Game 2: Diamondbacks 9, Yankees 1
Curt Schilling threw another gem that could be the obvious story of this game. But the interesting story of Game 1 is the role reversal between the Yankees and the Diamondbacks. The Yankees got a run in the first inning on a check-swing double by Bernie Williams. But before you could say, "Here come the Yankees in typical, aura-filled-team-on-a-mission-style," Craig Counsell, the second D-Backs' hitter of the game, hit a huge home run to tie it up.

The third inning was where the Yankees came uncharacteristically unglued. Mike Mussina hit Tony Womack with an 0-2 pitch, then he almost missed covering first base on a bunt by Counsell. Mussina had Luis Gonzalez 0-2, but missed by about a foot with a 1-2 pitch, which Gonzalez promptly dumped into the right-field seats. He had the next batter, Reggie Sanders, 0-2, but gave up a base hit.

	Mike Mussina lasted just three innings in Game 1 and allowed five runs on six hits.

David Justice then dropped a Steve Finley fly ball that Paul O'Neill likely would have caught -- but those things happen. On a Matt Williams fly ball, Bernie Williams cut off Justice out of position, then made a bad throw. Justice not only has the better arm in that situation, he was in a better position to throw -- Bernie wasn't.

After the intentional walk to Mark Grace in an attempt to keep him from putting the ball in play, Mussina had Damian Miller 0-2, but threw another unfortunate pitch -- a breaking ball he couldn't get out over the plate -- that Miller hit for a double before Mussina got Curt Schilling to ground out to end the inning. The entire third inning was a foul concoction of 0-2 mistakes and defensive mix-ups for the Yankees.

Before this game, Mussina was 8-1 with a 1.30 ERA in his last 11 starts. He also happened to be the Yankees best, most reliable pitcher throughout the regular season. Saturday, Mussina had a bad outing -- the Yankees can chalk this game up to basically that. But it wasn't all Mussina -- the entire team played Game 1 of the 2001 World Series like it was a regular season Thursday afternoon in Kansas City.

Gonzalez's home run was the catalyst of the inning for the Diamondbacks and he deserves a lot of credit. Everyone talked all year about how tonight's honorary first-pitch thrower, Barry Bonds, didn't get pitched to. But no one talked about how Gonzalez didn't see one single good pitch all year, and he had 57 home runs.

The Yankees had no chance after the four-run third and fourth innings. Schilling was not only his usual dominant self, he was his usual economical self. If it's not impossible to come back from an eight-run deficit against Schilling, it's the next closest thing.

Schilling's outing wasn't surprising, but it was surprising to see Mussina come up with his first bad game in a long, long time. Prior to Saturday, I don't recall ever seeing a bad postseason start from Mussina.

The World Series has a history of blowouts in Game 1. The wake-up call for the Yankees now is that they have to go 4-2 for the rest of the series, and they have to see Johnson and Schilling at least three times. Because they are the Yankees, you could say they can "afford" to lose a game. But they have to understand that because their opponent has the two best starting pitchers in the game, the Diamondbacks are in a great position to make this a really tough road.