D-backs knew Pettitte was tipping pitches. But 25 years later, it's still unclear how

PHOENIX -- After three heartbreaking losses to the Yankees in New York, the Diamondbacks returned home for Game 6 of the 2001 World Series in need of a win to keep their season alive.

Left-hander Andy Pettitte started Game 6 for the Yankees. His reputation for coming up big in postseason games was well earned, so this was no easy task for the Diamondbacks as they tried to force a Game 7.

The Diamondbacks did have one thing working in their favor though -- they knew that Pettitte was tipping his pitches.

That they knew it was clear, but how they came to know it seems to depend on who you ask. And 25 years later, memories are a little hazy.

It's a story that's been passed around the organization for years, but the details weren't discussed much in public.

Some say that outfielder Steve Finley got a call the day before Game 6 from someone with another team telling him what Pettitte was doing to tip his pitches.

"For the life of me I can't remember who it was, but someone told me what Pettitte was doing to tip his pitches," Finley said. "So I went to the video room, and sure enough, it was right there. We had all three of his pitches -- his fastball, cutter and changeup. I made sure everyone saw it."

• 2001 World Series recap

First baseman Mark Grace, however, had a different recollection of the events.

"No, it was me and Greg Swindell," Grace said referring to the left-handed reliever. "I was not in the lineup that night, and Greg Swindell comes up to me and he said, 'When you get a minute, come to the video room with me, I think I might see something.' So, he pulls up Pettitte from his start before, and he starts against Seattle. And I'm looking. I'm like, 'Holy [expletive]!' It was blatant what he was doing."

Outfielder Luis Gonzalez, who would end up delivering the Game 7 walk-off hit, could not remember exactly how it went down.

"Somebody tipped us off," Gonzalez said. "That much I know. I thought it was a couple of scouts, but I can't remember now."

Manager Bob Brenly thought it came from multiple people, and he credited the team's video assistant at that time, Jim Currigan, with researching it.

When Pettitte was working out of the stretch, he would bring his hand to his glove just below his chin. And if his glove jutted out just a bit on the way down, it was a fastball. If he smoothly brought the glove down, it was the cutter or changeup.

The key was that it only happened when he was working out of the stretch, so once they discovered it, the hitters went to leadoff man Tony Womack.

"Your job is to get on freaking base right from the start," Grace said they told him.

Womack would have to do that without the benefit of knowing what was coming, because Pettitte would be pitching out of the windup until someone got on base. That was just fine with him, though.

"I was one of those guys who didn't want to know, what was coming," Womack said. "Nope. Some guys want to know, and they can do something with that. I didn't want to know, so I would never pay attention to that stuff. But they told me to get on base and I did."

Womack doubled to open the game, then Danny Bautista singled him home on the first pitch he saw. The Diamondbacks would go on to score three more runs in the second after Matt Williams led off with a single to get Pettitte out of the stretch.

Four batters into what would become an eight-run third inning, Pettitte was taken out and the Diamondbacks would go on to bludgeon the Yankees, 15-2, to force a Game 7.

By the time the next day rolled around, Pettitte knew something wasn't right.

“I didn’t feel quite as sharp as the last time out, but the way they were fouling pitches off ... some of the pitches they hit, I still can’t believe it,” Pettitte told the New York Daily News. “It was a shock for me to get knocked out like that."

Having a good idea of what pitch was coming was certainly an advantage, but the Diamondbacks still had to hit the pitch. Earlier in the season, Oakland's Tim Hudson was tipping his pitches and still managed to hold Arizona to one run while tossing a complete game.

"There's never a guarantee with that stuff," Gonzalez said. "But in this case, it worked out pretty good for us."