Mariano Rivera gets his 17th consecutive postseason save for the Yankees. (AP)

Torre summoned David Cone, the venerable righty who had gone from Cy Young to Cy Old in record time. Piazza was the batter. The righty-righty matchup was what Torre was looking for.

And so went Neagle's chance to work the minimum five innings needed for a victory.

"This is the World Series," said Cone. "Joe manages to win."

Win is what the Yankees did, thanks to their bullpen, which tossed 4 1/3 scoreless innings in the 3-2 victory that put the Mets down 3-1 in the series and on the brink of elimination.

In Piazza's previous two at-bats against Neagle, he had smashed a towering shot that went just foul, and then struck a two-run homer.

Cone came in and got Piazza on a pop fly to second.

"There were times this year I didn't even think I'd be included on the postseason roster," admitted Cone, who separated his left shoulder in early September.

How could Torre place so much faith in Cone after the righty put together such a dreadful (4-14, 6.91 ERA) season?

"The trust factor is still there with Cone," said Torre, whose loyalty to his players has had a huge role in the Yankees being just one victory away from a fourth world championship in five years.

Piazza would be Cone's only batter of the night. But it would be far from a Yankees reliever's only heroic moment of the night.

You don't win championships without a big-time bullpen, and the Yankees pen always seems to come through this time of year.

Before this series, most thought the Mets had the edge in terms of pen depth. But the Yankees' experience is showing.

"They battled back," said Yankees shortstop Derek Jeter. "Piazza hit the home run, but then it seemed like it was just a battle of the bullpens and fortunately ours did a great job."

In Game 4, Torre's crew of Cone, Jeff Nelson, Mike Stanton and Mariano Rivera was virtually untouchable. The Mets would manage two meaningless hits.

The Mets -- only down a run -- felt they had a chance for a while. But when Rivera came trotting out of the pen to start the eighth, they had to know it was over.

Whenever Torre desperately wants a win, he always goes to Rivera in the eighth. And there's no question how badly the Yankees wanted to put the hammer down on the Mets.

"I love to get the ball in that situation," said Rivera, the world's best closer. "In that situation, I want to be there, Joe knows that."