Prior to the game, Jay-Z and Alicia Keys performed the song "Empire State of Mind" for the Yankee Stadium crowd. This game marked the first postseason appearance of Pedro Martínez against the Yankees since the 2004 American League Championship Series, when he was with the Boston Red Sox and a part of the two teams' long standing rivalry; it was also the second-ever World Series start that Martínez made. There was much media interest in Martínez's "return to Yankee Stadium" for Game 2, as he told reporters at a pre-game press conference "When you have 60,000 people chanting your name, waiting for you to throw the ball, you have to consider yourself someone special, someone that really has a purpose out there."