Mariano Rivera vs. David Ortiz. The matchup between these two all-time greats dominated The Rivalry for a decade. Across the regular season, Ortiz had a .344/.382/.500 slash line in 34 plate appearances against Mo, striking out just four times and walking twice. In October, they matched up six times, with Ortiz going 2-for-3 with a double during the 2003 ALCS and 0-for-3 with two strikeouts during the 2004 rematch. Their matchups were legendary, and will be long remembered by fans of both teams.
Before Ortiz menaced the Yankees as a member of the Red Sox, he was a solid but not dominant player for the Minnesota Twins. Even then, however, he foreshadowed his future Boston exploits.
July 28: Yankees 9, Twins 5 (box score)
Record: 55-43 (1st in AL East, 2.5 games ahead)
On the surface, this matchup looked primed to be a pitchers’ duel. The Yankees sent out Denny Neagle, making his third start in pinstripes since being acquired from the Cincinnati Reds; in his first two outings, he allowed just two runs in 17 innings, including a complete game effort against the Devil Rays a few days prior. Opposing him was Brad Radke, a 1998 All-Star who would go on to lose a league-leading 16 games two years later — primarily through no fault of his own.
For much of the game, that expectation proved to be correct. The Yankees jumped out to an early lead in the second, courtesy of a Jorge Posada solo shot, but Radke was able to work out of trouble and avoid the big inning. Two innings later, the Twins flipped the game. Denny Hocking led off the fourth with a single, then advanced to second on a wild pitch. Cristian Guzmán followed that up with an RBI double, and after he advanced to third on a groundout, Ortiz drove him in with an RBI groundout to second to make the score 2-1 in favor of Minnesota.
Two innings later, the Bombers got those two runs back, and then some. Tino Martinez led off the sixth with a single, and he came around to score to tie the game when Posada followed that up with an RBI double. A Chuck Knoblauch single two batters later brought him home, giving the Yankees a 3-2 lead.
A Martinez RBI double in the seventh extended that lead to 4-2. With Neagle going strong and a strong back of the bullpen in Mike Stanton, Jeff Nelson, and Rivera, the game looked to be all but over. But Neagle opened the bottom of the eighth by walking the first two batters he faced. While Stanton came in and fanned both batters he faced, Jeff Nelson came on and walked Ron Coomer to load the bases.
With the game in the balance, Joe Torre called on Mariano Rivera to face the man not yet globally known as “Big Papi” ... and Ortiz grounded a single up the middle past Rivera that tied the game. Jay Canizaro followed that up with a single to right that plated Coomer and gave Minnesota 5-4 lead.
The Yankees offense, however, did not go down quietly in the ninth. O’Neill led off the inning with a single. After Williams flew out, David Justice doubled to put runners on first and second with just one away. The Twins then intentionally walked Tino to load the bases, hoping to set up the double play. Posada, though, grounded a single up the middle — one that was almost identical to Ortiz’s in the eighth — that tied the game. Glenallen Hill, pinch-hitting for Clay Bellinger (who had entered in the fifth after the stadium turf forced Scott Brosius to leave the game with a calf injury), sent an 0-2 pitch deep into the Minnesota night for a grand slam. Just like that, it was Yankees 9, Twins 5.
Even with a four-run lead, Rivera came back out to pitch the ninth. Although he walked the first batter, he slammed the door shut, securing the dramatic win for the Yankees. Ortiz might have been a long-term pain for the Yankees, but at least they had a masher of their own in Hill on this day to counter him.
Read the full 2000 Yankees Diary series here.
More from pinstripealley.com:
- Yankees acquire Amed Rosario from Nationals
- On the ranging impact of the Ryan McMahon trade
- Aaron Judge heading to the IL with a flexor strain
- Yankees Trade Deadline Coverage
- Yankees 2025 draft tracker: 18 of 19 draftees sign
- Pinstripe Alley’s Top 100 Yankees
- 2000 Yankees Diary: The 25th Anniversary of MLB’s Last Three-peat
