Despite Righetti's pitching on the last day of the season, the Red Sox still won the division and marched on in the playoffs. The Red Sox faced the Yankees' cross-town rivals, the New York Mets, in the World Series. "The New York Times" called the series a "painful series". "Newsday" called it "woeful days for Yankee fans". Mike Lupica of the "New York Daily News" called the series "the World Series that is the Yankee nightmare". Both "Newsday" and "The Boston Globe" said there were Mets T-shirts saying "Steinbrenner's nightmare," referring to Yankees owner George Steinbrenner. John Powers of the "Globe" quoted Claire Smith, who covered the Yankees for the "Hartford Courant", as having said "this really is the World Series of the nightmares".