen. "I was wrong. It was the wrong decision, obviously." The knowledge that he pitched so well does little in easing the pain of losing the World Series. In fact, it makes it sting even more. "When it's all said and done, there's going to be a certain amount of frustration knowing I couldn't get the third out in the ninth inning," a distraught Leiter said standing by his locker. "But I know this is as good a performance as I could have given. I gave it all I had." Leiter, and the rest of his teammates, also understand he pitched against a Yankees club that can now claim dynasty status. "There is no reprieve in this Yankees lineup," Leiter explained. "From their leadoff hitter to the ninth man. The starters, the bullpen -- they are equally good. They just played better." Franco, a 17-year veteran and New York native, explained it best: "There is nothing to be ashamed of. Maybe next year."
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