But then, who didn't expect this team to get 22 hits in one game -- after getting 22 in the previous four games put together?

And who didn't expect that storied Mr. November, Danny Bautista -- proud owner of four hits in the entire postseason -- to accumulate five RBI before Game 5 hero Scott Brosius even had two at-bats?

And who didn't expect that, after going 0 for their last 16 with runners in scoring position in Yankee Stadium, that the Diamondbacks would then go 11 for their first 15 with runners in scoring position in this game?

"You know," said Diamondbacks owner Jerry Colangelo, "there are a lot of things in life you can't explain. And this was one of them."

Then again, this whole World Series has become one of those things in life you can't explain. How do we explain how one team (Arizona) can be outscoring the other team in this World Series (the Yankees) by a margin of 34-12 -- and this Series isn't even over yet?

"We were wondering about that," Anderson said. "We've outscored them, 34-12, and we still have to beat them one more time. But that's what happens, I guess, when you've got a game with no clock."

No, that's what happens when you've got a game in which your closer pitches like Dan Serafini. But that's another story.

The closer wasn't necessary in this epic, though. The Diamondbacks made sure of that with a run in the first inning, three in the second, eight in the third and three more in the fourth. And how bizarre was that, after the kind of baseball that had preceded it in this World Series?

At the point the Yankees gave up eight runs in one inning, they'd scored 10 runs themselves in the entire World Series.

At the point the Diamondbacks reached 19 hits for this game (in the fifth inning), the Yankees had 28 hits in the entire World Series.

By the time Johnson had finished circling the bases for the second time in three innings, it gave the Big Unit as many runs scored (two) in one-third of one baseball game as Yankees leadoff man Chuck Knoblauch has scored in the whole postseason (in 61 trips to home plate).

Yet the Yankees remain alive, despite all mathematical evidence that suggests they should be at the local bait shop by now.

"I don't want to figure out what's going on," said Arizona's Reggie Sanders. "I just want to continue to happen. I just know that when you start trying to explain something in baseball, that's when everything starts to go wrong."

Before we ponder the cosmic significance of all this, we need to pause one final time to ponder the comic insignificance of several of the developments in this game. Such as:

"I'm not sure how he did that," Gonzalez said. "I mean, it's kind of big, isn't it -- a big white thing sitting there in the middle of the batter's box? I guess he's used to throwing over it, not touching it."

So Witasick wound up setting highly coveted World Series records for most hits allowed in one inning (eight) and most earned runs allowed in one game (also eight). The nine runs he gave up altogether weren't a record -- but he was the first pitcher to give up that many since Mordecai (Three-Finger) Brown did it 91 years ago.

Asked afterward if he was aware he'd set a record, he replied: "I figured that, after giving up six or seven hits in a row."

Except there were only two slight differences between this mighty blow and the two that had preceded it in this World Series.

One was: This one -- off the bat of the perfect nominee for next Yankees hero, Clay Bellinger -- barely curled foul. The other was: Nobody in the Arizona Diamondbacks' dugout suffered a massive coronary as the baseball hung in the night, since they held a 15-2 lead at the time.

"Can you believe they almost did it again?" Anderson said. "We were sitting there, going, 'Are you kidding me? Three games in a row, a two-out, two-run home run the ninth inning.' That's unbelievable."