On the whole, the Yankees Diary series has celebrated the trials and tribulations of the New York Yankees, first as they steamrolled the American League en route to a record-setting win total and a World Series champion, then as they battled through the 1999 season to repeat as champions, and now, as they stumbled through a rollercoaster season as they somehow accomplished the rarest team feat in sports, the threepeat. No team, however, serves as the main character every single day; sometimes, someone
else takes the spotlight, relegating your squad to the role of antagonists in someone else’s story.
Twenty-five years ago today, it was Bartolo Colón’s story.
September 18: Yankees 0, Cleveland 2 (box score)
Record: 85-63 (1st in AL East, 7.0 games ahead)
Facing Yankees ace Roger Clemens, who had not recorded a loss since the middle of June, Cleveland knew that runs would be at a premium. Therefore, when the speedy Kenny Lofton walked to lead off the top of the first, and Omar Vizquel followed that up with a single to put runners on the corners with nobody out, they knew they had to take advantage of possibly the only opportunity they would get. After Roberto Alomar struck out swinging, future Yankee-killer Manny Ramirez did what he does best, extending his on-base streak to 42 games with an RBI single that gave Cleveland a 1-0 lead.
While Jim Thome grounded into an inning-ending double play to prevent further damage, Cleveland found themselves with another opportunity with two away in the third. After Ramirez worked a two-out walk, Thome doubled to put runners on second and third. A passed ball with David Segui at the plate scored one run, and a pair of walks loaded the bases, but Clemens got Russell Branyan to fly out to keep the score at 2-0.
As it would turn out, that would be all that Cleveland would need. Their 27-year-old ace Bartolo Colón was at the top of his game from the jump, with only two small blemishes. With two out in the bottom of the first, David Justice reached on an error by Branyan in left field. Leading off the bottom of the second, Jorge Posada sent a 3-2 pitch over the wall in center field…and right into the glove of the leaping Lofton, who reminded everyone in the Stadium why he was a multi-time Gold Glove winner.
That’s right: the two biggest opportunities the Yankees had in the early goings did not include a hit.
While first Clemens, and then Mike Stanton and Jeff Nelson, matched zeroes with Colón in an effort to keep their team in the ballgame, Cleveland’s ace absolutely had his way with the Yankees. With three strikeouts already under his belt after the first three frames, he struck out Derek Jeter and Justice in the fourth, Posada in the fifth, Scott Brosius, Clay Bellinger and Chuck Knoblauch in the sixth, and Glenallen Hill to lead off the eighth. In the seventh inning, Jim Thome made a diving stop on a hard grounder off the bat of Tino Martinez, nabbing the first baseman on a 3-1 groundout that made it seem like the baseball gods were in favor of a Cleveland pitcher recording a no-hitter for the first time since Len Barker’s perfect game in 1981.
Just five outs away from baseball immortality, though, Colón came face to face with his greatest challenge: Luis Polonia in the late innings of a no-hitter. For the third time in his career, the journeyman outfielder ended a no-hitter in the game’s final third, this time courtesy of a grounder up the middle that Colón described as a punch “in the chest.”
To date, Cleveland still has yet to experience no-hit glory since Barker’s ‘81 perfecto. (Gavin Williams was the most recent pitcher to feel the pain, courtesy of Juan Soto in Queens on August 6th.)
Despite the letdown of a lost no-no, however, Colón kept his cool, getting Brosius to ground into an inning-ending 6-4-3 double play, then striking out the side in the bottom of the ninth to finish the complete game shutout.
Down the stretch in 2000, the New York Yankees had more than their fair share of terrible outings, and it was fair to question whether they were in position to seriously compete for their third straight World Series title. September 18th, though, ought not to be counted among those days. Simply put, Colón had arguably the best game of his career, ending the evening with 13 strikeouts — the second highest he would have in a single game in his entire career. With only one hit, one walk, and one batter reached on an error, he came as close as you possibly could to a no-hitter without completing one. When a guy pitches like that, you simply have to tip your cap and acknowledge that, on that day, he was the main character of baseball.
Read the full 2000 Yankees Diary series here.
