Baseball: The New York Yankees held off a ninth-inning comeback attempt by New York Mets to win 6-5 in a tense and highly emotional second game of the best-of-seven World Series in New York.

The Yankees now have a 2-0 lead after the first two games at Yankee Stadium with the next three contests scheduled to be played at Shea Stadium beginning today.

The story of the game was the clash between Mike Piazza and Yankee pitcher Roger Clemens. Piazza connected with a Clemens pitch in the first innings and broke his bat, a large piece of which landed close to Clemens, who picked it up and threw it about two feet in front of Piazza, who was heading to first base. He yelled at Clemens and the dugouts emptied, but no punches were thrown.

Piazza got some revenge when he slammed a massive two-run homer off the left field foul pole in the ninth to cut the lead to 6-2.

Jay Payton silenced the Yankees with a three-run homer off Mariano Rivera over right field and the lead was sliced to 6-5. With two out, Kurt Abbott came to the plate and Rivera struck him out to end the contest.

Basketball: Defending ESB National Cup champions Notre Dame, who gained a bye in the first round against Clare Jets, will travel to Limerick for next month's quarter-final round, the draw for which was made at the National Basketball Arena yesterday.

Notre Dame, the current league leaders, are unlikely to falter in the fixture, particularly as Limerick have lost their leading American, Rock Winston, to Edinburgh.

Ballina, who shocked last year's runners-up the Saints in the first round, will host the Demons. Fellow Cork side Neptune will travel to Killester. Waterford have an away fixture with Tolka Rovers.

The women's Cup draw has pitched defending champions Wildcats against non-league Notre Dame. The University of Limerick travel to Drimnagh, Glanmire host the Meteors, and Dublin rivals Killester and Tolka Rovers complete the line-ups.

Cricket: Pakistani police have beefed up security for the first Pakistan-England one-day clash today at the National Stadium in Karachi following a weekend of religious violence.

Close-circuit cameras were installed at the ground and extra police have been called in to control the crowds after two violent attacks on Muslim groups on Sunday in which five people died, police said.