Marlins ride Beckett's arm to World Series title

NEW YORK -- Josh Beckett ran off the mound, picked up the last ball and applied the final tag -- the one that finished off the big, bad Yankees.\nHe pitched with the determined demeanor of a Bob Gibson or a Sandy Koufax and came up with the game of his life on baseball's grandest stage.\nOn a night that he'll always remember and New York will never forget, the 23-year-old right-hander led the Florida Marlins to the World Series title Saturday night, beating the Yankees 2-0 in Game 6.\n"Sometimes," he said, "less is more."\nTwo days, three days, four days, it didn't matter to him.\nHe didn't care how much rest he had, and that's why the Yankees now have the offseason to rest and the Marlins head home for a big party.\nBeckett pitched a five-hitter that won him the World Series MVP award. He beat Andy Pettitte and looked like -- well, even better than -- those multimillion-dollar Yankees starters who grace magazine covers and get all the attention.\nIn the 100th World Series game played in Yankee Stadium and in the 100th anniversary year of the Series, Beckett eliminated the Bronx No-Longer-Bombers from the Series on their famous field for only the seventh time, the first since their 1981 loss to the Los Angeles Dodgers.\nAnd he did it with just the 19th complete-game shutout in a clincher, the first since Minnesota's Jack Morris in 1991. Beckett become the youngest pitcher to blank an opponent in a Series finale since 21-year-old Bret Saberhagen beat St. Louis for Kansas City in 1985.\n"I said he could do it. A lot of people doubted it," Marlins manager Jack McKeon said. "This guy has got the guts of a burglar. He's mentally tough. I knew he had the confidence to do the job he did out there tonight."\nBeckett even got the final out all by himself. He scooped up Jorge Posada's little grounder and tagged him near first base. Beckett then pumped his fist and was hoisted onto his teammates' shoulders, thrusting his hands into the air, waving his glove with one and a new championship cap with the other.\nAfter Beckett lost Game 3 on Tuesday night, McKeon started him on three days' rest for the first time in his major league career, which began a scant 25 months ago. Why take such a gamble with a young arm coming off a 108-pitch outing?\nMcKeon cited the two-hit shutout Beckett threw in Game 5 of the NL championship series, when the Chicago Cubs led Florida three games to one. And then there was his four innings of one-hit relief in Game 7 at Wrigley Field.\nBeckett pitched fabulously and fearlessly against the Yankees, trusting his fastballs and breaking balls to anyone on any count. He struck out nine, walked two and threw 71 of 107 pitches for strikes.\nHe didn't quite have the explosive fastball he owned in Game 3, when he topped 95 mph. But for the Yankees, even his 94 mph fastball was too much.\n"When you're that young, you don't know what fear is," Yankees manager Joe Torre said.\nBorn in Spring, Texas, not far from where Roger Clemens lives, Beckett looked like a little Rocket. His stubbly dark goatee gave his boyish face some extra meanness, not that he needed it the way he pitched.\nNew York got runners to second base just four times, and that's when Beckett was his toughest. With runners in scoring position, the Yankees were 0-for-7, leaving them at 7-for-50 in the Series.\n"He was awesome," said Posada, who struck out twice.\nWith Posada on second and one out in the seventh, Beckett threw a 3-2 curveball to Karim Garcia for a called third strike. And then he got pinch-hitter Ruben Sierra to swing through an 0-2 fastball.\n"I didn't think Josh Beckett would be able to do what he did," Pettitte said, "but he did it."\nBeckett entered the postseason with 89 professional starts and no complete games.\nNow he has two, both shutouts.\n"I can't believe we don't have a game tomorrow," he said. "That's kind of the weird thing right now. I get to go deer hunting now"