And, finally, Witasick struck out Reggie Sanders to end the inning. Witasick faced 10 Arizona Diamondbacks in the inning. He gave up eight hits and seven of those were spanked right on the nose. There were no bloopers, flairs or dying quails. This was like spring training in Tucson against some kid pitcher up from Class A wearing uniform pants two sizes too big.

Witasik, who came over from San Diego in a midseason trade for promising infielder D'Angelo Jimenez, posted a 4.69 ERA in 32 games with the Yankees after having a 1.86 ERA in 31 games with the Padres.

When the dust settled, Arizona had scored eight runs and led Game 6 by 12 runs. Matt Williams became the first player in World Series history to hit two doubles in one inning. The Diamondbacks set a franchise record with nine hits in one inning. And poor Jay Witasick had to come back out and pitch the bottom of the fourth inning.

“Hitting is contagious," said Arizona shortstop Tony Womack, who doubled his World Series total from three hits to six after going 3-for-4. “It wasn't ‘I've got to do it.' It was, ‘I'm going to try to do it, and if I don't, the next guy will.' It was a collective thing.”

We had never seen a team win back-to-back games like the Yankees did. And we’ve never seen a World Series pitcher smacked around like Witasick. His eight hits allowed in one inning set a Series record. His eight earned runs allowed was another dubious achievement. He helped the D-Backs pile up a record 22 hits in their 15-2 victory.

“That was a hungry bunch of hitters we sent up there tonight,” Brenly said. “Everybody was very aggressive.”

As the rally mounted and one purple-pinstriped player after another crossed the plate, Bank One Ballpark kept erupting in a mountain of noise. Yankee Stadium has no monopoly on loudness.

It got so bad that Yankees manager Joe Torre considered bringing in a position player to pitch for the first time in World Series history.

“(Paul) O’Neill volunteered. I know (Luis) Sojo has been volunteering all year,” Torre said. “It would have come to that, possibly, if (Scott) Brosius had not popped up to end that one inning, because I have to pinch-hit for (Randy) Choate and I didn’t want to do pitch (Mike) Stanton for more than two innings. As much as you hate to do that in postseason play, I would rather do that than using someone from the bullpen.”

While the move to bring in Witasick backfired, it was clear Pettitte didn’t have his best stuff. He gave up a run in the first and nearly escaped a one-out, bases loaded jam in third before Tony Womack singled in two runs with two outs and Danny Bautista singled in another.

In the third, Greg Colbrunn led off and worked the count full before fouling off two pitches and finally walking on a Pettitte cut fastball that sailed inside. Williams took a ball and strike and then fouled off four pitches before lacing a double over right fielder Shane Spencer’s head. Pettitte was done after 58 pitches.

	What an inning
	The D-Backs' offensive explosion in the third inning was one of the biggest innings in World Series history. Below is a rundown of the most runs scored by a team in a single inning:
	Year	Team	Runs	Inning
	1968	Tigers	10	3rd
	1929	Phi. A's	10	Seventh
	2001	D-Backs	8	3rd
	1921	Giants*	8	7th
	* New York Giants

Witasick was the only reliever warming up. Since Arizona manager Bob Brenly had stacked his lineup with right-handed hitters against Pettitte, Torre went to the right-handed Witasick over his other possible long reliever, lefty Sterling Hitchcock.

Witasick had held right-handed hitters to a .234 average during the regular season. He had fanned 68 of them in just 197 at-bats. But he had nothing on this night.

Reggie Sanders drilled a one-strike single to left to make it 5-0. Jay Bell drilled a 1-1 fastball to left to make it 6-0. The crowd was working itself into a frenzy. There were still no outs. The Big Unit was pitching. There would be a Game 7.

After Damian Miller singled to load the bases, Witasick couldn’t even retire the weak-hitting Johnson, with a season average of .087. With the infield pulled in, the Unit fouled off two pitches with two strikes before grounding a base hit past second baseman Alfonso Soriano. There would be four more hits in the inning, a few more in the fourth and a couple more after that. It was a laugher.

“It was take one for the team,” Torre said about leaving Witasick in for the punishment. “We didn’t have to play it like it was the seventh game. We still have tomorrow to deal with, and in my mind, you fall behind five, six, seven (runs) -- I would rather keep all of those people for tomorrow’s game and have him suck one up for the club.”

Tino Martinez’s home run? Forgotten for now. Scott Brosius’ home run? Old news.

There would be a Game 7. Clemens vs. Schilling.

Bring it on.

David Schoenfield is the baseball editor at ESPN.com.