Following a blowout in Baltimore, 25 years ago, the 2000 Yankees had one more crack at the Orioles to go for the sweep. Dwight Gooden was taking his turn on the bump for the series’ final game, and worked his way through a quality start, as the Yanks held the Orioles to just one run for the second game in a row, winning their fourth consecutive game and maintaining their lead in the American League East.
July 26: Yankees 4, Orioles 1 (box score)
Record: 54-42 (1st in AL East, 3.0 games ahead)
The Bombers
hit the ground running in this one. With two outs in the top of the first, Paul O’Neill singled, before David Justice salvaged a run in the inning with his slicing double into left-center field. The Orioles answered right back in their half however, when Will Clark managed an RBI knock of his own to square things away at one. The inning ended with a double-play ball off the bat of Albert Belle, which Jeter fielded to his left, making his patented jump throw to second to start the twin-killer.
Both Sidney Ponson for Baltimore and Gooden for New York took their hits in the first frame, but that would be about the extent of what the Birds would get from Doc. The Yankees would strike again in the second when O’Neill scored Ryan Thompson and José Vizcaíno with a single up the middle, putting them up 3-1 early on.
In his second inning of work, Gooden worked around a B.J. Surhoff double and a walk to Charles Johnson, avoiding any trouble, which would become a theme for his evening on the mound. The veteran righty danced around a Clark single in the third, another knock in the fourth, and got a little bit of help avoiding damage from a bases-loaded jam in the sixth inning. After Belle doubled, a pair of walks had the Yankees on the ropes, but Jeff Nelson came on to escape the jam, doing so with ease.
Gooden finished going 5.2 innings, grinding his way through six hits and three walks, but keeping the damage in the run column to a minimum, as the O’s scored just once against the right-hander.
The Yankee hitters had also quieted down through the middle stretch of the game, with only a walk to speak of in the fifth, sixth, and seventh innings. They went policy shopping in the eighth, and evidently found an insurance plan that fit. Bernie Williams started the inning with a blast into right-center that should have been his 23rd homer of the season, as it visibly traveled over the fence, but in the pre-replay days of yore, the umpires called it a live ball and Bernie had to settle for a triple. No harm was done ultimately, as Justice notched his second RBI of the game with a knock into right field, putting the Yankees up 4-1 in the eighth.
After Mike Stanton struck out the side in the eighth, Mariano Rivera was called upon to lock down the save for the Yanks in the ninth. He sat down pinch-hitting Brady Anderson on one pitch, before striking out Delino DeShields and wrapping up the game with a weak pop out to Vizcaíno at second.
It was a fourth-straight Yankees win, and it helped them maintain their three-game lead in the East — a welcome sight after their early-summer struggles. The sweep was secured in Baltimore, and it was off to Minnesota for a four-game set with the Twins.
Read the full 2000 Yankees Diary series here.
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