Twenty-five years ago today, the Yankees were riding high on the heels of a comeback to take the American League Division Series against the Athletics. Now, the Bombers were getting prepared for yet another AL West foe, this time against the Mariners in the Championship Series. A good portion of the personnel had changed on both sides, but some in each organization viewed it as a rematch of the famous 1995 ALDS, which the Yankees lost in heartbreaking fashion at the old Kingdome on Edgar Martinez’s
double.
Former Yankees great Lou Piniella was still managing the M’s, and despite having to bid adieu to franchise legend Ken Griffey Jr. the previous offseason, Hall of Fame general manager Pat Gillick constructed a quality team regardless. They bounced back from consecutive sub-.500 seasons to end the ‘90s to post a 91-win campaign in 2000, finishing one loss behind the A’s for the AL West title but still earning a Wild Card spot. They then upset the AL Central champion White Sox, who paced the Junior Circuit with a 95-67 record but couldn’t come up with a single win come October. They swept the Pale Hose away, securing new Safeco Field’s first playoff memory on Carlos Guillén’s walk-off squeeze against Keith Foulke.
With a talented roster led by superstar Alex Rodriguez (amid a 41-homer, career-best 10.4 rWAR campaign), and hopes of the first World Series appearance in franchise history, the Yankees would have their hands full with Seattle, as they’d see in full during Game 1.
October 10: Yankees 0, Mariners 2 (box score)
Playoffs: Mariners lead ALCS 1-0 (90-77 record overall)
After a five-game division series, and just one day off, the Yankees sent Denny Neagle to the bump to kick off the pennant chase. He’d start opposite of up-and-comer Freddy García for Seattle, who’d end up carving his way through the Yankees lineup with relative ease all night.
Unsurprisingly, given the final score, this one started out slow for both offenses. A timely strike-‘em-out, throw-‘em-out double play helped Neagle navigate a couple of runners in the first inning, and outside of that, baserunners were few and far between. It took until the bottom of the third inning for either side to tally a hit, though it still wouldn’t amount to anything.
While García continued to mow down the Yankee bats and rack up plenty of whiffs, the Seattle offense finally got to work in the top half of the fifth. Mark McLemore started the rally with a two-out double down the left field line before 41-year-old Rickey Henderson slashed a single the other way, allowing him to slide safely into home and give the M’s the first lead of the ballgame.
An inning later, Seattle would add on to their slim lead. With Neagle still on the bump, A-Rod took a 3-2 pitch and turned it into a mammoth blast off the left-field foul pole to lead off the sixth inning (taking a similar arc to Aaron Judge’s majestic blast the other day in ALDS Game 3 against Toronto).
The towering blow gave García and the Mariners a 2-0 lead to work with, and it proved to be enough for Seattle to coast on in Game 1.
García nearly ran into trouble in the sixth, when a double from Bernie Williams and a walk had the Yankees in prime position with no outs. Seattle’s righty would, however, work his way through the jam with ease, tallying two more strikeouts in the ultimately scoreless inning. He finished going 6.2 innings in Game 1, allowing just three hits and striking out eight Yankee hitters, keeping things scoreless throughout his outing.
Unfortunately, the Bombers were unable to fare any better against the Seattle bullpen. Chuck Knoblauch was able to reach base in the eighth, but Arthur Rhodes set down a pinch-hitting Glenallen Hill looking on strikes to end the threat and the inning.
In the ninth, this time against eventual AL Rookie of the Year Kazuhiro Sasaki, the Yankees once again had their chance — particularly so against a pitcher who struggled against New York in his career. Williams led the inning off with a single, and Tino Martinez followed with much the same after an out, bringing the winning run to the plate. Sasaki, however was able to induce a pair of flyouts from Jorge Posada and Luis Sojo, bringing Game 1 of the ALCS to a disappointing close. Seattle had officially stolen the home-field advantage by earning at least a split of the first two games in the Bronx.
The end of the regular season and the beginning of the postseason had been anything but a breeze for the 2000 Yankees. The Championship Series already proved to be a similar struggle, and though brighter skies were ahead, the Yankees of 25 years ago certainly made things hard on themselves.
Read the full 2000 Yankees Diary series here.
