The Yankees had reached the Fall Classic after their ALCS victory over the Baltimore Orioles, while the Braves had rallied from a 3–1 deficit to defeat the St. Louis Cardinals in the NLCS.

The Braves used the dominant pitching of Greg Maddux and Tom Glavine, as well as timely hitting, to defeat the Indians the year before, and looked to reuse that recipe against the upstart Yankees.

Jeff Blauser and Marquis Grissom opened the top of the third with singles, and were moved into scoring position by a sacrifice bunt from Mark Lemke.

After issuing a walk to Lopez, Pettitte was pulled from the game with Yankees manager Joe Torre calling on Brian Boehringer to get out of the jam his team was in.

After Blauser's fly ball out advanced Jones to third, Grissom and Lemke recorded consecutive hits to drive in the baserunners and make the score 11–1.

Relievers Greg McMichael, Denny Neagle, Terrell Wade, and Brad Clontz held the Yankees scoreless in the final three innings.

Just before signing with the Yankees as a free agent in 1993, Key had defeated the Braves twice in the 1992 World Series, including in the Series-clincher, while pitching for the Toronto Blue Jays.

In the first inning, following a pitch Key thought was a strike, McGriff singled with two outs to drive home Mark Lemke, who had hit a ground-rule double earlier.

After the game, Yankees manager Joe Torre and his first base coach José Cardenal met with owner George Steinbrenner, furious at the team's performance in the World Series so far.

Strawberry drove in the unearned run with a single; and after Mariano Duncan struck out, Joe Girardi drew a walk to put two runners on for Cone.

Rivera managed to strike out Chipper Jones, but with McGriff and Klesko looming Torre brought in lefthander Graeme Lloyd, who retired them both.

The original intent for the Yankees entering the series was to use a short pitching rotation, which would have consisted of their front three starters (Pettitte, Key, and Cone) each making starts on three days rest.

Acquired at midseason from the Pittsburgh Pirates to shore up the rotation, he did not perform well during the regular season and had no record in the postseason, but pitched decently in the NLCS allowing only two hits and two runs in two appearances and one start.

However, Rogers only won 12 games during the regular season and pitched poorly during the postseason, being pulled early in his Division Series and ALCS starts.

With the lefthanded McGriff due up, Yankees manager Joe Torre made another call to the bullpen for Graeme Lloyd to face him as he had in Game 3.

Avery was another veteran of the Braves' postseason past and had been an integral part of their starting rotation for several years, including in 1991 when he won the NLCS Most Valuable Player award.

Although Avery got two early strikes, Boggs drew a walk on a full count, scoring Raines and giving the Yankees their first lead of the game.

With his strategy having backfired, Cox made a double switch, bringing in Brad Clontz to pitch while Ryan Klesko replaced McGriff at first base.

With the series tied and both teams guaranteed to return to New York, the Yankees and Braves took to the field for what was to be the final game ever played inside Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium.

Smoltz and Grissom reached base and Mark Lemke was asked to bunt to try and advance the runners so that Chipper Jones, batting next, could come up with an opportunity to drive them both in.

After retiring the Yankees in order in the eighth he was lifted for a pinch hitter; he only would allow four hits and strike out ten batters, with the lone unearned run counting against him.

For the ninth inning, Braves manager Bobby Cox brought in his closer, Mark Wohlers, to try and hold the Yankees to the one-run lead they'd held since the fourth.

After he induced a groundout off the bat of López, Wetteland faced Ryan Klesko, came up to pinch hit for Andruw Jones, but Torre decided to walk him intentionally.

O’Neill, who was playing with sore legs the entire series, was able to chase down the ball and caught it on the warning track, then slapped the wall with his glove in celebration as the Yankees took the victory.

However, Lemke popped out to Charlie Hayes in foul territory to end the game, series, baseball season, and Atlanta's reign as world champions.

He also set a new record for most saves in one postseason, with 7, since tied by 5 other pitchers (Robb Nen, Troy Percival, Brad Lidge, and Koji Uehara, besides Holland).

This was the first World Series to be televised by Fox, with Joe Buck calling the play-by-play and Tim McCarver and Bob Brenly serving as color commentators.

Also, Major League Baseball's network television policies back then allowed announcers employed by the participating World Series teams (in the case of 1953, Scully's Brooklyn Dodgers and Allen's New York Yankees) to call the action.

On October 11, 2005, A&E Home Video released the New York Yankees Fall Classic Collectors Edition (1996–2001) DVD set, featuring one World Series Game apiece from 1996, 1998, 1999, 2000, and 2001.

In a notable scene from the episode "The Abstinence" of the American television series Seinfeld, George Costanza gives batting advice to Derek Jeter and Bernie Williams.